December update

I've really let this blog thing go...Jerry from the pose boards reminded me that it existed. Here's a quick catch up...

Running in the dark with good Pose form was difficult because I was scared of falling down. Acting on some good advice from the pose message board, I found some streets near my house with little traffic and some regular street lamps and put together a course that I feel more confident on. That has really helped with the dark issue.

Then the rains started. Probably folks have noticed that northern California has been repeatedly pounded by storms over the last weeks and that has made running not so attractive. In a related problem to the darkness one, I was having form problems in the wet because I felt like I was going to slip and I was really sticking the landings as a result. (Active landings are a big no-no in pose.) This was causing very very tight calves and (probably related) plantar fascitis. The PF started to get kind of scary-painful, so I took 5 days off. I now have mixed feelings about this. It was probably not enough time to cure the PF. So maybe I should have taken more time off, or just run through it. In any case, the PF is still with me, though less serious than before.

Today's run was interesting, my first with a heart rate monitor in a long time. Once I got the thing adjusted properly, (it was too tight at first and reading erratically,) I found that I've been running a little harder with respect to HR than I thought. I had to slow down a little from my regular pace to stay at 145. I picked 145 based on the Hadd readings. J does his easier runs at 150. So I dunno, maybe 145 is a bit pokey. I have plans to do a max heart rate test when the tracks dry out a bit.

The bad news about today was that I felt a little sick when I woke up, decided to run anyway, and then felt really sick after I got home. I called in sick to my internship and I think I have bronchitis. I am going to have to take a day or two off I figure, because I feel better than this morning, but I don't want to stay sick. More time for the PF to heal, but I would prefer to get on with the mileage.