THE LONG AND WINDING ROAD

I set off from Parbold on a long hilly run, the first since I pulled my calf muscle, would it withstand the steep monster hills and the distance! Well there was only one way to find out and after a good warm up I set off up the first hill, thankfully apart from a slight tightness in the old calf I made it through, ending up running longer than the planned hour and a half, it was a massive relief to finish in one piece!
Talking to Jack Nirenstein of GRAVITY RUNNING he advised me to concentrate on lifting the knees higher and taking shorter faster steps uphill this worked really well on the climbs. I had a bit of a flash back to 2003 when I use to REALLY FLY up the hills using this sort of method, somehow over the last couple of years I've been thinking more about pushing into the ground when running uphill, which just is not efficient! Barry Magee also recommended concentrating on knee lift on the hills and running lighter. I kind of lost my way, gone round in a circle and eventually found the right path again! maybe I can become a good climber once more!
I'll leave you with this Beatles song, that reminds me of family summer holidays, back when I was a young kid in the early 70's.
Arthur Lydiard type long run, inc 4 climbs = 1.54

The long and winding road

click here; THE BEATLES"long and winding road"
first long run since my injury, took it pretty easy at the start but got into a steady pace in the second half. revisited some of the old twisting roller coaster roads of harrock hill i use to cycle round back in the 90's.
leg seemed to hold out,which was a big relief !
felt very tired at the end,finished running in heavy rain and the dark with 2 hours 14 on the clock. = 2.14




thur 29th nov
ran jon's sanhill loop,did 4 x 5 mins at tempo pace with 2 min rec.
=1.03