Run technique group am, long horrible run pm.

I struggled to get up this morning but felt positive after the warmup at this mornings run technique group. We did some run throughs, followed by a main set of three five minute aerobic efforts + one minute max effort. They were pretty tough, all the time focusing on the three important aspects of running form. Making contact with the ground beneath the hip, pushing out the back and high stride recovery. This is almost a polar opposite to how I used to run and it is tough trying to develop a new style. I get a fair share of shouts from the coach and seem to have a million aspects to try and think about while I'm sure my brain isn't getting enough oxygen to do the job. I have too admit I feel more like a runner the longer I work at this, rather than one step above a power walker my old style was. The downer about this mornings run training was that from the start I had some tightness in my right quad that progressively got worse as the session went on. By the end it was pretty sore and I was concerned, but was making some good progress with my technique and didn't want to quit (enter the dumb athlete who knows all about “listen to your body” but ignores it all).

During the day my quad was tender but not too bad. I started this evenings run with a very slow jog, the quad pain was there but didn't get worse, nor did it get any better. I decided to keep going till it got noticeably worse. It stayed pretty constant. Tonights run session was a warmup jog, followed by 70 minutes of intervals – 2min easy, 2min moderate, 2min firm and 1min walk x 10. The firm was quite painful, and the walk seemed to make things worse. To add to my misery, I forgot to apply the long run prerequisite, of bodyglide between the thighs and plasters on the nipples. I paid the price, chafe city! But it didn't end there, there seemed to be some sort of bug convention along the road so I ate and breathed bugs for most of the run (I actually washed 5 out of my hair in the shower afterwards).

Today was one of those days that you want to forget, but the positive side is that despite the struggles I got through everything that was planned and can tick that off. Its the tough days that you get through and tick off that make the race seem that much more doable. Its a psychological boost to pat yourself on the back at the end of a day like this. Sometimes you have to pat yourself on the the back, Ironman is a sport where if you don't its unlikely anyone else is going to.