Alright so this week was a bit of a repeat of last week but it felt pretty good. It has led me feeling more confident. That is until The set back which was the 15 mile long run I ran on Sunday. Sunday was a really hot day and unfortunately I did not wake up early enough to beat the heat. I had originally planned on running 20 miles like I said I would the week before but the heat got to me. It does not help that the pain on my feet and hips are nagging me more than usual. The weather beat me down and had me sweating buckets! it was a miserable run and by the end of the 15 It was already almost 90 degrees Fahrenheit. After Sunday I decided to take a good few days off of running.

I was feeling a bit defeated only being able to run up to 15 and felt that I needed a good few days to rest and recoup before attempting to run again. The pain in my hips was aggravating so I took the time to really rack my head on my running form. What am I doing wrong that deals so much pain on my feet and hips. I watched a few videos on youtube about running and thought over my running form and then something clicked. There was a guy a followed who was analyzing the running form of the greatest marathon runner of all time and he said something that just made sense. First, he mentioned how effortless his running form was. He looked so smooth running and it was remarkable to note that he got faster through the second half of the race than the first half. Then he said this, ” The greatest runners make running look easy. They are relaxed and fluid as if they are out for a walk.” This got me thinking about my running form. One thing that stuck out was my foot landing. I noticed most runners have little to no horizontal movement when they run. Where as when I run I tend to bounce. So I thought maybe I just need to be light on my feet.

And holy cow, wouldn’t you guess it, I ran six miles today and that small change made such a huge difference. I ran faster for longer than I ever have throughout my practice. I’ve been doing it all wrong. I controlled the landing pose to make sure I didn’t slam my foot into the ground and also made sure to minimize any horizontal movement in my bound and bam. Recipe for success. I will practice this for the next few weeks preparing for my run. I ran 6 miles with virtually no pain where every run before I had felt I had to recover from some kind of pain thinking it was muscular discomfort. So note to self, run light on your feet.

With that, I am glad to say I feel more comfortable after the run. And I am feeling more confident for the marathon. Anyways, Thanks for reading and ill check in next week about my progress. God bless!