I feel immensely lucky to have such a beautiful route in my neighbourhood as pictured above. I am both consolidating my C25k 🏃🏾♀️ , now with C25k+ podcasts, as well as busy imagining running in just as beautiful surroundings in Cornwall as part of RunLEJOG.
It was my third run using the Stepping Stone podcast, and it demonstrated the power of the mind 🧠 to unconsciously direct your muscles 🦵 to do something that is actually a highly complex process:
I finally managed to hit the 160bpm. 🚀
Whereas before when trying to hit the beat on time, I was “pushing“ my legs to go faster 🚂 . The concepts in my mind were “push harder“, “strain a bit more to get faster“.
But when Laura suggested to go up to 155 with light, small step, I thought about “lightness“ , “a fairy dribble jog” (I passed the fairy house at that moment) and thinking about Hiroaki Tanaka 🧚🏻♀️ . And I am certainly not light, but just thinking about treading lightly allowed me to get beyond 155 and hit the 160 for the duration of the 5 minutes, well most of the 5 min anyway....
... as, yes, the moment I let my mind wander, I fell back probably to ca 145. So focussing on that concept of “lightness” allowed me to get to 160 again!
So yeah! Stats show nothing special, but just me managing to get my legs to do something that they hadn’t done since probably three decades, that’s a great success.
After that run, stretches and shower 🚿 I was immensely tired and actually cold 🥶 , and I think I need to consider adjusting my hypothyroid medicine as running probably does take a strain on the thyroid. (So any runner with similar condition and experiences, let me know)
But I also did a foam rolling session, and the foam roller is my new best friend! I now have one in the living room and one in the bedroom 🛏 ! Yup, I’m that crazy about foam rolling! And I could tell through the 5-6 months of running, I increasingly have the need to use the roller to unknot the tightness in my calves. I assume that this is a good sign, a sign that my calf muscles are tightening and as part of the process, muscle knots are part of the process.
So any runners reading this who haven’t bought a foam roller yet, I can only recommend that you do. No matter how slow, or how short, or how seldom your runs are. A good rolling after just feels like it does wonders to my tight calves.
So here, I am. Both running in LEJOG and at home, using quite a few runner‘s tools in our toolbox 🧰, from mindgames, foamrollers, motivational races such as LEJOG. Anything to keep me running.
P.s. I couldn’t put my mileage into LEJOG4, today and am wondering if anyone else has this problem?
