Track - St Patty's Day

Tonight was team track night which are typically fairly short runs that switch up from week to week. The team met at the College of San Mateo track at 6:15pm sharp. We jogged a 3/4 mile warm-up and then stretched before our run.

Tonight's run was broken down two segments:

1) Strikes: We learned that a good "event" pace (marathon or half marathon) is to have your feet hit or "strike" the ground 180 times/minute. Regardless of whether or not you run faster or slower, you want to take smaller strides so that your feet strike the ground 180 times per minute.

We ran for 8 minutes around the track. Partway through the 8 minute run, Coach blew the whistle which meant to begin counting our individual foot strikes. We'd count every time our right foot struck the ground, then multiplied that number by two to get the total # of foot strikes per minute. After the minute, he blew the whistle again which meant to stop counting. I was at 184 strikes/minute. We ran for a couple more minutes and then Coach blew the whistle again. This meant to start counting again and if you weren't at 180 strikes/minute during the first round, try to pace yourself and take shorter strides so that you'd end up at 180 strikes/minute at the end of this round. This time I was at 174 strikes/minute.

2) The second part of the track run was broken down as follows:

200 meter run (at event pace)
100 meter walk (to recover)
400 meter run (at event pace)
100 meter walk (to recover)
200 meter run (at event pace)
100 meter walk (to recover)
400 meter run (at event pace)
100 meter walk (to recover)
200 meter run (at event pace)
100 meter walk (to recover)

We did this for a total of 20 minutes. We then walked 2 laps (1/2 mile) to cool down.

After the run, we stretched and did our regular core exercises, crunches, and push-ups. It was really, really cold at this point (after 8pm) so everyone was ready to head home for a hot shower! This is exactly what I did.

I noticed my knees bothering me a bit during my run and they are sore right now. I just iced them. I think my shoes were not tied tight enough tonight. I haven't untied them for a couple runs and just slip them on and off. I noticed that my feet were kind of sliding a bit to the sides which is why I think this might have affected my knees. I had no problems on or after Saturday which was my long run. So I plan to lace them up tighter for my run on Thursday and hope that's the end of that.

Tomorrow is a cross-training day so until then ... goodnight!