10K After a Long While

Last week I was so excited to be home for the weekend that I didn't get to run for the entire week. After work I just wanted to head home and get the day over with, Thursday (my travel date) couldn't come too soon. After coming back from Surigao for my son's birthday party, to head out for a run was at the top of my list. It rained the other day so I called it off and headed straight home after work. Last night however the sky was clear and I was able to head out to UP Diliman campus. Plan was to do a 10, which I did. But for the first 5K I tried a different stride where I would like to call a runner's stride. This is when you land with your mid-foot instead of the usual jog where you land with your heel. I've read this lessens the impact on your knees since you land with more cussion as compared to landing with your heel.

It was a first for me to make this distance with this stride. I've also read this improves speed, well runners run this way, which is the ideal stride. True enough, I was able to improve my 5K time at UP Diliman by a minute and nine seconds. Out of the three previous 5K runs I did there I averaged 31:31, last night I did it at 30:22 -- close to my target of doing 5K at UP in less than 30 minutes. I was able to achieve this once but that was in an oval track where, completely different than in UP oval -- elevation wise. See illustrations below.

UP Oval

Tagaytay Oval Track

After 5K mark I switched back to heel landing, felt awkward at first but fulfilled somehow to have done a full 5K with mid-foot landing. At 7K mark I found myself struggling, pace was down to around seven minutes per kilometer, went up as I went on. I couldn't switch back to mid-foot landing as I could barely contain the impact, my calves had enough. I thought about calling it off by 8K. But what's another 2K, right? Well at this state 2K meant eternity. Haha. I had to dig deep to make it through. 

It might take me awhile to switch strides, but if I could I know this will dramatically improve my time. But I have to take it easy as now I'm really feeling the pain in my calf area. But this will pass, this only tells me I've broken through another perceived limit with my body, and when this heals I'll be at it again.