Round TWO!

August 8^th, 2009

My coworker and I logged 4 miles last night on our Thursday run. We ran the same route we did two days ago, but extended our turn around point to make it 4 miles rather than 3.5. He was in much better condition this time around. We didn’t slow down nearly as many times, and when we did slow down it was for shorter periods of time. I checked the Nikeplus sport kit and our 2^nd mile was done at a 5:11 min/mile pace! I was surprised but when I did the math, I realized it was the mile that was mostly downhill. Still, he’s listening to my little tidbits of advice which I think is helping him pick up the pace. I keep telling him that it’s okay to go slower UP the hills because he isn’t expelling as much energy as he would if he pushed it full throttle. Then, on the DOWN slope of the hill I tell him to just let his stride out and let gravity take him. It feels exhilarating actually! By doing those two things, he conserved energy and felt much better at the end of the run. The last .75 mile of our run I picked up the pace to just below 8 mins/mile (we have been running around 8:15-8:25) so he could really feel the run’s benefits. I said to him, “You’re really going to hate me, but we are going to pick it up at the end.” He just rolled his eyes and gave me the look like I was crazy. At the end of the run he was all smiles though! All in all, it was a great run! Can’t wait for our next Tuesday run!