One Added Degree

It's official.  Aside from the final paperwork and administration hoops to jump through, I am now the proud owner of now THREE academic degrees.  I have an Associates in Math/Science Liberal Arts, a Bachelors in Biochemistry and Molecular Biology, and now a Masters in Biomedical Science.  As I alter my directions towards fitness, personal training, and possibly exercise science I find myself wondering "Will I be one of those people who has a degree they'll never actually use?"  I never thought I'd say it, but I may have to join that club soon.  haha

Anyways, back to fitness (yay!).  I went out today for another run.  As you know, my base mileage according to my New Years Eve goal is 2 miles, but I have to fit in another 5 miles each week on top of that.  Yesterday I tacked on an extra 1.6 miles and I was hoping to do the same today, but about half a mile into the run I started getting pains in my right leg and my right foot started bothering me; the best way I can describe it is that it's similar to the feeling of been on your feet for too long and you just want to sit down.  At that point with a race coming up on Sunday and plenty of miles to go in the future, I opted just to do the base 2 miles and be done for the day. 

On my way to the turnaround, I pass a busy intersection and usually have to speed up to cross before I get made into road kill by the next oncoming car.  As I was approaching the intersection, I opted out of the extra mileage to give my foot a break, but as I ran through the intersection, I sped up a little, extended my stride, and all of a sudden noticed that the pain in my foot was gone.  Woah!!  I ran the rest of the course at the faster pace and felt great.

It struck me on the second mile that I had had this revelation about my faster pace being better for my body before.  Back in training for the half marathon, I noticed that my hip flexors and extensors would not be so tight if I kept up a faster pace with an extended stride; my legs were even less fatigued.  It seems that the form of my faster pace (I would guess it to be around 7:00-7:15/mile pace) is much better than my slower pace.  I will have to recruit some help in order to analyze it more, but I would venture to guess that my slower pace needs some improvements.  From now on, I will be pushing to maintain the faster pace, for the sake of my feet!

Oh, I also tested out running with some spandex; it was 25 (felt like 20) degree Fahrenheit today.  Granted, these are spandex I bought back in high school for drag in swimming, but they do the trick.  For now, it's saving me from buying a $100 pair of runner's spandex.  Yay saving money!

Ciao!