Getting there

Well, today is the first decent long run in a long time... 10 miles. I've decided to cut it into a couple of parts just to ease back. Did 7 just now and will do 3 more after the kids go to bed.

9:44 pm. The last 3 miles felt great. Total time of 1:39:27, with an average pace of 9:56/M. I will take it. The R knee was only slightly uncomfortable early on. Not a peep from it on the last 3; in fact, there was a stretch when the knee felt good (rather than absence of pain, it felt good).

• 42.03 / 10.30
• 28.18 / 9.26
• 28.53 / 9.37

So, on this run I was dogging it in the first 4 miles. These were all with the 2min/30sec ratio. I plan to increase the ratio like this

• 2:30 / 30 sec
• 3:00 / 30 sec
• 3:30 / 30 sec
• 4:00 / 30 sec
• 4:30 / 30 sec

Not sure I've ever written it down, but I think one of the reasons that walk breaks help is that they give you the "start" of a run every few minutes. From a form/biomechanical standpoint, I think I have my best form right at the beginning of a run. You get that "start" every time you start running again.

Two mantras worked well for me tonight on form; first is my standby: "stand tall / step small," and the new one was "cross country skis / rotation please." That old one is the best mental thought I have to bring back the best of the ChiRunning stuff. The new one was a result from my difficulty today in keeping feet parallel without sacrificing a little rotation of the leg. When I try to straighten my feet, I often get the "pendulum" effect that is probably really bad for my legs and knees. This thought joins the parallel image with the image of a rotation. It seemed to work.