Week 3 Sunday Run
Every Sunday I make a trip out to Santa Monica from Pomona for the long runs. This morning, it rained. Practice doesn’t stop if it rains – the Team still runs. I decided not to make the trek because I have bald tires (I know, I know I should have changed them earlier… especially since I did a 720 degree spinout last night on the onramp, and luckily I didn’t hit anything – but that’s a whole other story I’m not going to get into). That terrifying experience of almost getting into a major accident was enough reason for me to just go to the local 24 and make up my mileage until I get new tires tomorrow. My goal for this week was to work on my cadence, while I make up for lost mileage.
Making up 5 miles at the gym isn’t too bad since we are still in the beginning. Even though my last post was about treadmills and pain, I toughed it out and went back on it. This time around it wasn’t so painful, and it took about an hour to do the 5 miles. What bugged the hell out of me though was that the treadmill I was on had a 20 minute cap, and I had to restart my cycle every 20 minutes.
Towards the end of the 5 miles, I experimented with my cadence, which last week, coach said that the optimal cadence should be 180 steps per minute. Last week I counted 165 as my cadence, so I counted what was mine on a 4.5 speed on the treadmill as a base speed. It was 155. I then raised the speed to 5.5, and it was 165 steps per minute. I also tried 6.0 speed, but I still had about 167 steps per minute. I brought it down to 5.5 again, and it came out to about 165 again. I felt very comfortable with that 5.5. So comfortable, that I was able to run for 20 minutes without stopping. I felt very efficient and tried to keep a very consistent tempo. Of course, a little of this was assisted with the motor of the treadmill, but it’s good to know where I stand in terms of cadence. Next time I’m on the pavement, I’ll experiment more so I can run like a gazelle (the photo of this post).