Day 4 - 1 mile on a grass track

Having reach day 4 without any residual soreness, it as time to don the shoes again and go out for another run. Our club was running the first of its summer track sessions, held on the grass tracks of two local high schools. I decided that since I had suffered no ill effects from my first run, and because Lee Saxby reckons anyone who can do 3 sets of 100 jumps is ready to run a mile, I would run a mile. But I would start off in normal shoes for a good warmup.

So that's how it went. 1 mile warm up round the track. Then I ran the rest of the 1 mile reps with everybody else, sat out the second while I changed my shoes, and the joined in for the third. I figured that it would be better to have a bit in reserve, while still running quickly, so that I could focus on my form and not be too fatigued.

Running on the grass, at around 6 minute mile pace, I found the shoes very comfortable. I always had a notion that shoes make you faster, and barefoot running must be slower. Despite my research and growing enthusiasm for this form of running, I've never quite shaken that notion. So I was quite surprised that I found it easy to keep up with my running partners (of course bearing in mind they'd done one more mile than me!). I consciously quickened my cadence, moved a little more upright in my stance (after having seen the video from day 3) and tried to aim for mid to fore foot landing. While the first and second were quite easy, the second didn't come at all naturally. The softish ground and the relatively short distance meant I could fairly happily heel strike. I think I'll have to find some exercises to really practice the landing action.

Then I slipped the old shoes back on and finished the session with some fast 200m reps. By the end of the hour I could feel some tightness in my upper calf, as well as my quads. It's hard to say how much of this is part of the natural shift in muscle use when running fast on a lower traction surface, and how much is the shoes. Time will tell.