74 minute painful 5-mile run using long & quick paces style

Monday March 23 I did not run due to: things to do, fatigue, weather. Again after six days running every day a day without a run, as in the Biblical sabbath.

Tuesday March 24:

Prior to the run footwear-wise I attempted to deal with the pain in the arches of the foot problem experienced during the previous two runs, by departing from the advice I gave myself after the March 22 run, and instead increasing the padding under both heels by 8 m-wrap layers. The idea behind this was that the pain in the arches of the feet had been caused by excess difference between the vertical level of the heel and the vertical level of the ball of the foot, due to the increased padding under the ball of the foot (in both feet).

Prior to the run I put on the shoes with the added padding, and felt some pain behind the toenail of the big toe, caused by pressure rubbing against the shoe. My novel solution: I took an oval shaped bar of sandalwood soap, and wedge it into the shoe inside the shoe, to expand the shoe in the area where the irritation to the toe occurred. I left the bar of soap inside the shoe for at least an hour. Then I removed the bar of soap and put the shoe on. The result was complete lack of irritation in the affected area. I expected a good result because: sandalwood is fab subtance with a fab smell; the sandalwood soap rubbing off on the shoe provides some lubrication; the piece of soap was shaped almost perfectly for wedging into the big-toe area of the shoe.

Footwear advice I gave to myself after the previous run: "Left foot: maybe reduce padding under big toe by 4 m-wrap layers; maybe reduce padding under ball of foot by 4 m-wrap layers...Right foot: maybe reduce padding under big toe by 4 m-wrap layers; maybe reduce padding under ball of foot by 4 m-wrap layers (http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/03/72-minute-5-mile-long-paced-run.html ).

Tuesday March 24:

I ran the round the block course again (1st 3rd 5th miles run, 2nd 4th 6th miles walked), using for the first five miles, style C, featuring an emphasis on BOTH long-length-paces AND ALSO a high number of steps per minute , taking breaks to record split-times.

Time after 5th mile: 73:54 (91:24 - 17:30 subtracted for break-times = 73:54).

Pauses were due to: recuperation from pain, removing excess layer clothing, tying shoes, recording split-times; the unusually high amount of break-time was due to pain experienced in the first and second miles;

For the entire 5 miles, I used the following chant (chanted in my mind not with my mouth/tongue):

'Long are our strides as we streamline the sky
Many are our steps per unit of time
Lord of Roads of Magnificence am I
Lord of Roads of Painlessness am I'

This is the original chant, the first chant that I stuck with for any length of time; it emphasizes BOTH long-paces and quick paces.

Aside from pain-caused-impairment, the time was unimpressive, which leads me to wonder if a weakness in this chant used for styles C/F, might be that it contains no line asserting that I, the runner, am moving at a high speed. By way of contrast, the chants used for styles A/D (short, quick steps), & B/E (long steps), have evolved to both contain lines asserting speed:

'Great is our speed as we streamline the sky, Many are our steps per unit of time" for A/D (http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/03/75-minute-5-mile-quick-paced-using.html ); "'Long/Maxed are our strides as we streamline the sky, Far is our distance per unit of time" for B/E (http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/03/72-minute-5-mile-long-paced-run.html ).

Mile split times recorded (split-times of previous style-C run March 17 in parentheses):

I walked slowly for about 150 yards before starting the run.

1st, run: 15:34 (14:57) pain in left calf
2nd, walked: 13:30 (13:40) pain (worse than 1st mile) in left calf and especially in right outside-of-lower-front-leg muscle
3rd, run: 15:30 (15:20)
4th, walked: 13:54 (13:50)
5th, run: 15:24 (15:15)

Footwear in Left shoe:

NEW 8 m-wrap layers pad under heel +
lightweight removable sole that came with shoe +
foam/gel heel-to-toe insole +
16 layers m-wrap pad under big toe +
'toe bed' (forefoot gel pad for ball of foot and toes) +
16 layers m-wrap under ball of foot +
12 layers m-wrap pad under ball-of-foot & line between toes & ball of foot +
20 layers m-wrap pad attached to toe area of gel forefoot pad beneath big, index and middle toes +
8 layers m-wrap pad under middle & index toes +
40 layers m-wrap pad around sides and rear of heel
Adhesives: tape, not glue.
'Pretaping' type m-wrap used.
SHOELACES: medium tight on top shoelace, loose on other shoelaces

Footwear in Right shoe:

NEW 8 m-wrap layers pad under heel +
Lightweight removable sole that came with shoe +
foam/gel heel-to-toe insole +
'toe bed' (forefoot gel pad for ball of foot and toes) +
16 layers m-wrap under ball of foot +
8 layers m-wrap pad under big toe +
12-layers m-wrap pad under ball-of-foot & line between toes and ball of foot +
20 layers m-wrap pad attached to toe area of gel forefoot pad beneath big, index and middle toes +
16 layers m-wrap pad around sides and rear of heel
'Multipurpose' type m-wrap used.
SHOELACES: tight on top shoelaces, loose on others

The temp was on average 40 degrees with wind at avg 1 mph during the run (5th mile completed at 9:05 PM):
(http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/wxStationGraphAll?day=24&year=2009&month=3&ID=KMAWESTO6&type=3&width=500&showsolarradiation=1&showtemp=1&showpressure=1&showwind=1&showwinddir=1&showrain=1 )

'Twas a night-time run.

The gray lightweight sweatshirt, long-sleeved collar-less sportshirt made of t-shirt-type material, t-shirt, sleeveless t-shirt, visibility-vest, sweatpants, shorts, and wool winter hat were too warm.

After the first half-mile I removed the wool winter hat. I continued to feel too warm. After one mile had been run, I removed the sweatshirt.

I ran/walked miles 3 to 6 wearing only the long-sleeved shirt made of t-shirt-type cloth, a t-shirt, sleeveless t-shirt, and the visibility vest on my upper body, shorts and sweatpants on my lower body; and felt about right in the 40 degree night.

Advice to myself for the next run:

To allow for flexibility in padding, build 4 m-wrap layer pads for: both heels, both balls of feet, and left big toe. Adjust padding so that the heels are not so high that the result is pain in the lower legs; adjust padding so that the m-wrap layer-thickness of padding on top of the molding lightweight insole under the balls of the feet, do not exceed the m-wrap layer-thickness of padding under the heels on top of the same insole, by more than 12 m-wrap layers (because: when the difference between m-wrap-layer-thickness under ball of the foot & m-wrap-layer-thickness under the heel is 16 m-wrap layers, there is pain in the arch of the foot; when the difference is 8 m-wrap-layers there is not pain in the arch of the foot). Or make no change wait to see if there is a natural adjustment, and 'tough it out'..

Interesting thing is that an 8 m-wrap-layer-thick pad when compressed with the fingers is only about 1 millimeter thick.

Apparently the padding has been pushed to the max, to the point where an additional 1 millimeter of padding under the ball of the foot produces pain in the arch of the foot, to the point where an additional 1 millimeter of padding under the heel produces pain the muscles of the lower leg.

Go ahead and scoff at the laborious pedantry of blog entries such as this--just remember how easy it is to end up a tortured loser, completely lost with regards to differences of a millimeter here and a millimeter there that can mean, so to speak, the difference between heaven and hell--if careful records are not kept.

Today's experience in footwear showed that I was correct in estimating that reducing the difference in elevation between the ball of the foot and the heel by increasing the elevation of the heel by just 1 millimeter, would eliminate the pain in the arch of the foot. Problem was that the added padding under the heel caused pains in the muscles of the lower legs, especially in the right leg.

This reminds me that it appears that doctors these days, have a weakness: they under-emphasize the phenomenon wherein an intervention that reduces the risk of impairment or death due to a given disease X, increases the risk of impairment or death to another disease Y.

In accordance with the rotation entered into the blog-record March 15 (http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/03/76-minute-5-mile-long-length-paced-run.html ), run using style "D Medium-length-paced, emphasis on paces-per-minute, no pauses to note split-times".

Chant to use:

'Many are our steps per unit of time
Great is our speed as we streamline the sky
Lord of roads of magnificence am I
Lord of roads of painlessness am I'

Running tactics/strategy

Today I felt that I could feel how pain in one mile tires one out for the next mile even if the next mile is painless; I felt I could feel how pain in a previous day tires one out for a subsequent day.

In the second mile which was walked, the pain in the muscle located at the outside-of-lower-front-right-leg, was very significant. This is the muscle on the front outside of the shin that connects the ankle to the knee. Yet still the mile was ten seconds faster than the second mile, which was walked, on March 17 when I last used the style C that I used today.

Seems running at a 15 minute mile pace has become habitual for me. I wonder whether I should try an alternative: walking the second and fourth miles at a leisurely pace instead of at a competitive pace, combined with running the first third and fifth miles, at a more competitive faster pace.

Best I can recall when, a few years ago, I had the dream about going six miles alternating between a mile run and a mile walked, the idea was to combine leisurely walked miles with competitively run run miles. But what this has morphed into, is three miles run at what for me is a competitive brisk pace, combined with two miles walked at a very brisk competitive pace, plus at the end, one mile walked at a leisurely pace.

@2009 David Virgil Hobbs