7 minute half-mile runs, April 18, using long paces style

Seemed run/walking or jog-walking six miles a day almost every day, tired me out to the point where when it came to things like blogging, I did not have mental energy, for more than just typing up a log entry describing a six mile run workout.

From April 1 to April 18 I took a break from running. As a result, I had mental energy for things more mentally tiring than merely typing up an entry describing a track workout (see blog entries April 1-18).

I feel the jog-walking the six miles almost every day, and then resting and skipping the run/walk workout for a few days, produced an improvement in mental energy during the resting phase; my mental energy level in the resting phase after the many weeks of several run-walk workouts per week, exceeded my mental energy during the days when I was run-walking, and also exceeded my mental energy level before I started run-walking several days per week.

After a couple of weeks of resting, I began to feel my mental energy level would improve if I went back to the running and walking workout.

Saturday April 18 (noon-time workout):

For the 2nd time since returning to long-distance running in Nov 08, I ran half-miles, taking approx 5 minute breaks between half-miles.

I left the footwear as it was during the previous runs of March 31, 29, 26, 25, & 24.
Footwear advice I gave to myself after the previous run, was that the advice is the same as described after the March 25 run (http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/03/74-minute-5-mile-run-march-25-using.html ).

Results foot-comfort wise:

Left foot/leg: Some pain in arches of feet and lower leg after first two or three half-mile segments.

Right foot/leg: Some pain in arches of feet and lower leg after first two or three half-mile segments.

Saturday April 18:

I ran the round the block course again (1st 3rd 5th miles run, 2nd 4th 6th miles walked). I stopped for usually approx five minutes every half-mile. I used style B/E, long paces.

Time after 5th mile: 69:30 (six 1/2 mile runs and 4 1/2 mile walks); this was 4.7% slower than the 1/2 mile runs March 31 using short quick paces.

The break times were as follows: time at end of 1/2 mile run or walked, rounded up to next minute (example 11:54:21 rounded up to 11:55:00) plus five minutes = resume running time (in example run would be resumed at 12:00:00). Thus breaks were always between 5 and 6 minutes, on average 5.5 minutes. 9 breaks were taken, one after each half-mile.

For the first 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
Great is our distance per unit of time

Doing...just half a mile
in that long paced style

Lord of Roads of Magnificence am I
Lord of Roads of Painlessness am I'

The three stanzas were chanted in various orders.

During half-miles run with only the left foot or only the right foot taking long paces, the chant was adjusted to:

Doing...just half a mile
in that long left paces style

or,

Doing...just half a mile
in that long right paces style

Prior to this run I stretched my legs.

Times recorded using long paced style (styles B and E): today April 18 half-miles, and previous time such style used (miles)-- March 26 (in rain), and March 22 (in pain):

1st, run: 7:06+7:36=14:42, 16:00, 15:15
2nd, walked: 6:28+6:30=12:58, 13:41 mild pain, 13:22 IN PAIN
3rd, run: 7:05+7:12=14:17; 16:02, 15:05
4th, walked: 6:36+6:32=13:08, 14:05, 13:40 pain
5th, run: 7:20+7:05=14:25, 15:12, 14:54

Again, my goal in pausing after every half-mile April 18, was to shake off the slow style of running which I suspected had become habitual.

Looking at the times April 18, I achieved my goal of shaking off the habit of running at a slow pace by speeding up and taking breaks every half-mile.

The footwear was the same as the previous run (http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/03/68-minute-5-mile-run-march-29-new.html ).

'Twas a day-time run mostly cloudy.

The long-sleeved collar-less sportshirt made of t-shirt-type material, t-shirt, sleeveless t-shirt, visibility-vest, shorts, & headband were too warm after a while.

Starting with after the 1st half-mile with every half-mile I discarded a piece of clothing; most of the workout I wore only a visibility vest on my upper body.

Just the visibility vest on the upper body felt about right in the 61 degree avg 3 mph day (http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/wxStationGraphAll?day=18&year=2009&month=4&ID=KMAWESTO6&type=3&width=500&showsolarradiation=1&showtemp=1&showpressure=1&showwind=1&showwinddir=1&showrain=1 ). 5th mile ended at 12:44:05.

Advice to myself for the next run
fotwear-wise: Same as that listed in the March 25 post (http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/03/74-minute-5-mile-run-march-25-using.html )

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 the next run, using style C/F, the moderate style that combines length of pace with high number of paces per minute, pausing five minutes after each half-mile to rest/take-notes.

Chant to use:

'Long are our strides as we streamline the sky,
Many are our steps per unit of time,

Doing...just half a mile
in the long-paced quick paced style

Lord of roads of magnificence am I
Lord of roads of painlessness am I'

Running tactics/strategy

There was a problem in that during the first two half -miles run, I felt clumsy in my attempt to run using long paces.

If the paces are too long, the speed becomes slow and fatigue develops. If the paces are too short, the purpose of the drill, which is to develop speed by practicing using long paces, is defeated. I felt confused and this produced clumsiness.

The 3rd half-mile run, I took long paces only with my left foot, and normal paces with my right. The 4th half-mile run, I took long paces only with my right foot, and normal paces with my left. Both half-miles, I mentally concentrated hard on what I was doing.

I realized that I can strike the correct balance of lengthening my stride, but not lengthening it excessively, by mentally concentrating on: keeping my front leg straight when my front foot hits the ground; pointing the toe of my front foot forward as it hits the ground; keeping up the long-strides variant of the chant, and making an effort to take long strides.

Link to Outdoors Run Checklist:

http://coolname001.angelfire.com/outdoors_run_checklist.htm

You can print out this checklist and use it to prepare for an outdoors run.

Since the we page containing the checklist has ads on it you might have to copy and paste the checklist table and text, leaving out the ads, into a simple HTML editor like Outlook Express and create a web-page and then print it.

When you print the page you may have to reduce the vertical margins used by the printer, to get the checklist to fit, by using file-page setup in the menu.

Getting prepared to go outdoors to do some running or jogging, can be a drain on mental energy, stressful, and time consuming. The costs in terms of mental energy stress and time can make the difference between going out for a run and not bothering with it.

The costs in terms of energy stress and time can seem insignificant, but they become significant when life is: filled with expenditure of mental energy during activities that involve the use of the mind; filled with stress; and very limited in terms of free time available for activities such as puttering about getting oneself ready for an outdoors run.

I find the checklist helps me to reduce the amount of mental energy time and stress associated with getting myself ready for an outdoors run.

If the checklist were to save one minute per day by reducing time used to prepare to go outdoors and jog, that would be six hours per year. If one billion people were saved six hours per year, this would be a saving of 3 million work years; 3 million people working 2000 hours per year, 40 hours per week, work for a total of six billion hours.

Amazing how useful a blog-post that helps the reader to save one minute per day, can be.

Brilliant Classical-economics type digression quantitatively establishing the time value and money value of the reduction in stress produced by products such as a pre-practice checklist

Then you have the concept of determining the value of the stress reduction qualities of something like a checklist that reduces the stress involved in an activity.

Suppose stress can be at a level between zero, the minimum level of stress humans can experience while awake, and 10, the maximum level of stress humans can experience; suppose 5 is the average level of stress.

People will on average, gladly take X the pay from one hour of work, and spend it on Y, if Y provides them with 2 hours of 0 stress level waking time, when Y has no negative side-effects (using a checklist is not like a drug that has side-effects).

Therefore a reduction in stress from the average level of 5 to the level of 0 for 120 minutes, is worth (at least) 60 minutes of work-time.

Therefore, since 5 (the stress in the example is reduced from 5 to 0) times 120 (the number of minutes for which the stress reduction is in effect) = 600 (stress units), a reduction of 600 stress-units is worth 60 minutes of work time.

Meaning, a reduction of of stress by 10 units is worth 1 minute of work-time.

Meaning, if the checklist reduces stress from level 6 for 20 minutes of preparing for practice, to level 4 for 20 minutes of preparing or practice, the stress level has been reduced by 40 stress-units.

Meaning, this 40 stress-units stress reduction is worth 4 minutes of work-time.

4 minutes of work-time per day for one year coes to 24 hours. For a billion people this is 24 billion hours, which is 12 million man-years, assuming a man works 2000 hours per year. 12 million man years valued at ten dollars per hour, is 240 billion dollars!

The preceding paragraphs have been yet another example of me, David Virgil producing new original inventive creative economic-theory type thinking that for some inexplicable reason has not been produced by someone else previously.

Here we have a clever, classics-like, original, unplagiarized, competent, concise, comprehensible theoretical quantification relating level of stress reduction to minutes of work-time.

Beyond belief how much positive impact my essays, which are like classics-of-economics, potentially have on the world as insight piles upon insight upon insight, a new valuable insight sometimes almost every day.

@2009 David Virgil Hobbs