Today’s Movement Practice

Today, I worked to fill the gap between the 3-mile runs I often do and the 12-mile run I recently did. Well, the 1.5-3.5 miles I usually run on forest trails, and the 12.4 I recently did on forest trails.

Yes, as I did with my 12-miler, and as I always do, today I ran barefoot and shirtless. I wore some cargo shorts, with my shirt hanging from my belt. And, me being me, I stopped to take some pictures and videos of plants and animals and nature for iNaturalist and for the record and for sharing. 🙂

The first half of the run, one hour, I did slower and stopped more. The last half of the run, 45 minutes, I picked up the pace and stopped fewer times to take pictures. My overall pace, including the stopping, was a 12-minute mile. But, as you can see from the stats, I was actually running faster. Stopping takes time. 🙂

After my run, for half an hour, I knocked out a few tuck pop-ups, did three swing pop-ups in a row, did some crawling, did some balancing, walked around and took some pictures, and did some other movements.

Today’s weather was clear, blue skies, low humidity, temperature on run starting in the upper 40s (coming from a low of 39) and increasing during the run to 61º F or so.

FYI, after doing my recent 12-mile run (12 March 2019) the next day I did one hour of exercise including a slow 1.5-mile run; the day after that I did two one-hour training sessions, including a slow 1.5-mile run; the day after that I did two one-hour training sessions, including a slow 2.5-mile run; the day after that I did half hour in the morning and an hour in the afternoon, including a moderate 2.5-mile run. Then I forget what I did. But the week after the 12-miler, I did a 3.7-miler and a 5-miler.

After the 12-mile run, I wrote this

Did it! One of my spring break goals. Did a lot of running, but a little walking.

I did not do the 15 to 20 miles that I wanted to, but I need more training for that.

In the past year and three months, I have mostly run 2 to 4 miles at a time. On days that I run, that is. In mid-October I did a five-miler, in the beginning of November I did a seven-miler, at the beginning of December I did an eight-miler, and in mid-February I did a five-miler.

I’m just glad I could do it and my knees held up strong (injured both knees December 2017).

During the run, me being me, I had to stop to take some nature pictures and to look at the scenery sometimes. And a few places I had to walk because they were too dangerous to run, or the grass was high and I wanted to avoid snakes, or the trail was hard to find.

At mile 8.5, some muscles in my legs were having some fraction-of-a-second cramping. And at mile nine I tanked. I started becoming extremely hungry. So I started walking more.

Overall, I think I ran at least 10 miles of the whole 12.37.

First thing I did was go to Whole Foods and get six bottles of mineral water, two and a half of which I drink before I ate breakfast.

All I had to eat yesterday was a big salad, a tin of oysters, and two New York strip. And a few other odds and ends I forgot. I sure the hell did not do that on purpose. I wanted two good meals yesterday. Got busy.

Then, yes, I did the run before breakfast. And I brought no water with me. I am not a fish. I can handle it.

And, yes: barefoot and shirtless.