Finally adding some distance again

Today was week 4, day 3 of One Hour Runner, which meant that I finally got to add some distance again (actually time, but same net effect). After a couple of false starts, I completed 3.83 miles in 35:14 at an overall pace of 9:13/mile.

I learned a couple of things today:

First, I absolutely hate the hydration belt that I bought. Within a quarter of a mile, it had bounced around so much that the belt had loosened up and the whole contraption was threatening to fall down around my ankles, forcing me to halt the run, walk home, ditch the belt, and start over. I'll need to figure out some way to stash hydration and nutrition along my runs as they get longer.

Second, the knee pain that I was experiencing was being caused by my tendency to turn my right toe in slightly when I got tired and lazy, thus twisting my knee with almost every step. When I focused on keeping my foot straight throughout the stride, the knee pain was diminished, and once it heals from my other runs I don't expect to experience it again. I'm only a couple of chapters into ChiRunning, but this is really what Dreyer is talking about. Instead of forcing yourself to run through pain and treat it with ice and ibuprofen, fix the mechanics of your stride to run pain-free. The result is apparent in the stats from this morning's run; I did my longest run to date at a faster pace than most of my shorter runs.

On Tuesday evening, I attended the Get Fit Challenge seminar at Roadrunner Sports. I had been to Roadrunner just six weeks prior, and had already gone through their shoe fitting service. I had also been buying technical running wear from Target and Ross, so I was pretty up to speed on most of the information presented. I did, however, get some good information about nutrition and hydration before, during and after a long run or race. I ended up buying a pair of green Superfeet insoles and a jar of Luna sports drink mix. I realize that it's ostensibly for women, but that's just because it has extra iron and follic acid. All of the other sports drink mixes had artificial coloring, which I try to avoid.