Running Review - February 2011

Looking back on it, the end of February was the start of a very frustrating period when illness and muscle aches took the gloss off what had been mostly a good month.


I ran my first half marathon of the year in Brighton two days before my birthday and finished in 02:12:34. That's 10 minutes slower than my PB from last year but the race came much earlier in my marathon training this time round so I know I'll be able to improve on that over the course of this year.


I also started experimenting with barefoot running during February. The first two runs came at the end of times when I was already out. I slipped the shoes off and completed the last kilometre barefoot (well, with socks on) and was very pleased with how I felt at the end. It was comfortable and I felt quick. The next time I tried it, though, was disastrous. Falling victim to the inevitable Too Much Too Soon syndrome, I found a pair of beach shoes to make it less ewww! if I trod in something unspeakable and the next time I went out I roared  through a 5K. I could feel the aches in my calves as I hit the 3rd K but pushed on and left myself barely able to walk the next day. Oh well, lessons learned and all that. I also, as a direct result, learned that ice baths are the work of the devil.


Over the course of the month I ran 14 times, covered 86 miles at an average pace of 10.30 per mile. The breakdown of those numbers are shown below:

The barefoot runs were among the basic runs, I've just added a separate column so that I can easily keep track of the quantity and distances)