Running Posture

My main worry about running a marathon so soon is injury. After several years blissfully without injury, I suffered a bunch of annoying ones, though nothing serious: plantar fasciitis, IT band, hamstring and the occasional sore back. Today, during a recovery run, I tried something new: I adjusted where I held my hands. Normally, they drop near my waist, since I've found it important to run as relaxed as possible. Watching Chasing Kimbia, I noticed the Kenyans running with their hands higher. I gave it a whirl, holding my hands closer to my chest, and while not completely natural, it seemed to help. I ran faster than I have lately and felt less soreness in my IT band, hamstring and back. It seems to give me more power. I finally started to regularly do strength exercises, which I've always neglected. This might help. We'll see.

Other good news: Google has found the blog, making it the No. 1 and 2 results for "internal pigdog" searches, ahead of both the IRS (?) and "Pigdog Journal." And Trust but Verify, a cycling blog about the Floyd Landis doping case, links to the Chasing Kimbia post. Cool.

5.75 miles, 45:26 (That includes a stop to give two Italian tourists directions to the Met. They were at 79th and Riverside, walking toward Jersey, not so close. I always worry after running away that my directions are not exact enough, leading these poor tourists to wander aimlessly and hate the city because they got bad directions. This time, I think I was pretty exact, even estimating the walk to be 20 minutes.)