Jelly fish update.

They have changed Sunday's tri from a tri to a run-bike-run. That's good, I was not looking forward to swimming with the box jelly. That's bad because for my running sucks.

Running was always my thing. In jr. high I was breaking school records. I love to run. After my knee surgery and once I reached adulthood, I was never that fast again but I still love it and it's my favorite part of the tri. Early last year I was racing almost every weekend and really doing good. In April '05 I did a 10k on Sat. at 1:10 and a 10k on Sun at 1:08. I was doing well. Then I went through my twisting both ankles thing and was off running for quite awhile. BUT, my running lately really, really sucked. It was hard and painful and incredibly tiring and I dreaded it. Because of that I haven't run as much as I should.

So Sunday as I was doing my brick I realized that I'm not as light on my feet as I used to be. So I started working on lifting my foot before it hit the ground. I was having trouble doing this so did a little self-analysis and realized my entire body was tense. It slowly started to dawn on me. Every part of my body was tense; my shoulders, my arms, my neck, my legs, my hips, everything. I immediately started trying to relax everything and get my old running form back. But then my run was over.

Since my tri is now a run-bike-run, I decided I needed to get a little more running in this week since I suck so bad. I head out for a short 3 miles this morning and immediately started with the relaxing stuff. Wow, what a difference. I ran stronger and faster than I have in a long time. I felt good the whole time. I'm doing the 5/1 run/walk and I wasn't looking at my watch the entire 5 minutes waiting for it to buzz. I felt like the old me.

I realized what was wrong. I am still so worried and scared about twisting my ankle again that I was holding myself super tense against a possible injury. It's good to be careful but that was ridiculous. By being so tense I was hitting the ground pretty hard (a sure way to twist an ankle) and my foot was on the ground longer than necessary. Once I relaxed my turnover increased and my feet were not on the ground that long. Whew, glad that mystery is solved.

I'm still slow, I did the 3 miles in 40 minutes, but it felt so much better. I can't wait to run again. I now have faith again that I can get back to a 1:08 10k.

So a very successful morning.