Today I ran a slow run with my wife. Her pace is significantly slower than mine (14 min mile versus my 10 min mile avg.) It is amazing to me how much of a great workout this was, much the same in many ways as shaving several minutes off your avg. pace but in a different way. We ran 3.5 miles but my legs feel like I did 10. I managed to run 95% of it on the balls of my feet if not my toes. This was a great workout for the calves. 45 minutes of burn! Felt great and overall I don’t feel exhausted which will help my music playing tonight.

I was curious to see how doing such a toe-strike focussed run would effect the cramping I have been experiencing in my legs. Turns out not much at all though now it feels like my calves are cramping, but I think it is just soreness.

I have done intentionally slower runs like this in the past and have been really happy with the results. Plus they make you feel really fast once you return to your normal pace.

One of the benefits of a slower run like this is that you are burning more fat than normal, apparently this has to do with running under your 70% threshold. I guess running above that tends to burn other things rather than fat. I read about this awhile back and can’t recall the specifics. Not that I ever let a faulty recall stop me from spouting “facts”!