Hot and hard in the park

Since running in to work on Tuesday I've been cogitating on stride length, flexibility, stretching and the steps that I can take to improve all of this. So today I decided that while I'd nominally go and do my standard park run at the same time I was going to concentrate on one thing - lifting my knees higher to stretch out each pace (without going so far as to land on my heels of course since that would be counter-productive). Funnily enough as I left the office I felt rather too much like an old man and it probably took until St. James Park before I felt loosened up and able to run freely. Once there though I felt quite cheered up by the floral displays:

St. James Park in the Spring

Beyond the blooms I worked to keep my knees up and it felt good. I had considered, as well, trying a technique where I'd let my trailing leg extend just a bit further back than usual - the theory being that the natural elasticity of my muscles and ligaments would snap this leg forward with less muscular effort than usual. To be honest though I couldn't detect much of a difference and so worried much less about this side of things; which was fine as all around Green Park I was moving at an excellent 6:30 min/mile pace and this continued into Hyde Park. Then, however, I got a bit bogged down in the wet sand and it all started to become a bit of a slog but not because my legs were hurting; instead the difficulty was all about maintaining my technique, controlling my breathing and trying not to overheat. The effort was taking its toll in some unusual places. 

Just look at those stamens!

Coming down the Park Lane side I managed to pick up the pace (assisted by losing the headwind) and drop below the 6:30 min/mile level - holding this all of the way down to Buckingham Palace. By the way I was blowing past the other runners heading my direction I could tell that my improved technique was paying dividends; the challenge now is to incorporate it into my natural running style and, if possible, take it further. So we'll see - when I got back to the office I was several degrees warmer than usual and had a bit of a headache - because the effort level required is certainly a notch or two above what I'm used to!

Distance: 7.6 miles

Time: 55m 26s