The day before yesterday I did two laps 2.88 miles in 30 minutes and 4 seconds. The Pace Calculator says that’s a 5.75 miles per hour pace. I was breathing hard doing that pace. I still think I don’t have the lung capacity I should have. (volume)
I wanted to try doing 4 laps just for kicks, almost 6 miles and then back off again, but that is on hold. My 8 week training program is at the end, and I will continue doing 2 laps every other day trying to get faster. I am supposed to run a 5K in the last week according to the program, but that’s kind of on hold as well.
I have had piriformis syndrome for several years from my over aggressive walking with leg weights. I got rid of the leg weights and did flossing stretches for a while. The left side pain went away, but the right side pain is still there. I have to walk 4 blocks before it stretches out and temporarily goes away.
I started doing “figure 4” stretches on both legs again, and also the “tennis ball” deep tissue massage a few days ago, and it seems to help. (You lie on the floor and put a tennis ball in the dimple of your butt and roll it around on the area that hurts. (Very aggressive working of the muscle.)
I will do the treadmill today set at 6 miles an hour to see if I can go 30 minutes at 0% grade to work on better stride and breathing. I need to do stretches to see if I can get the right muscles to lengthen, too.
I’ll keep pushing the discouragement aside and keep at it.