The last couple of days have been hectic so I haven't been able to run for the last 2 days. But I got back on the track today. I ran a fast 0.7 mi in 6:30, walked 0.7 mi to get my heart rate down; ran 0.4 mi in 4:00, walked 0.5 mi and finally ran a slow stretch of 1.1 mi in 16:45. There seems to be an interesting phenomenon: When I run fast, my legs feel like I haven't even left the couch, but my lungs kill me and I get stitches. The first stitch or two is easy to get rid of, but after a while it gets real hard to get rid of em. On the other hand, when I run slow, my lungs feel like I haven't left the couch, but my legs start burning real fast. I can finish the run, but I find it curious that my calves hurt when I run slow instead of fast. EDIT: Just got my answer: when running at a slow pace, you burn more fat than glycogen, which doesn't burn as readily as glycogen, so it is harder to run at a slow pace than a faster pace where glycogen supplies energy very efficiently.
|