Of Miles and Breaking in Shoes

Well, I ran my first 4-miler today in my effort to increase my weekly mileage. I took it at a pretty slow pace (approx. 8:42/mile). After I hit 5-miles (hopefully next week if I'm feeling up to it), I'm hoping to increase that pace significantly. I think I've also finally broken in my shoes as the blister thats been haunting me stopped hurting and now has a slightly tougher layer.

I had a concern that I had messed up my hamstring while running, but I think I've found the culprit...my crunch exercises. I suspect that as I get late into the crunches, I let my leg slip down...thus changing which muscles are doing the work. Not only is this non-Marine form, it also stresses some muscles that you don't want to stress when trying to run (especially uphill).

At any rate, I'll have to really watch for that in the future so I can keep those crunches coming.