After coming home from a 105 km bike ride, I recharged my body's batteries with a good home-made dinner. An hour after dinner, I felt ready for a practice run. I threw myself in my running shorts and singlet, and hit the road barefooted. Ordinarily running without shoes is challenging enough for me, but today I wanted some additional challenge because I didn't run on Sunday, plus a race is coming soon. My answer was a 2 kg dumbbell in both hands. That's 4 kg in total. Running with this much weight is like running with an additional weight of 4 kg. It's like me weighing 67 kg, instead of 63 kg, which is my usual weight.
I did it in the past, so I knew how hard it was. But it'd been a while since I did it last, and I was afraid my shoulders and bi-ceps might not be able to endure much. But I did it anyway, saying to myself that if it's too touch, I could drop them anytime. But for an initial target, I decided to hold on to them until I ran 10 K.
As soon as I started off, I regretted that I carried the weights. They aren't so heavy in themselves, but running with them in my hands was another story. Each stride felt much heavier than usual. I imagined that that was how it would feel like if I were four kilograms fatter and ran. It's so uncomfortable, and demotivating. But I grit my teeth and bore. I ran the usual 2.5 k loop. After the first lap, I slightly got used to the weights, having discovered a form that allowed me to run efficiently without wasting energy.
I took a lap time every 5.05 K. The result is shown below:
1st 5.05 K: 27:04.62 (Weighted)
Water break: 15.30
2nd 5.05 K: 28:36.89 (Weighted)
3rd 5.05 K: 28:43.76 (No Weights)
4th 5.05 K: 27.58.52 (No Weights)
Total 20.2 K: 1:52:39
Running 20 K without shoes is now not so difficult if the road surface is not too rough, and the speed is moderate. My biggest concern now is the road temperature on the day of the race, and how an increased pace in the race can affect the durability of my sole...
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