Is this bad form?

Last night I had some obligations with a borough committee I volunteer for so I didn't get out the door until well after 9 and didn't get home until 11ish. That's kind of late for me to be out.

Then I come home to find that my daughter has gotten the puke bug and my dear wife has already been through numerous sets of sheet changes. It kept up and was a long night for all of us. She did settle down a bit between 3 and 4 so we all at least got a few hours straight. She seems to be on the upswing this morning.

The upside of being out so late is that there wasn't much traffic. I did an extended version of the loop that I run with the running store group that goes through some well-to-do neighborhoods. It's a nice hilly loop (see elevation below) that keeps me off the busy roads.

Last night was 30s and a bit rainy, so with the cloud cover the dark roads were really dark. It reminded me of that old pseudo-video game Night Rider were I just tried to stay in the middle of the road and keep the trees to the outside.

I did 2 reps of my AIS before the run and one after. My legs have just felt very different the past 2 nights, and in a good way. I have tried to focus on pulling my feet backwards when they hit the ground and I could feel the muscles in my hamstrings and glutes, which I normally wouldn't. I felt very strong rolling up the hills.

My shins were pain free and I could really feel the larger muscles working hard. I only felt the shins and the calves when I hit some really steep downhills.

It strikes me as extremely unlikely that the new stretching regimen has had this kind of an impact already. I have to wonder if it is possible that my form had slipped that much, and just a little bit of stretching plus a focus on better form is making the difference? I could feel myself on the downhills falling back into my bad habit of throwing my feet out in front of me, and I would immediately feel it in my calves. I almost can't believe that it could just be in my head (so to speak).

There is no way I could have done this run last week without being seriously sore in my lower legs.

11+ miles in 1:17. First 3 down through the 7s to get warmed up, then into the mid/high 6s for the rest. HR Avg 154.

Limited soreness in the morning - just a bit in the hamstrings.