Archive for May, 2010

My Garmin Is Sexier Than Yours
I started getting a ton of traffic yesterday to my Anatomy Of A Well-Loved Garmin post.  Apparently, there’s a fetish site called Watch Girls based on women wearing large watches.  Someone on their forum linked to that post with my full name included and a note that it’s an American blog.  It’s definitely a foreign proclivity, hardly any hits from the USA but the rest of the world is well represented, and they’re still coming in droves.  Check out their Models page – too funny!

What Happened At Yesterday’s Race
My finish time was an entire minute slower than expected.  Now esplain me this, Lucy:  just 10 days before the race, I did a 3mi tempo run in 21:06 in 75 degree temps.  That’s a pace of 7:02 compared to yesterday’s 6:59 -  just three seconds slower, same conditions.  I don’t run my tempos at 5K pace, so WTF happened yesterday?  Part of it was this:

These are 1/4 mile splits.  My first 1/4 mile was 6:25 but only because I looked at my Garmin, saw 6:16, freaked and put the brakes on.  As you can see, I kept those brakes on for the next mile!  It wasn’t uphill or anything, I was simply unsure of myself and that did me in.  I didn’t even look at my watch after that first mile, I thought I was going as hard as I could sustain.

So I tend to think it was my brain and lack of race practice that were the real culprits here.

Thus, I spent yesterday afternoon searching out summer races and came up with 6 races from June-Aug: five 5Ks and a 5-miler.  Frankly, I dread each and every one of them – I hate racing in hot weather and these ain’t gonna be cool, but the only way to get over the dread is to face it, or to quote that overused acronym, HTFU.

A final thing worth noting (apologies to my male readers): Last year, a couple weeks after my 5K PR, I raced another 5K and much to my dismay, came in a full minute slower.  That race was 6 days before my period.   Guess what?  I’m expecting my period in 6 days.  So perhaps this was also a possible contributor to the suckage.  Hormones are so confoundedly mysterious.

Saucony Kinvaras!
I’m really not good with shoe reviews, I don’t have smart things to say like “the cushioning felt resistant yet firm while the feedback from arch to blah blah gave a smooth ride and handled blah blah…”  I’m not that observant.  But I’ll say this: I LOVE these shoes!!  Rovatti, you had it right!

Few things: I always wear 1/2 size larger in running shoes, but not in these, they’re size 9s and they feel fantastic.  I have wide-ish feet but they feel very comfortable with enough wiggle room in the toes.  And so incredibly light at 7 oz!  That’s only 1/2 oz. heavier than my racing flats, yet I think they can handle being my regular training shoes from here on in.

I didn’t notice the heel drop per se, though there’s a lot of cushioning on the forefoot and it seemed natural to be running the “new” way in them.  I took ‘em for 7 miles and could have kept going but didn’t want to go too far after a race day.

Design-wise, they have an unusual sheer fabric over the main upper mesh…it’s like running shoe lingerie.  They’re also horribly pink but that’s all the store had.

My Running Gait Video
Memorial Day means nobody was around on the street this morning,  so after my run I took some video to see how my gait’s coming along.  It’s coming along!  Not perfect by any means, but the overstriding is getting under control.  Very pleased.  Btw, I didn’t think much about gait during the race so if I get a photo worth posting, expect to see me overstriding.

This video shows 2 views, 3 speeds for each view.
Edit: for my opinion of what I need to work on from seeing this video, read the comment I made to Jim.

I’m disappointed.  I mean, I knew my time would suffer, it was 77 degrees out and heat does me in, but I had no idea I’d be quite that far off the mark.  On the other hand, where is the mark?  I really don’t know anymore, I think it’s riding around on a unicorn’s back.

Last night I looked at last year’s time for this race (it was the first time I broke 21) and the training surrounding it and saw that my training runs were all faster than this year, though my quality runs this past couple weeks are almost lining up again.  Granted, I’d spent the first half of 2009 training for a goal Half and did quite a bit of racing, whereas today was my first 5K in almost a year.  This probably didn’t help.

The Race
There’d been a thread on the forums recently about warming up and in it, I realized I’d been doing myself a disservice with my usual 1-mile warmup.  I always do at least 2 miles before any quality work, so isn’t it dumb to do less when you’re expected to go faster and it counts?  So I did a 2.25 warmup, stayed in the shade as much as I could and ran very easy because I didn’t want to get heated up.  Did a few strides which didn’t bode well speedwise, but then, my pre-race strides never do.

I lined up a few rows behind the fast guys.  We had chipped bibs this year which helped lower the start-line placement anxiety.  Some woman about my age stood next to me and said with a conspiratorial smile, “I’m slow and probably shouldn’t be lined up right here”.  I asked her what she was going for, which she didn’t understand, so I rephrased it, “What finish time are you expecting?”  She said, “Oh, somewhere around 30 minutes.”  I said, “Yeah, you shouldn’t be here, you better move back”.  I smiled when I said it and she was cool about it, but huge internal eye-rolls.

The race was uneventful, after we settled into the first 1/2 mile, nobody passed me from that point on, save one surprise man at the final kick.  I knew after the first mile I wasn’t going to get a good time, I was just too hot and my breath too loud.  Still, I passed people throughout the race and if nothing else, my splits were consistent.

Final time, 21:39 (might have a couple seconds less, I think that’s clock time).  The splits went 7:01, 6:59, 6:54 and 6:48 pace for the last tenth.

On the good side, I won 1st 40-49 AG (3rd OA was a 40-year old, so I’m sure Athlinks will annoyingly report me as 2nd AG) and was 8th female.  But as I mentioned on Facebook, the win feels empty since my time was so poor.  Sure, the weather had something to do with it, but I clearly have a lot of work to do beyond Nature’s contribution.

While my sensible mind tells me this is just a comma in the larger racing scheme, I still fear that 2009 was my Flowers For Algernon period and that now I’m regressing until I end up retarded again, just like Algernon.  Yeah yeah, that’s gotta be bogus, I am improving again, but it’s so damn frustrating.

Next Race
There’s another 5K in a couple weeks that I also did last year.  It was my PR race.  I had a lot of thoughts today about whether to do it or not.  My initial thought was, I’ll wait till the very last minute to sign up and only do it if the weather’s good.  But that’s stupid.  No matter how demoralizing a poor race is, it’s one step better to racing well and my best racing happened when I was doing it often and worried less about it.

Right now, as has happened before when not racing much, they become so precious that there’s too much weight attached to each one.  Time to race more, in whatever crappy conditions are served, and get used to having sub-optimal finish times (which hopefully, will become optimal the more I do it).

It’s no secret that racing often makes you a better racer and beyond that, it’s the best speedwork possible, so I need to get over my embarrassment at shit race times (damn you, Athlinks!!! And this blog!!! And Facebook!!! And my forum participation!!! And… oh, nevermind)  and just go for it.  So I’ll be doing that 5K on the 13th no matter how stinkin’ hot it is.

New Shoes!
To drive the final nail in my overstriding/heelstriking coffin, I bought some Saucony Kinvaras yesterday, a lightweight neutral shoe that encourages forefoot/midfoot striking due to it’s scant 4mm heel drop.  I’m excited as hell to put these to the test and will give you my thoughts on them in the next week.

Have a great memorial day, folks!

All this serious running form dissection needs to be counterbalanced with some stupid shit.  So let’s all admire my new shorts and top.

It’s been forever since I’ve bought new running clothes because damn, if polyester doesn’t last forever and ever (and I don’t care what we call wicking fabric, it’s polyester with holes in it), so there’s been no need.  But I felt like having something new.  Also, I haven’t taken a  “look at me!” vanity shot in so long – the one on the About page is from March ’09 – so here’s as good an excuse as any for an update.

Voila!  My cute new race outfit for Sunday’s 5K.  It’s going to be hotter than hell, the high’s supposed to be 89 so it’ll likely be 75ish for the race, which is a major bummer – but if nothing else, I’ll be fetchingly coordinated.

Note: I don’t know why my head looks the size of a large pumpkin compared to my body, I seem to have acquired the newscaster “lollipop” physique somewhere along the way.

More Running Form Gab & Shoes
I noticed another significant and positive change from the new form adjustments…a lack of hip swivel.  I never noticed it before, but when I A/B it and go back to running with the overstride, there’s a pronounced twist to my hips.  With the correction, I’m running much more “dead on” which has to be a plus as far as running economy.

Back to shopping, I think I’m going to go for it and buy some Nike Frees or Saucony Kinvara’s.  Joe mentioned the Kinvara’s on his blog today and I’ve had the whole minimalist thing in the back of my mind for a while, but wasn’t really thinking of acting on it because my fear of injury outweighed my curiosity.  But I think by easing into it and keeping a close watch on any niggles, it shouldn’t be a problem.

As for the race, I’m on the fence of how to approach it, formwise.  I’ve been doing the new way every day since Monday and while the old way feels wrong to me, I’m sure there’s a minor performance hit from having to concentrate on my body as much as I have.  So I’d like to think I’ll throw any thoughts about running form out the window and just race.  But I have an extremely busy brain, so I doubt that’ll actually happen.  Guess we’ll have to wait and see.

In the past, when I tried to change my heelstriking ways, I’d focus on my feet, aiming for a flatter landing.  After a while, I’d assume I had it all figured out until a photo would show me otherwise.  I suspect this false response happens because:  A) heel cushioning in shoes and  B) our heels only touch down for an instant, the rest of your foot is what grabs the road and pushes you forward.

For being a heelstriker, I never felt like I landed on my heels.  No wonder I couldn’t fix it…I couldn’t identify the problem to begin with, so eventually I gave up trying.

This time, however, I really feel the difference.  It’s been 3 days of running this new way, with only occasional switches to the old way as confirmation.  The old way now feels like I’m attached to a  Nordic Track – it’s that different.

Even more telling is the sticky area behind my knees.  My feet are rising higher towards my butt so my calves are touching my hamstrings.  This is also new and different.

Not Just Legs
Recently, I read a post on Letsrun about armswing that struck me as sensible and confirmed what I’d read before, that the forward swing is merely a recovery stroke and the backswing is what helps with momentum.  I lack a good backswing, never sending my elbow as far back as “real” runners do.

So in the last couple weeks, I’ve occasionally been visualizing a rope around my waist with 6″ hanging off each side, that I hold onto.  This keeps my arms from swinging too far in front while giving more play behind.  But most importantly, it opens my chest, which in turn affects the posture I’ve been trying to fix with core work, which is further affected by correcting the overstriding.  Nothing is isolated in this, it’s all working together!

Yesterday, I had a speed session in which I focused on form from start to finish.  It went well:  same as last week (9.25 mi with 6x.5 mi w/90sec rec’s) averaged 3:20s though it was hotter and way crappier dewpoint than last time, so I was pleased.  Concentrating solidly on form made the session go by pretty quickly, but I didn’t use the rope/arm visual because running fast naturally brings those arms up higher than a pretend 6″ of rope allows.

However, I did find something interesting in relation to arms with the new stride change:  You know that our arms coordinate with our strides naturally.  Now that my landing feels behind my body rather than in front, my arms naturally want to go back farther to match the legs.  So, the same way you can pump your arms harder to go faster, I was messing around with opening my backswing to lengthen the stride behind me.  I may be reading too much into this connection, but it has entertainment value.  More experimentation to come.

Video of Heel vs. Midfoot Before/After
This isn’t me but it might as well be – I recognize myself in the left frame completely.  An interesting thing to notice is the difference in ground contact time just as I’d described in the last post.  It’s clearly less in the right frame than in the left.  That’s my goal…less skiing, more flying.

As you guys know, I’m always trying to improve my running form, or at least, I go through periods where I pay concerted effort to certain things that bother me, usually after I see a new ugly race photo.  Right now, the core work I’m doing is paying off – it seems like the corrections I make on my back while running are less A to Z, and now more like A to J.  Getting closer anyway.

One thing that has always bugged me about the way I run is my gait, which I used to call my heel-striking, but to be honest, the heel strike itself isn’t the concern anymore, since many an Elite heel strikes and I don’t get any injuries from doing it.  What does bother me greatly though, is this:

That straight leg is an constant irritation though I’ve tried a few methods to keep it from happening, like cadence training (maybe because I’m short, I can go 180 bpm and still have that stupid leg) or trying to run forefoot or at least more midfoot, but that’s something you can easily think you’re doing without actually succeeding.

This morning, however, I read a few things in a fantastic blog called The Science of Running that made me think about the issue in a different light.  Specifically, in one article where he talks about running form and a cue to running more forefoot is to think of striking behind you.  Another article had something fascinating about pawback, talking about the difference in how long a heel-striker’s foot will stay on the ground and that you really don’t want any pawback (I’d never heard it put this way).  You want the leg to come down, touch and go again.

So I took it to the road this morning and discovered that these two ideas are a powerful combination and  could be the key to me finally getting the gait I dream of, or least tamp down my current one.

I started with the idea of striking behind my body, which was major.  That combined with the upright core was a new and different feeling, like I was running on hot coals, very quick and light.  To contrast, I ran my usual way and boy, drag city!

I never realized how much ground time I have per step with my usual running gait.  The feeling I got when reverting to the “normal” way, was that I was pulling myself forward or hoisting myself  along a rope (land, pull, land, pull), whereas when I ran focusing on my feet behind me and no pawback, it was a thoroughly more vertical feeling, almost like Pose technique looks.  Very exciting!  This just might be the answer to my noob gait.

Doodads

Weekend running catchup – nothing wild, easy 9 and 13, bringing the week to 59.5 (I took Tuesday off).

Good stuff on the financial front!  Got picked for 2 new medical voiceover projects (which means a few sessions each) and today I did a commercial in the morning and am on my way now to a medical VO…love those doubles.  Plus, Google is finally giving some of my money sites some love, so that’s picking up too. I’m in a good mood today!

Here’s the podcast if you haven’t moseyed on over yet.  It was fun to do and the guys on the panel were way cool – an enjoyable time was had by all.  I don’t think we helped Joe decide whether to race the NYC marathon or just run it, which was probably the whole point of the podcast, but I think he’s getting closer to figuring it out.

Runs
Yesterday, a 13-miler.  I dawdled too long so it was hot by the time I got out, but that helped keep my pace easy @ 8:47 avg.

Today, Kick Ass.    An 8 miler w/3 tempo and whoa doggies, the speedwork is working! Compare my previous tempo run to today (note the temperature difference):

May 7, 66F:  7:11, 7:12, 7:09, average 7:11
Today, 75F: 7:05, 7:05, 6:58, average 7:02

And I suck in the heat!  The best part?  Both my interval and tempo this week are a hair’s breadth away (5 seconds) from where I was this time last year and that was my short-race prime.  Whew!

Now for the meat of the post…

Age Grading Explanation and Stuff
I initially became aware of age-grading when I got my first running book (and running bible), Bob Glover’s Competitive Runner’s Handbook.  In the first few pages, he has tables for what he calls “Basic Competitor” through “Semi-Elite” with ages and corresponding race times for each group.*

I drooled over the different tables and as I moved up from Basic to Advanced to Local Champion, it was exciting, but it wasn’t till I’d owned the book a couple years that I realized the numbers next to his categories were age-grade percentages, split up like this:

Basic Competitor (50%)
Competitor(60%)
Advanced Competitor(65%)
Local Champion(75%)
Semi-Elite (85%)

How Age-Grading Is Calculated:
They (World Masters Athletics) take the world record holder of each age and sex, call that 100%, then your race time is divided into that, giving you a percentage called your Age Grade.  So, taking an example from Running For Fitness, “the world record for a 53 year old woman running a 10km is 35:01. So if a 53 year old woman finishes a 10km in 45:18, she has an age-graded performance of 77.3% (which is 35:01 divided by 45:18).”

Bottom Line:
It’s tells you how high you rank in your age group and is often used for major track meet classifications.

This is the breakdown:
100% = Approximate World Record Level
Over 90% = World Class
Over 80% = National Class
Over 70% = Regional Class
Over 60% = Local Class

What This Means For Me:
Last year I came very close to 80% in several race distances and now I’m ready to get in there and sit my ass down.   So my goal from here on in, besides the standard time-based ones, is to enter “National Class” for all my race distances (sans Marathon) and then see how far I can move up.  I’d be lying if I didn’t admit Glover’s “Semi Elite” classification sounds pretty sweet to me.  Hell, even the phrase “National Class” makes me giggle.

Now here’s the cool thing…
I didn’t realize till last night that my 5K PR, which was 79.91% at age 47, is 80.86% at age 48…I’m in the door!  Kind of.  I mean, I have to redo it to count, but that’s in the cards and then some (sub 20 will be mine by Fall, gosh dern it!)

Which brings me to my upcoming 5K.  To get 80%, I need 20:38, which looks doable (if the temps are good).  If not this race, I’ll get another chance 2 weeks later.   So there you have it: a race goal, thanks to the goodness of Age-Grading.

*It should be noted that in my version of the book, Glover’s tables are outdated, which might have been fixed in a newer edition.  There are two sets of age-graded numbers floating around the interwebs: 1994 and 2006 factors.  The latter is most current and happily, more generous, so if you see conflicting numbers between online age-grading calculators, the slower one is using the older, outdated world records.