Posts Tagged ‘posture’

When it comes to running form, bad race photos tell all.  I’m grudgingly grateful for the information they provide, despite the cringe fest.

As a lifelong sloucher, the pushups & chinups I’ve been doing this past year have helped quite a bit, but I still tend to fold at the middle when running.  It varies by degree and might not even occur when I’m fresh, but it’s there in most of my race photos.  I’ve read enough articles and books on running form to know that slouching isn’t just ugly, it inhibits your breathing and distributes weight where it shouldn’t be, which in turn affects your speed and endurance.  Major bad stuff.

To fight it, sometimes while running I make a point to pull my shoulders back and straighten my spine but that tends to tire me out since I lack the basic strength to hold it there. So when I mentioned in the last post how I wished my back was as straight as the Up With People guy (or anyone I’m ever photographed running next to, for that matter) Ewen made a smart comment that it’s not my back so much as a bent core.   Uh…wow, lightbulb moment.

I’ll be honest, I never do core work because my abs look good and I figured core work was all about doing sit-ups.  Instead, I’ve always blamed my bad form on my upper back and shoulders.  But the more I look at all the Boston race photos, I realize I had it wrong, it’s not the top of my body at fault, it’s a weak middle letting the upper body fall forward.

This is a very cool discovery because it’s fixable and the payoff in running improvement could potentially be big.  As for my plan of action, Jim led me to a great article with some simple core exercises for runners from Greg McMillan that takes only 15 minutes 3 times a week.  Totally my speed.

I figure by Fall, I should be in excellent fighting shape with yet another solid training cycle under my belt and a more upright form to go with it.  Sure, I will still despise bad race photos and am guaranteed to have many more in the future, but for now, the bad ones are worth their weight in gold.

My marathon cycle started this week and I’m absolutely loving having a plan again. Something about scheduling and having a recipe to run with always gets me excited. It was an easy week to start; Wed was a 7-miler w/10x100m strides, Thurs was 9, 4 short recovery miles today and then 12 tomorrow.

Funny how before I got injured and went away I looked at the plan and was all, “4 days a week for the first two weeks? That’s not much running.” Now I’m grateful for the extra days off, they’ll return me to fighting shape in a sensible manner.

On an unrelated note; my posture has always sucked. I’m a constant sloucher from way back so I’ve vowed to work on my core this summer. I’ll be pulling out the Pilates DVD but to supplement it, I just ordered a posture brace called “Shoulders Back” to help train myself into better posture. It was created for equestrians to improve their riding, but it’s for normal people too.

I can’t wait for it to arrive, curious as I am to feel what it’s like to stand correctly for periods of time, not just when I remember for fleeting moments. I’m sure it’ll be annoying, plus it borders on goofy since it’s a vanity item, but if it makes me feel/look better and doesn’t require an injection or incision, what the hell.

The only other thing to report is an outdoor concert we went to the other night: Deathcab For Cutie. One of their songs, I Will Follow You Into The Dark is so beautiful it has made me cry on numerous occasions, and of course, seeing it live left me blubbering all over myself.

Love of mine some day you will die
But I’ll be close behind
I’ll follow you into the dark

No blinding light or tunnels to gates of white
Just our hands clasped so tight
Waiting for the hint of a spark
If heaven and hell decide
That they both are satisfied
Illuminate the No’s on their vacancy signs

If there’s no one beside you
When your soul embarks
Then I’ll follow you into the dark

That vacancy sign bit gets me every time. Sigh.