Arms – Transformation!
In a coincidental turn, the person who shot that slow-mo Trials video I linked to on the last post turns out to be a fellow MRT forumite, IRunForBeer (more slow-mo from the Trials are here on his Youtube page…wonderful stuff!).  He’s also a shit-fast runner and coach.  Anyway, when I read on the sub 2:40 thread that this was his video, I unlurked to thank him for shooting it, and mentioned I was using it for arm form.  He left a generous reply with tips on arm form but one in particular resonated with me beyond all expectation:

“Note that many elites have some ‘swim’ in their arms/hands, not just robotic forward/back but hands moving in a loose relaxed oval pattern.”

Immediately after reading that, I went for a run and realized that, of all the components or tricks I’ve used for my arms, I have never once considered what my wrists are doing.  My wrists, it turns out, are like rigor mortis sticks, locking my hands down creating a never-ending tension.  In that moment, I finally understood what it is about my arms/hands that bug me in every race photo but I could never pinpoint.  Aha Moment #1!

As it turns out, IRunForBeer wasn’t even talking about wrists, as he added this the next day: “Just to be clear the ‘swimming’ with the arms is from outside to inside (the left hand/arm clockwise circles and the right is going CCW) and just keeps thing loose and in rhythm.” so he was talking about the whole arm (or forearm).  No matter, my misinterpretation unlocked a hugely important key – that by adding some “float” to my wrists, my whole arm became more relaxed.

Then yesterday, I expanded the looseness applying the small circular motion to my entire arm…Aha Moment #2!  I had been running like a robot, arms sawing back and forth, this new motion was like night/day to that.  It’s as if previously, my arms were limited to 2 dimensions whereas now, all 3 dimensions were available to me.  Major stuff!

I even felt taller as I ran, as if that pressing down and tension had grounded me to the pavement, whereas with looser upper body, I felt more “up, up, up” with my gait.

So yesterday afternoon’s run was one of my favorite outings ever.  Helped by a surreal January day (60 degrees before sunset), my planned 10-miler stretched to 13 because it felt so damned good, average pace 7:56.  It’s these kind of discoveries that make me so excited to go out on my next run and my next run and…

Apologies to Shoefiter
I had to edit my last post where I bitched about the Shoefiter application at RunningWarehouse letting me down when it came to the Hyper Speed sizing. Turns out, I thought I wore a 7.5 in the Adios but I wear 8s so Shoefiter was right on the money.  I wish I’d realized this before ordering a pair of 7.5 Adios from Eastbay the other day, but oh well, I’m an idiot and Shoefiter rules.

Friday was a gorgeous day out, 64 degrees, so the planned 8 turned into 10 and then yesterday, because I’d taken Saturday off (50mph gusts can suck it) I added a couple miles making it 13.  Was a comfortable run despite having drunk an entire bottle of wine the previous night: first 3 mi at 8:34, the rest averaging 8:14.  These two runs (and lack of accompanying tweaks or soreness) indicate that everything is back to normal.

If anyone cares, average paces this week went like this:
Mon, 5 – 8:11
Tues, 8 – 8:36
Thurs, 7 – 8:08
Fri, 10 – 8:25
Sun, 13 – 8:26

So I ended up with 43 miles.  This week I’ll be at 52ish with two progression runs on the menu, for sure.

Latest Form Tweak
I’ve given overstriding/gait attention an indefinite break for the last few months since it’s much improved and that’s good enough for now.  My posture is also so much better than it used to be; the hunched back that used to plague me (in non-running as well) is dramatically better.  But my shoulder carriage, on the other hand, this needs attention – too many turtle race photos lately.  Gotta get that space between my ears and shoulders longer and more relaxed.

To that end, I’ve started doing some specific shoulder exercises.  I’m liking the immediacy and simplicity of dumbbells so that’s my preferred method at the moment (as opposed to my Pilates DVDs which would also help but I’m bored with).  What’s nice about focusing on shoulders is that, unlike gait, foot plant and posture, which can all have a big disconnect to what you think you’re doing and what you’re actually doing, there’s no mystery to your shoulders’ location, so it should be a straightforward fix.

Kinvaras for $36!!
At 6pm.  There are only a few left and they’re mainly smaller men’s sizes, but if you check out the Shoefitr thing in use at Runningwarehouse (which is a totally cool 3D shoe scanning technology, independent of Running Warehouse), it shows that 1 size less is nearly identical to the Women’s version except a tad wider in the forefoot.  This could be perfect for me since I always have to cut that bit out for my little toe, so I ordered 3 pairs.

Couldn’t have been timed better because I just went to RunningWarehouse the other day to buy another pair to switch with my black ones and was not happy with the screaming color selection (traffic cone orange?  don’t you forget I’m a girl pink?  blech).  The ones I just bought are way more low-key…here’s hoping they fit well, too.

Btw, that Shoefitr thing is pretty fabulous, it’s in most of Runningwarehouse’s shoe detail pages, so play around with it.  It’s supposedly accurate and could be insanely handy if you want to switch shoe models or, as in this case, compare men’s sizing to the female version.

Edit: oops, the price on those Kinvaras is now $54.  Sorry folks, was a great deal while it lasted.

That’s it from my corner of the world.  Have a great holiday Monday.  I know all you North American cats are going to be shooting up, stripping at work and lighting firecrackers on the scalps of small children since that is the Presidents’ Day tradition (you foreigners have no clue what you’re missing, do you?) so enjoy that sacrificial rooster ceremony tonight and I’ll see you back here in a couple days.

Also, this had my name all over it, “Excess body fat is also known to increase thermoregulatory strain during exercise, so by shedding fat, athletes can go faster without overheating.”  Boy, would I love a little help in that department.

Another great weight-related motivation was a post I read yesterday at Lauren Fleshman’s blog.  Btw, thanks Julie for turning me on to it, her blog is a truly fantastic read.  Lauren’s an elite runner with an engaging writing style who gives great advice, too.  Check out this entry, which is an excellent piece for anyone wanting to lose weight for running.

This really struck me, “…especially once I got to college and tended to carry an extra 5-8 pounds in the fall and winter.  Every year I would get beat by flash in the pan athletes, and it absolutely killed me.”  Now this gal is 5’8″ and 122!  So if 5-8 lbs got her beat by “flash in the pans”, then that’s just more confirmation of how that same amount of extra weight might affect a shorty such as myself.

Just remember folks, with all my blathering on the subject, it’s not just weight we’re talking about, but excess body fat, so if any of you apply this stuff to yourselves, please be healthy about this, don’t eat too little and do some supplementary exercises to keep your muscles strong.  They’ll only thank you for the trouble.

It’s In The Hips, Baby
Adam often supplies me with links to great articles on running mechanics.  This latest has to do with a conversation we had after I posted that gait video a few weeks back.  He suggested I “engage the hips more” and while I was all, “Oh yeah, ok, sounds great” I wasn’t sure exactly what he meant.  Then he sent me this article yesterday which made me a believer in the power of the hips.

The article has a link to RW for some hip exercises that are not only wonderful for getting your hips into the act, but are excellent for strengthening the lower back (bridges) and even address that hamstring injury I got last week, in particular, the last drill mimics the feeling I was going for in my LT workout before it tweaked – the lengthening that accompanies a stronger push-off.  I’m sold!  Did them today before my run and will keep on with them, too.

My Fancy New Air Popcorn Popper
I have to share this, because it’s too cool.  I hate microwave popcorn packets, they stink up the place and the taste is always a bit weird to me.  I used to have a special air popper bowl for the microwave but hadn’t gotten around to buying another.  Then I read that you can make air-popped popcorn in your microwave with a regular paper bag!

The bag has grease on it because for my first batch, I used a little oil, but then realized you don't need any.

All you do is throw in 1/4 – 1/3 cup of popcorn, fold over the top of the bag a couple times and stick it in the micro, you’ll have to experiment with time (mine takes 3:10).  No oil needed, it comes out perfectly!  Afterwards, I squirt some “I Can’t Believe It’s Not Butter” spray on it with salt and yum.  A 1/3 cup makes a huge bowl, only 204 calories, 50 grams of carbs and 10 grams of fiber.  Yeah, baby!

Oh, and if you don’t have a bag, apparently you can use a bowl with a plate on top, though I haven’t tried it.  Just be careful when you take it out, it’ll be hot!

As mentioned in the comments of that post, I have a list of things to work on, but also, there were a couple things I was happy to see, beyond overstriding repair.

My arms, while not in exactly the place I want them on the Y-axis (up/down) were pretty fab on the X-axis. They don’t cross my body, pretty much stay to the side, so this is something you want to watch for if you do a video. Some crossing is fine but you never want your arms to cross your midline.

Also, my cadence is spot on. This is the stride rate and something I worked on a couple years ago but barely think about anymore. If you do a video of yourself, you can check your stride rate by going to this cool site. Just listen to your footfall or count as you watch your video and then tap along at this website with your spacebar. In this video, mine is around 190bpm…a little faster than it needs to be, actually.

There were a couple comments about whether I was heel-striking and I have to say this: At this point in time, heelstriking doesn’t concern me, though I was pleased as hell to see that when I took it frame-by-frame (and I made about 10 passes for each view, btw) my feet, while dorsiflexed to the max, were landing predominantly midfoot. That was a bonus!  Heelstriking is last on my list.  The things I want to fix are in this order:

Overstriding
Posture
Arms (which are intertwined with posture)
Heels

Shins, check!  Now For The Knees and Hips
I’ve made a great start in fixing the overstriding problem and yesterday, my running mentor, A Muse, mentioned that I’ve been focused below the knee, and that now I should move my attention to the hips and knee drive. So last night I practiced some easy butt-kicks and knee-lifts in my tiny apartment to get the feeling started. Was good!

Today I did 13, should have left earlier, it was 85 degrees when it was over, but I concentrated on driving my knee forward and also, how the whole lever works as far hip, knee and where your foot goes in relation to your butt and energy spent, etc.   Also, a comment from Ewen about my hips possibly tilting back in the video was a great cue, by bringing them forward and trying to engage them as Adam (A Muse) suggested, that put the top of my body more in alignment.

The hardest part of all this for me is absorbing the kinesthetics of it, the “feeling” of how everything is coordinated. It’s one thing to say, “get your foot up closer to your butt”, and you can work on that, but like I’ve said, nothing is isolated, so that foot comes up to your butt because your knee is lifting, etc.

One thing’s for sure…I love working on this stuff!  Sorry for those of you who find all this form talk boring, I know it’s not for everyone, but if it interests you, maybe you can apply bits and pieces to your own running.

A GREAT book for dissecting the elements of form is Explosive Running by Michael Yessis, he breaks down each part and there are tons of frame-by-frame photos of men and women running with commentary of what they’re doing right and wrong. If you’re into this stuff, definitely get this book.  OMG, just realized that it’s out of print and that they’re charging $169 for a new one and $50 for used? YIKES!! Try to find a copy somewhere, it’s worth it.

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j9ox7zQOqAc

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.

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.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XrOgDCZ4GUo