Mileage Reporting 17th Week 2013

[happysongbird]

I forgot to tell you about the warm up run with the long distance runners. I thought I had forgotten my shoes, but not wanting to disappoint my daughter, decided to go ahead and try the partially unknown and partially known to be rough asphalt route. I thought I'd probably be slower than everyone, so decided to get a head start when I saw all the girls hanging out in the building for an undetermined length of time. (daughter was being a good team mate and tryong to wait for them, albeit not so happy with their dawdling, she was also concerned I might get lost by myself. So cute) The boys mostly caught up to me pretty quickly, but didn't all pass me. When I was on smooth asphalt again I caught up to one of them and said hello. He made an obvious effort to run with me, so I chatted with him some, finding out he had moved from Mexico and learned English 6 years ago. He was naturally curious as to why I would run without shoes. I tried to explain and thought it had been adequate. Then, we came to some very sharp road and gravel "options," so I told him to go on ahead, I didn't need to slow him down. He practically took off a shoe mid-stride, adamantly offering me his shoes over and over , despite my telling him I preferred to be barefoot. He finally believed me and we also got to better ground. We finished the warm up run together, then I waited for my daughter to do her speed workout with her. To top it all off, he seemed to be interested in running with me for the cool down. I guess he was very comfortable with my chatty motherly presence! It was a little sad to tell when I told him my feet were done with rough surfaces for the day. But wasn't his reaction so very kind, to give me the shoes right off of his own feet, knowing he would then be on the same rough surface?!

 

[happysongbird]

I have a colapsible/unstable lower back /quote]

Does this mean you are easier to fold up and store in small spaces? ;-)

 

[scedastic]

tuesday: unexciting 50 min at the gym. meh

 

[Antonio Madriñán]

Last week I could run 26 miles, ending in a race on Sunday through sea cliffs in the north of Spain, where I had bad luck and to bring a nasty blow to the knee that prevented me keep running.

 

[Spiderweb62]

4.39 mi today. Bit if a warm snap in The Bay area - just under 80F - which seems to have affected my groundfeel. Sidewalks that I've cruised over before with no issues were a bit ouchy today.(we need one of these icons that show the feet throbbing)

I have the opposite problem....Used to 80F+, and I have been running on colder surface for the past 2 weeks, and found my soles to be more sensitive

 

[Spiderweb62]

15.3km (9.5mi) today, reasonable speed, and finished very strongly, without any fatigue...Temperature was around 10C (50F)

 

[Bare Lee]

Tuesday afternoon
5.8 mi / 9.33 km total
5.4 mi / 8.69 km running
low 40s temps, windy

Since we arrived Stateside in the summer of 2010, my wife has experienced one of the snowiest winters, one of the mildest, and now, one of the longest. Late afternoon Monday it had begun to snow yet again, and we had about four inches of accumulation by Tuesday morning:

But by the time I went for my run around 4pm, the streets and sidewalks were pretty dry, and I had my first run of the season with my toe rings on.

It worked out for my wife to pick up our toddling son from day care on her way back from classes, so I ran the .8 miles to my hills hill and set to it. I ran about four miles' worth of hills and then ran another .6 miles to pick up my daughter from Discovery Club, and then we walked the .4 miles home.

Today, I'm really feeling it. I think this will work well though, doing the hills run after my "Bottom" ST day. I could never figure out where to place my Bottom ST workout. It didn't feel right before a tempo or long run, because my legs would feel heavy, and it didn't feel right after my long run either, when I was already a bit stiff. But it makes sense to do the hills when my legs are already a bit heavy from the lifts and legs stuff in my Bottom ST exercises. It seems to increase the benefit of hill work, and since my pace is already slow on the hills, it doesn't seem to matter much if the legs are a bit heavy to begin with. So, like this:

Sunday: Rest or Make-up ST/Run
Monday: Bottom ST
Tuesday: Hills Run
Wednesday: Middle ST
Thursday: Tempo or Intervals Run
Friday: Top ST
Saturday: Long Run

This way I progressively work my way up the body with the ST, so that by the end of the week, my legs are relatively fresh for my weekend long run.

I did start to feel it a bit in my knees on the descents though. Time will tell if it's just a matter of conditioning or if I need to consider walking down. I tried running backwards down one descent, but had to turn around when the sidewalk became uneven. I had also intended to do some step work on a long flight of stairs near the hill, but thought better of it. Best to see how my legs react from the increasing hill work before throwing some more at them. I did manage to run slightly faster on the last two long ascents. Hopefully I'll see improvements by summertime. It's pretty boring to run up and over the same hill a bunch of times (I think it was 13 times yesterday), like Sisyphus, and the time drags a bit, but everyone says hill work is a great way to increase pace and power, so I'll try to stick with it for a while.

Thursday's run is supposed to be a tempo run, but the way my legs are feeling right now, it might have to be a recovery run!

After a week off from BFR, and five days off from running, my soles have fully recovered from the abrasion they were feeling, and my little puncture wound seems fully healed. The smooth, slightly cool concrete of my hills hill's sidewalk felt like velvet.

Forecast for my long run on Saturday is low 70s -- Yippee! I can resume my life in shorts.

I forgot to tell you about the warm up run with the long distance runners.

Great story Laura! I love it.

tuesday: unexciting 50 min at the gym. meh

What? Only one workout yesterday? Slacker!

I told him that I am not like everyone else . . .

You mean he couldn't tell?

 

[skedaddle]

I did start to feel it a bit in my knees on the descents though. Time will tell if it's just a matter of conditioning or if I need to consider walking down. I tried running backwards down one descent, but had to turn around when the sidewalk became uneven. I had intended to also do some step work on a long flight stairs near the hill, but thought better of it. Best to see how my legs react from the increasing hill work throwing some more at them. I did manage to run slightly faster on the last two long ascents. Hopefully I'll see improvements by summertime. It's pretty boring to run up and over the same hill a bunch of times, like Sisyphus, and the time drags a bit, but everyone says hill work is a great way to increase pace and power, so I'll try to stick with it for a while.

Sounds like your breaking on the downhills Lee and probably leaning backwards a bit so a lot of force is being absorbed by the knees, I don't think it's a conditioning thing but a problem with technique.
What works for me is to make sure my posture is aligned and I'm running tall, then i have a slight forward lean from the ankles, how much depends on the steepness of the decent, this way I'm not breaking but using the hill and gravity to move me forward with little effort. I also keep a small stride length for better control and will zig zag slightly on the steeper bits.

 

[Bare Lee]

Sounds like your breaking on the downhills Lee and probably leaning backwards a bit so a lot of force is being absorbed by the knees, I don't think it's a conditioning thing but a problem with technique.
What works for me is to make sure my posture is aligned and I'm running tall, then i have a slight forward lean from the ankles, how much depends on the steepness of the decent, this way I'm not breaking but using the hill and gravity to move me forward with little effort. I also keep a small stride length for better control.

Thanks Ske!

Not sure I understand you exactly, but I'll work with your description and experiment a little. If one leans forward, isn't the tendency to speed up? Or do the shorter strides prevent that from happening?

I get the part about keeping the posture aligned. I generally have good posture, but I'll double check on my descents to see if I'm maintaining it. Thanks for the tip.

Also, how does your foot land on descents? I tend to be a mid-foot striker on flat, relatively smooth terrain, and if I had shoes on, I would probably land with my heels on descents, but I wonder if a more pronounced forefoot landing would help as well. Thoughts?

 

[skedaddle]

Thanks Ske!

Not sure I understand you exactly, but I'll work with your description and experiment a little. If one leans forward, isn't the tendency to speed up? Or do the shorter strides prevent that from happening?

I get the part about keeping the posture aligned. I generally have good posture, but I'll double check on my descents to see if I'm maintaining it. Thanks for the tip.

Also, how does your foot land on descents? I tend to be a mid-foot striker on flat, relatively smooth terrain, and if I had shoes on, I would probably land with my heels on descents, but I wonder if a more pronounced forefoot landing would help as well. Thoughts?

When i get to the beginning of a decent I stand tall, lean forward just enough to cause me to fall forward, and that's all there is to it, a lesson in controlled falling and acquired confidence through practice.
You shouldn't be pushing of at all, just let gravity do the work. So yes the notion of leaning slightly forward does seem a little strange but it only needs to be slight to get the ball rolling.
There are always cases where the terrain is too steep for this to work, then i tend to run sideways on, I think Jason posted a video on this technique somewhere, but the key is you are still not locking your knees.
I tend to land mid-foot on a decent, mainly because i take short steps, as soon I lengthen my stride I'll start to heal strike to maintain control.
Hope that helps some, I'm no expert in this matter but I do run hills most days.

 

[Bare Lee]

When i get to the beginning of a decent I stand tall, lean forward just enough to cause me to fall forward, and that's all there is to it, a lesson in controlled falling and acquired confidence through practice.
You shouldn't be pushing of at all, just let gravity do the work. So yes the notion of leaning slightly forward does seem a little strange but it only needs to be slight to get the ball rolling.
There are always cases where the terrain is too steep for this to work, then i tend to run sideways on, I think Jason posted a video on this technique somewhere, but the key is you are still not locking your knees.
I tend to land mid-foot on a decent, mainly because i take short steps, as soon I lengthen my stride I'll start to heal strike to maintain control.
Hope that helps some, but I'm no expert in this matter but I do run hills most days.

Thanks, I'll give it a try. I have done a lot of hiking, and did the sideways thing when descending scree and stuff like that, but I haven't done much hill running. The terrain around here is relatively flat with gentle de-/inclines, a few minor hills thrown in, and even fewer major ones. The hill I run on is my neighborhood's biggest and close to its steepest at around 10% grade, which isn't steep enough for the side stepping, but I'll try the lean and shorter strides next week. Another possibility would be to run faster up the hill and then walk down to catch my breath. There's a shorter, steeper hill just a few blocks away that might be more suitable for that kind of training.

 

[skedaddle]

Thanks, I'll give it a try. I have done a lot of hiking, and did the sideways thing when descending scree and stuff like that, but I haven't done much hill running. The terrain around here is relatively flat with a gentle inclines, a few minor hills thrown in, and even fewer major ones. The hill I run on is my neighborhood's biggest and close to its steepest at around 10% grade, which isn't steep enough for the side steeping, but I'll try the lean and shorter strides next week. Another possibility would be to run faster up the hill and then walk down to catch my breath. There's a shorter, steeper hill just a few blocks away that might be more suitable for that kind of training.

If you're doing hill for speed and strength training running up an walking down makes sense. Long/shallow descents can also be of benefit too as you can learn what a faster cadence and pace feels like with less effort.

 

[Bare Lee]

If you're doing hill for speed and strength training running up an walking down makes sense.

Yah, I am doing the hills for power (speed+strength) training, so I may try faster ups and walking downs. I'd like to limit myself to just one long run per week, to avoid repetitive stress issues, and keep the weekday runs to about an hour or so, working on pace or power in support of the longer runs.

If I lived somewhere where trails were more accessible, I'd do things differently, but for urban running, this seems to make the most sense for me. Weekday runs have to be an hour or less, which means running the same basic routes. So I figure I mis'well view the weekday runs as training runs and work on specific aspects of running fitness: tempo (lactate threshold), intervals (speed), or hills (power). Then on my longer weekend runs I can go out and have a little adventure, run for two hours or so (10-13 miles), and head to a lake or down to the river, and maybe even drive somewhere for something new.

I've actually been meaning to implement this three-run-type protocol for some time now, but injuries and then winter have prevented me from giving it a try for any length of time. I'm anxious to see where I'll be in 3-4 months' time. My goal is to be able to do my long runs at 8mm pace, but I don't know if this is realistic. Right now I'd settle for getting it down to a consistent 9mm pace. That's about when my form really starts to feel good and my range of motion opens up a bit.

Long/shallow descents can also be of benefit too as you can learn what a faster cadence and pace feels like with less effort.

Yah, on my tempo or longer runs, I usually adjust to a shorter stride length (= faster cadence) on ascents in order to maintain the same effort level. I learned this trick from high altitude hiking (Andes/Himalaya). I don't like to go to fast down descents though. As I get older I get more paranoid about wiping out.

 

[skedaddle]

As I get older I get more paranoid about wiping out.

Just sing this to yourself when you're doing a face plant and all will be well

 

[Barefoot Dama]

I told him my feet were done with rough surfaces for the day. But wasn't his reaction so very kind, to give me the shoes right off of his own feet, knowing he would then be on the same rough surface?!

How sweet, such a nice young gentleman. He was brough up right what a nice job his parents did.

Does this mean you are easier to fold up and store in small spaces? ;-)

Hahaha, not only that but I am also hypermobile so you'll be surprise of how small I get when I am roll into a ball. I am very bendy

 

[Barefoot Dama]

Last week I could run 26 miles, ending in a race on Sunday through sea cliffs in the north of Spain, where I had bad luck and to bring a nasty blow to the knee that prevented me keep running.

Oh no, es una tragedia, espero que todo este bien my pronto. Come esta la rodilla hoy?

I have the opposite problem....Used to 80F+, and I have been running on colder surface for the past 2 weeks, and found my soles to be more sensitive

Same here, do you by any chance have bad blood circulation? I do and that's why I avoid cold/cool weather.

 

[Antonio Madriñán]

Oh no, es una tragedia, espero que todo este bien my pronto. Come esta la rodilla hoy?



Solucionado, fue solo un susto, yo puedo rodar con normalidad y a buenos ritmos gracias

 

[Larry]

But wasn't his reaction so very kind, to give me the shoes right off of his own feet, knowing he would then be on the same rough surface?!

That's pretty cool. Were you tempted to give him your daughter's phone number?

No running for me today, travelling to visit my in-laws. My brother in law has booked me in for a 25km bike ride tomorrow morning with a bunch of keen cyclist mates of his. I suck on a bike, so I'm not looking forward to it. I'll also be riding his road bike, complete with clip-in pedals which I have never used before. I reckon I'm about a 50-50 chance of clip-stacking it at a stop sign and making his day. We're going for a surf afterwards though, so I'm happy to provide the morning entertainment.

 

[Barefoot Dama]

I did start to feel it a bit in my knees on the descents though. Time will tell if it's just a matter of conditioning or if I need to consider walking down. I tried running backwards down one descent, but had to turn around when the sidewalk became uneven. I had also intended to do some step work on a long flight of stairs near the hill, but thought better of it. Best to see how my legs react from the increasing hill work before throwing some more at them. I did manage to run slightly faster on the last two long ascents. Hopefully I'll see improvements by summertime. It's pretty boring to run up and over the same hill a bunch of times (I think it was 13 times yesterday), like Sisyphus, and the time drags a bit, but everyone says hill work is a great way to increase pace and power, so I'll try to stick with it for a while.



You mean he couldn't tell?

Lee, be careful on the downhill specialy that you tend to have ITB issues that's why I walk down particularly with my bad back I can't afford to messed up myself more than I already am.
Next time you run downhill pay closed attention as how you're descending, either you are overstriding or braking too much have you try running downhill ona Zig-Zag motion? I read some where that running that way is the safest way to run downhill.
No Lee, he couldn't tell that I am not like everybody else, I haven't show my true self...yet

 

[happysongbird]

I suck on a bike, so I'm not looking forward to it. I'll also be riding his road bike, complete with clip-in pedals which I have never used before. I reckon I'm about a 50-50 chance of clip-stacking it at a stop sign and making his day.

I will NOT use clip in shoes/pedals. When I go on group rides, "those people" are always struggling to get going when there is a break in traffic for crossing a road. I, on the other hand, just put my feet ON the pedals and go. BTW, I ride wearing Soft Star RunAMocs.