I read an article years ago about our tendencies to mimic body language of those we like or enjoy the company of. If you are standing talking with a friend, try this. Fold your arms...they will end up folding theirs. Then unfold them and put your hands on your hips...they will do the same, before long. I found the down side of this tendency this weekend.
My wife signed us up for the McKinney Running Club, so I went to the Sat morning 6am run to see what it's all about. I talked to a couple of the runners. They said they had one guy that runs in VFFs, but I was the only BFR in the club so far. One of the guys runs my pace or a little quicker, so we decided to run together till our paths split off. He was doing 8 miles, and I'd only planned to do 5 or 6.
The fact that I was running with a shod runner, I have a lot in common with, seemed to make it difficult to keep my form "tight"(loose and on point, as it were). I attribute this to still being pretty new and our tendencies to mimic. As a result, I ran higher than I normally do, my shoulders were tight, strides were longer and my cadence was slower. I ended up with small blisters on both big toes, a deep one on the outside of my right foot and my feet got sore from bringing them down too hard. I didn't realize most of this till we'd split off. We were talking a lot cause we ended up having a lot in common. I started off paying attention to my form, then I'd be focusing on what he was saying. He had the goal to run a marathon before he turned 40 and completed it when he was 39(same age I'll be doing it), so I had lots of questions. We also both have an older daughter and younger son, though his are exactly 4yrs older than mine and we're both former soccer players.
I don't think this will happen to me again...I just didn't expect it. It sure felt a lot more like "work" than it usually does when I run with correct form!
-Jonny
My wife signed us up for the McKinney Running Club, so I went to the Sat morning 6am run to see what it's all about. I talked to a couple of the runners. They said they had one guy that runs in VFFs, but I was the only BFR in the club so far. One of the guys runs my pace or a little quicker, so we decided to run together till our paths split off. He was doing 8 miles, and I'd only planned to do 5 or 6.
The fact that I was running with a shod runner, I have a lot in common with, seemed to make it difficult to keep my form "tight"(loose and on point, as it were). I attribute this to still being pretty new and our tendencies to mimic. As a result, I ran higher than I normally do, my shoulders were tight, strides were longer and my cadence was slower. I ended up with small blisters on both big toes, a deep one on the outside of my right foot and my feet got sore from bringing them down too hard. I didn't realize most of this till we'd split off. We were talking a lot cause we ended up having a lot in common. I started off paying attention to my form, then I'd be focusing on what he was saying. He had the goal to run a marathon before he turned 40 and completed it when he was 39(same age I'll be doing it), so I had lots of questions. We also both have an older daughter and younger son, though his are exactly 4yrs older than mine and we're both former soccer players.
I don't think this will happen to me again...I just didn't expect it. It sure felt a lot more like "work" than it usually does when I run with correct form!
-Jonny
