kaburns1214 Mentor Group 2013 (Year 3!) - CLOSED (Page 16)

I go back and forth on how I feel about running store shoe fits.  The job of the running store is to sell you a shoe, not to make sure you do what's best for you.  Doesn't mean the store can't be good, just sometihng to watch out for.

As a general rule, I like shoes to be as neutral as possible.  Shoes with cushioing and "corrective" features tends to encourage poor form.  They essentially act as a cast and hold your foot still.  I don't like vibrams and barefoot running because I'm afraid I'll step on something, but I do like the concept of building up the muscles in your feet, ankles and lower legs and using as neutral of a shoes as possible. 

I know I'm not Scott but here's my 2 cents.  Stregnth training is important in trialthon with a few caveats.  As an initial matter functional stregnth training (think TRX) is pretty much importantly for everyone.  As far as lifting weights in the gym, I think its more of an it depends.  If you are strength limited (genrally speaking females, older athletes and atheletes with very low lean BMIs) its important to lift.  Generally heavy lifting should be done in the prep / conditioning / base phases when the body is able to recover from it.  If you are not strength limited, you need to weight the ROI.  Is the time in the gym worth it?  Tri specific training (SBR) is always going to be more beneficial than non-tri specific training (weight lifting) so if you are time budget and stress budget limited, it may not be worth it. 

Totally different story if you are coming back from an injury . . . then you likely need to rebuild strength. 

I love Kirvana's. When the 3's came out I bought 3 pairs of 2's for $46/pair. At half the price it's too good of a value to upgrade to the 3's. When the 4's come out I'd love to do the same.

2012 is in the bag with a 1200 yard swim and 5 mile run this morning on the treadmill. 18 and windy I passed on going outside.

The upper values are 2011 total and bottom 2012. Nice volume gains for both run and bike with a slight reduction in swimming. I also put a ton of time into core training this year especially the second half hitting 25 hours and I did none in 2011. I think this is time well spent and hope it pays off.

Bike:
171h 19m 51s  - 3026.12 Mi
237h 48m 55s  - 4228.64 Mi

Run:
107h 29m 12s  - 675.8 Mi
139h 08m 31s  - 868.97 Mi

Swim:
88h 27m 03s  - 250565 Yd
86h 34m 14s  - 245612 Yd

Happy New Year all!

The deeper I get into tris the more I agree with Kelly's take on it.  I like to lift heavy in the offseason because I like to lift heavy.  Right now I'm doing total body once or twice a week.  Pretty much a circuit, mostly bodyweight, and never heavy enough that the recovery is going to effect my s/b/r workouts.  Imagine as we move forward this will get phased out as any extra recovery will take away from s/b/r. 

As far as when to hit certain muscles I find that avoiding big shoulder or back days prior to a swim day that is anything more than a recovery effort is advisable.  As is not killing your legs prior to any bike/run days that go much out of ZR.  Now I DO find that recovery efforts the next day tend to flush the lactic acid out and cycle in fresh blood.

Interesting perspective on cushion-y shoes. Makes sense, but I always feel like I'm setting myself up for injuries (stress fractures) by running a lot of miles in minimalist shoes. I'm not little, so I feel like the extra cushion (in the Nimbus for example) helps with the impact on my bones. Is that just crazy thinking?

That's actually an interesting recommendation because its taking a motion control shoe (the Alchemy) and adding a motion control insert (the super feet blue).  When you layer motion control on top of motion control they sort of cancel each other out.

I believe that using shoes to fix the stride just tends to create more problems.  My guess is with flat feet you are over pronating and that with ACL and hip issues you are a hard heel striker.  Fixing these types of issues doesn't usually occur with gym strengthening.  Gym machines and weights tend to work on large muscle groups, when you want to be focusing on really small muscle groups in the feet and lower legs (which then will improve on the impact of the run affects the larger muscles groups in your upper legs).

I've found that incorporating functional exercises into the run warm up and doing form focused runs helps.  Things like running up hill on grass in bare feet (obviously not in the winter), running on snow/ice in yak trax, high knees, butt kicks, skips, bounds, etc.  One of the easiet things you can do is run up hill.  It forces you to land on your forefoot, tilt your hips and move your center of gravity forward -- smae tihng with running on snow / ice.  Like anything, you can't go from a pretty serious motion control shoe to a light, neutral shoe, but you can work on it. 

Karen, I'm not little either and I've been in really light shoes for years.  Cushioning doesn't do anything for stress fractures, the same amount of impact is still going through your legs.  The way to help with impact related injuries is to work on form.  Cushioning in the shoes just feels softer but your still hitting the same pavement.  When you land properly on your forefoot, your body naturally dissapates the impact versus when you land on your forefoot.  Think about the positioning of the entire leg and hip with a bent knee forefoot strike and a straight knee heel strike.  My biggest problem with cushioned and motion contorl shoes is that they often have this massive landing pad on the heel that encourages a heel strike.  The shoe is essentially set up to encourage poor form. 

Here are my 2012 numbers.  Definately down on the volume due to a rocky year.  On a positive note at least the injuries were tramatic and not overuse:

LIKE!

Not how I wanted the year to end, but it is what it is.

Bike volume is a little disappointing, but I cut it out after Vineman because it bothered my sciatic/hamstring too much, and then started training for the ultra.

I really really really wanted to hit 1,500 miles of running, but being sick prevented that. No running these last 3 days, all I needed to do was 5 miles each day. Ah well...

Swim was way down, need to work on that for 2013.

That's a positive? I suppose overuse is no good either...

Isn't the point of cushioning to reduce the impact though? Is the force really the same in a minimalist shoe vs. a heavy cushioned shoe? I just can't see how that's possible. Not trying to be argumentative (because that's totally not me), but I don't see how the impact can be the same.

I do agree with the foot landing, and believe the minimalist encourages a more mid to forefoot strike, which seems to lessen the impact. So from that perspective I'd agree the impact may be lessened due to how my foot lands, but still think the cushion in the Nimbus must help with the impact.

Running in the Kinvara's for so many months, I do also notice when I am wearing the Nimbus, I still land more mid foot. Prior to that I would have told you I was a heel striker, just from how my shoes wear, and seeing some race photos. I wonder if I was and if the minimalist shoes changed that.

They sneak sugar in to everything huh? I found some unsweetened coconut flakes at Whole Foods. Pretty spendy, but worth it to me. The only coconut milk I have found with nothing added, is very high in fat. I bought it though.

I went to a huge farmers market today that I've been wanting to go to for a while, but it's kind of a drive for us. I bought a ton of Whole30 compliant stuff. Too many leafy greens to mention, they barely fit into our fridge. I also picked up ghee, couldn't find clarified butter. Also wanted to buy coconut aminos, but couldn't find that either. Got some grass fed beef and lamb (not sure why but I've been dying for lamb recently). Sweet potatos, raw cashews, strawberries & raspberries.

Can't wait to get started!

Take a look at this -- http://www.nature.com/nature/journal/v463/n7280/full/nature08723.html

This study has found that being barefoot AND landing on the forefoot reduces both the loading rate and the peak impact force.  In fact, it's three times lower in barefoot runners who forefoot strike (which is most of them) than in heel strikers wearing shoes.  In theory (though this too is disputed), higher impact forces and loading rates equals greater injury risk, and so the study is suggesting that perhaps people who are barefoot or minimally shod have a better chance of avoiding injury.

Essentially -- how you run reduces the loading rate and impact force, not what you wear when you run.  The problem is that you can't jump directly from a cast to super minimalist shoes or barefoot running.  You need to go gradually, strengthen the small foot, ankle nad lower leg muscles and transition step by step. 

Also -- this is a great article on the myths of running shoe cushioning -- http://www.google.com/url?sa=t&rct=j&q=&esrc=s&frm=1&source=web&cd=1&ved=0CDcQFjAA&url=http%3A%2F%2Fbiomechanica.com%2Fdocs%2Fpublications%2Fdocs%2FShorten%2520-%2520The%2520Myth%2520of%2520Running%2520Shoe%2520Cushioning.pdf&ei=s-vhUMKoK-SP0QHB_YGgBw&usg=AFQjCNE8YI07xAA78KRZeknZZ7w26-Mixw&sig2=Cg1lphrsTlIhIfMvW0VdXw&bvm=bv.1355534169,d.dmQ

I've found the best place to get sugar free coconut milk and coconut flakes is Amazon.com. 

This is a big one.  Tiny, baby steps will dramatically improve your form.  If your knees are buckling in, that also inner ankle instability.  I would also add calf raises three ways (toes pinting forward, toes pointing out and toes pointing in) and work on single leg balancing.  Start on a stable surface and then process to an unstable surface.