Asphalt Junkies Spring 2013 - Closed (Page 26)

All right folks, it's Wednesday weigh-in time.  I know I had a hard time curbing the bad habit this last week and without being able to do my long workouts this past weekend, it was tough.

I'm sitting at 22 lbs....12 to go!

Who's next?

I ate pretty well last week, since Friday I have felt like I was all the way off my bad habits from the holidays.  I've lost 15 since last summer, 11 to go.  I had been within 6 pounds of my goal, but gained 5 at the end of 2012.

I'm also set up for my first swim in a couple of years, this evening.  In lieu of a coach, I set up private lessons at the pool.  This guy doesn't have any tri experience, but I fugure he can point out obvious problems - and I'm not getting any better at swimming, by doing my current bike / run workouts .

Jo63 - 2013-01-09 6:30 AM Good job Jonathan I am down 2........15 to go Tony Great job on the bike, take care of your self. Getting sick is a sign you might need a recoevry day or two I started taking my morning resting HR before I get up so I know where Iam I want to make sure I stay healthy this year. My workout was great, no pain...... Lol on the brain jokes I am going back to the trainer this morning he is setting me up on an online food journaling thing that he will have access to so he can figure out what Iam doing wrong. Mostly it is about not having enough energy even though I still need to loose more weight.

Good to hear your workout went well!

My eating habits have been horrible since we brought the puppy home. I'm too tired to care what I'm eating. He was only up once last night though so hopefully I can get back on track today!

I was going to ask you if you have a boot. Smart girl. When you get in to the doc you'll be able to tell him all the things you have already tried and not waste your time with an office visit for him to tell you to ice your foot. I hate that.

Here here.  It's a tough pill to swallow but it's definitely the right path.  And it's out there in the future but be very wary at the end, when you are **almost** full healed and you really want to get back at it full bore.  Don't go nuts too early and suffer a relapse.

Jo, ouch, and be careful with hitting your head.  It's possible to have suffered a concussion without the classic symptoms.  And these things are cumulative, so be sure to watch your footing in the future.

I'm down 2 at 23.  Had a rough weekend watching football with my son, but ended up ok overall.  I'm sick as a dog (where does that phrase come from) right now, so we'll see how this week goes.

Congrats to everyone on their weight loss goals, regardless of how much or little you've lost any pound lost is a positive step toward reaching your goal.

Ok our group seems to be like the walking wounded these days and the season hasn't even started for most of us lol. I hope everybody is taking care of their ailments and hopefully feeling better soon. I have been feeling so worn out this week between not sleeping well and the slight cold I've got I have been just sort of making this a recovery week. Thankfully the next 3 workouts in Jorge's plan are actually pretty easy so the plan this week is to just do enough easy swimming and running along with the bike workouts and to try and get some more rest. I have been going to bed earlier I just haven't been sleeping too well. Hopefully that won't be the case for the rest of the week.

I'm looking at 3 appointments in 3 different locations all while dragging the munchkin around.  That's not going to happen. 

Stryker, walking wounded is correct.  I have a 15K this Sat. and not sure I can even run that right now...  The arch in my foot is PAINFUL!  maybe I'll just take Aleve and a shot of wkiskey and get er done!...Make that 2 shots of whiskey...lol

Actually I'm going to try to get in to the PT if he still has my file open from the IT band issues.  Don't want to have to go back to the dr to get in....

Whoops!  Can you describe your arch pain in detail?

Karl sorry to hear about the arch and the possibility of missing the 15K but I did get a kick out of the 2 shots of whiskey. I don't think I'd be running anywhere if I did something like that.

Ok.  Sounds like something that should pass quickly.  Ice your foot for 10 minutes twice a day!  It dramatically speeds up recovery.  I did a number of tests when I was a HS runner on my tendonitis flare-ups.  After many of them done with and without icing I concluded that icing got me back to normal in half the time vs. not icing religiously.

Aleve is a magic drug too.  Take 2 tablets morning and evening.  Directions say 1 tablet every 9 hours, but if you take 2 tablets every 12 then you are taking the prescription dosage for that drug.  And I know that to be safe because Drs. have told me to do that.

You are doing a good thing to be gently stretching it out and massaging it too.

Next you need to decide why it happened.  I want to make sure you aren't continuing to do whatever started it in the first place.  It can be the shoes, it can even be something silly like a creased sock under that part of your foot during a run.  It can be insoles, arch support or fluke.

This is what the doc told me also.

Ok.  Then for the time being go back to your old stride and try to do most of your runs in the 12mm drop shoes.  This should help you get back to the running sooner than if you continued to try the forefoot landing or the lower drop shoes.

Jeff has converted me to not worrying about being a little bit of a heel striker.  The more important thing is where your foot is in relation to your center of gravity when it hits.  It helps when people like Bobby McGee backup what you say (I know it's a geeky/technical video, sorry, I'm an engineer):

Running mechanics video

His statement on heel striking (at ~4:56 of the video) is essentially if you are not fighting for Olympic podiums or interested in becoming a professional, you are better off leaving your foot strike where it is (unless you are injuring yourself) and working on these other mechanics issues.  Right before this part of the video is some gold about what is most important in the foot strike phase of your running stride.

A side benefit I have found of things like increased cadence and lean is that you naturally become less of a heel striker and up and down runner without any consideration of trying to be.  And I also believe Jeff's advice of running occasionally barefoot for very short distances either on a treadmill or something like grass is gold.

Good video Warren, thanks for linking it.

One thing he said just before talking about heel striking is that a runner should make sure their foot touches down as close to their center of gravity as possible.  This is to avoid braking.  But I believe the landing point of the foot relative to your center of gravity can and should change slightly with running speed.  At a super slow jog it will be right under.  At a full sprint it may be 12" in front.

Also, the discussion of forward lean is good, but he says that the forward lean is to be proportional to speed.  I think the lean needs to be proportional to the rate of acceleration.  Once you are maintaining a steady pace your lean won't be different at 4 miles per hour than it is at 12 miles per hour. 

The caveat being that if your steady state body position is upright, you will then have to be doing propulsion more from the glutes and hamstrings as you pull your center of gravity past the planted foot.  If you are leaning forward the right amount at your steady speed (whatever speed it is) then the mechanics are as he describes, just supporting your weight and not propelling you until the foot is behind you.

Of course, he's recognized as an expert and I am not.  So I add my $.02 humbly knowing I may be wrong.

Here is an example of what I was talking about.  In this slow motion video of Usain Bolt in a 100m race you can see that after he reaches top speed he is very upright, no more lean.

Also, his footstrike is in front of his center of gravity but notice that it's already moving backwards before touching down.  That proves there's no braking force, he is pulling himself forward.  It can be fast, but it's inefficient so you won't see a distance runner doing it this way.  The point for us being just that a foot landing in front of the CG doesn't automatically mean braking is happening.

The forward lean position is more efficient because you only support yourself until toe off.

Ok, so either I forgot!!  or it was stripped?  But here is the video I meant to link here!!!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4QrlPmK4B94

Here is something else that's informative.  It's from the US olympic marathon trials.  It shows the leaders coming through near the end of the race.  They are running pretty much upright and landing pretty far in front of their CG.   But don't think of their technique in terms of how far they are running, think in terms of how fast.

Their pace here is a sprint to most of us.  I would LOVE to be able to run their speed just for a 10k.

You can see a distinct difference in the 'American' style of running and the African style.  I will try to find good footage from Boston showing the distinction.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Iuwr5vDz1jY

These are both great points, and I tried to mention something about this first one in my first post but deleted it since my wording was way too complicated.  You actually coined a term for this "moving center of gravity" which I forgot, but the concept makes great sense.  You can actually see even in his video that the striking point is well in front of the center of gravity, and I immediately recalled your point about this phenomenon.

One quick response to the Bolt discussion, and I know you don't subscribe to this but I want to make sure that everyone is crystal clear in this part of the foot strike, you do NOT want to be trying to actively "claw" backwards with your foot as you run.  This is simply something which is happening naturally as Bolt is running at 27ish MPH!

I don't think anything you say goes against McGee at all, but you are really refining and expanding/improving upon his points.  I've always said you could be making money at this.

This is Karl's wife; the one who couldn't post the picture of the lacing this weekend.  I hope I have it know.  It's not for everyone but it helps me for long distances because of feet swelling and high arches.

Down 1lb. Starting weight 30. Current weight 29