Got Your Mojo WORKIN'! group - CLOSED (Page 42)

GEORGE -

For the wet test, go to www.runnersworld.ltd.uk/foottype.htm. This will show you what your wet-foot-print might look like, and how this might reflect you shoe needs, simple instructions on how to do it. The only thing I woill add is that it will work best if you pad around a bit first just so that excess water is lost. The vinyl tile on our bathroom floor gives a really good print, and some darker-floored gyms and change rooms do, too. Some people will use a brown paper bag for their wet test.

Let me know how yours turns out if you do it!


(And I still owe you a post on USAT rankings and points, yes? Soon! Soon! [Soon?])

GEORGE --

Which Couch-to-5K (CT5K) program did you just start? I'm a little concerned that you may have started out too aggressively based on your logs.

I started the BT aggressive/16-week CT5K on November 30, and my workouts have much more walking vs running for the first 8 weeks. It wasn't until week 7 that I got up to 15 min walking and 15 minutes running (which I do as 5 walk, 5 run, 5 walk, etc). And I chose the aggressive 16-week plan vs. the conservative 28-week plan, because I had been doing regular cardio (spin or elliptical 3 days/week from January through November).

I've limited my training to just the walk/run on the 3 days of the week in the plan (M, W, F for me), plus I've added strength training on Mondays & Fridays. Only other cardio has been a spin class once a week on Tuesdays. Thursday, Saturday and Sunday are rest days.

I'm sticking with this plan until March 18th with is the last day of my CT5K. Then I will be running for 30 min + strength 2x/week (M, F), spin class 1x/week (Tues), and swimming (Wed + Saturday lesson).

I'm sure you are enthusiastic to do more, but would hate for this to turn into a serious injury. Let me know what you think, as we may be the only ones in the group doing the CT5K at the same time!

Also, I looked online at runnersworld.com and they have a listing for a specialty running place in Mobile:

3498 Springhill Rd.
Mobile, AL 36608
251-473-1080

I can't vouch for it (never made it to Alabama!), but the stores on runnersworld.com around my neighborhood are exactly the types of places to which Steve is referring. Took a little bit of courage for me to walk in and get fitted and tell them that I'm just starting to run, but my shop was great and I walked out with a pair of stability shoes for about $100 that have been great so far. Take a ride over to Uncle Joe's and see how it works out.

You can also check out my logs as I have logged everything from 11/30 to now. Even with "easing into it", I have dropped 11 lbs since mid-November if that gives you faith in ramping it up a bit more slowly.

Best of luck, Adam.

Folks -- funny story.

Had my annual physical on Friday, and this was only my second time seeing this doctor. First time was a year ago at my first appt for a physical in the new practice.

So doc looks at me kind of funny and then looks at his chart, and says have you lost weight? And I said yes, and he says because you don't look like you weigh 192 lbs, which is what I weighed last year. He looks at the new info and sees that I'm now at 166 (clothed!) and is pretty impressed that I dropped 26 lbs in a year.

So he asks me how, and I explain my workout routine, and he asks if I have any goals, and I tell him that I'm planning on doing a triathlon in September.

So, turns out he is a huge triathlete in our area, and we spent a good 20 minutes discussing TRI with intermittent breaks to conduct my actual physical!

He's run the race I'm doing a few times and had tons of pointers for the race (apparently it's pretty hilly on the bike!) and getting into the sport in general.

I have a follow-up in July, so I now have another source of motivation to train, because I know he will ask me how's it going!

-- Adam.

One simple thing that has been a huge help in getting me to stick to my training schedule is to focus on going to bed at the "required" time for me to train the next morning.

I typically get up at 6:00 am to train, so I pack my bag the night before and focus on going up to bed at 10:30 and being asleep by 11:00 because I have found that with less than 7 hours of sleep, I will just not get up when the alarm sounds.

I used to "psych" myself up to work out in the a.m., and then unconsciously stay up to midnight, and just could not will myself to get up in the morning. Now I "psych" myself by getting the bag ready and by making sure I'm in bed at the right time.

I also leave all my gear downstairs, so it is actually more inconvenient to skip the workout and have to go downstairs to unpack!

Steve, thanks, I will check out the website and try the wet test tonight.  I will keep you posted.

Adam, thanks for your input.. I found a CT5k on a website somewhere, I guess its a very aggressive one since the ones on BT were 16 + weeks and the one I'm doing is 9 weeks.  I wanted to try and do the 9 week bcuz it fit into my plans for this year.  I'm doing the walk and run 3 times a week.  The cardio is ok so far, but there are times that I'm thinking please get to the walk part so I can rest, but I feel that so far I'm ok with it.  The only problems so far is the legs, but once I get started the pain goes away.  Back in the early 90's when I was racing I remember my legs also hurting at the beginning of the runs but going away and that was when I was running 6 miles about 4 times a week. I'm hoping that It just might be a shoe thing and once I get some good shoes then I should be fine.  If I continue to feel the aches after I get the shoes then I will back down on the training.  The last thing I want is an injury and have to sit out for a while.  I will check out that shoe place you found in Mobile.  Again thanks for you posting because it helps to get everyone's input.

Thanks
George

Folks -- likely my last post for a few days as I'm headed off to Charlottesville for a quick work trip, but wanted to share this story...

An old boss, mid-forties, Naval Academy grad passes me in the hall at work on my way back from a lunch-time workout. He comments on the fact that I was down at the gym at lunch, since he knows I usually work out in the morning, and then says "You're a machine!"

Pretty high compliment coming from a military man, IMHO.

He must be on to something, because I have already scoped out a gym in Charlottesville where I can take a spin class tomorrow morning while I'm out of town travelling. Never in a million years would I have guessed that I would plan in advance to workout while out of town, but now I'm hooked on this tri thing -- Adam.

I know how you feel Adam, since December when I joined and also watched the IronMan in Hawaii, Im hooked.  Im loving the training. I get up at 4:30am in the morning Mon, Tues, Wed and Fri and go to the gym, then on Sat I get up about 7am to go to the gym.  Everyone that knows what Im training for are like WOW.  I love it and I cant wait to have my 1st Sprint Tri in June. Good luck on your trip and be safe..

Thanks
George

That's awesome Adam. If I'm out of town the best I usually hope for is a swim in the pool at the hotel and its typically not a real swim workout.

Day one of the plan down 40 min run. I broke it down into mile 1, 2 and balance of time. Mile 1 was at 14:17 I steped it up a little for mile 2 to 13:02 then had a 1:41 walk break about 1/8 mi then finished up with 10 min (4.2mph/14:17min).

I can tell my legs aren't used to running. They get tired but I don't really feel winded unless I pick up the speed for awhile.

The Run Schedule for the rest of the week is 24 min on Wed and 32 min on Fri. Any suggestions for pace on the next 2?

ADAM -

First, fine sleuthing on George's behalf!

Second, that is a funny story, and the longer you're in this gig, the moe "small-world" encounters you will have. After a certain point, it is something like five degrees of separation between you and another triathlete, whose orbits have intersected in some unlikely way.
Yours an especially good one because this guy has done Marshman before, and in general has been around the block a few times.

As September approaches, you may have to manufacture a few "conditions" so yopu have an excuse to go and pick his tri-brain some more!

ADAM again -

And that's another good story about the compliment from the Annapolis guy. That's a compliment I'd be proud to wear for a while, given the guy's pedigree.

As an aside of sorts, I have become a big fan of mixed martial arts simply because of the colossal amount of dedication those guys put into mastering so many different things -- not just the fight stuff, but off-the-charts strength, flexibility, and cardio.

Anyhow, watching a UFC event last week there was a guy whose name escapes me right now, who (1) was All-State QB at one of the Scranton high schools, (2) went to Navy and played football there, and (c) commanded a unit in Iraq, where in his barely-spare time began MMA trianing. This guy is obviously hardly a meathead, and the UFC is full of guys who were Division I wrestlers at any number of different universities. It might be fairly brutal at times, to be sure, but I'm not sure there is a better-conditioned group of athletes as a whole as the UFC roster is.

Enjoy the gym at Charlottesville......and try to squeeze in SOME work, too, okay?

CRAIG -

BIG run in the books -- congratulations!

As for pacing the next two, I'd keep it right in your comfort zone; whatever works, do it.

Having said that, though, for the 24' one Wednesday you might want to do 10' as a comfortable warm-up, then 3-4' a bit more briskly, then back to th w-u pace for the 10' of cool-down. In a way, you did similarly today, with that second mile significantly faster than before and after it.

If that goes well, then for the 32' one you might want to go 10-4-4-4-10, with the 10s and the middle 4 easy, and the first and third 4s a bit brisker.

What do you think?

(And see my next post, which'll happen sometime soon, after Lynn gives me back the computer which she is about to usurp. )

CRAIG again -

While on my run yesterday, I was thinking about you and the discussion last week about how to improve your running. I gave a few suggestions about types of workouts, but on my run I thought of a matter of running "form" that can be done regardless of type of workout.

If you look at my photo, you can see that my arms are being carried kind of low. I could direct you to scores of race photos of me, and 2/3-3/4 of my run ones would show my hands at about the same position. That's too bad, because for me this is not my optimal position. I know they should be higher, and when I focus on it in training (and in races) my cadence immediately improves and my overall form feels more compact and efficient. It's just that unless I really focus on it, fatigue (especially in a race) will set in and I will let my arms drop.

Next time you run, then, focus on keeping your elbows close to your body and forming about a 90-degree angle between forearm and upper arm. This will place your hands along about the bottom of your ribcage, or a bit higher. As you run, try to synchronize the movement of your arms with your leg movement; when you do this well, it almost feels as if they are driving each other. Try very hard to minimize the movement of your arms -- the elbows should stay close to your sides, and the forearms are just making short piston-like pumps. Again, look for a sensation that the two units -- arms and legs -- are working together, andif anything that the arms are controlling the show more than the legs are.

Don't spend a whole run doing this, as initially it is quite tiring; just a minute here and there is a good exploratory goal to set. Maybe try two of them on Weds and three on Fri, and see how it suits you.

Just a thought!

GANG-AT-LARGE!

It isn't too profound, but maybe have a look at the post I just made to CRAIG about arm and hand position while running. I hope it can help some of you, or at the very least give you something to mess around with to relieve the tedium of the odd tedious run!

It may be time for new shoes.  Find a store that specializes in running shoes and take your old shoes with you.  they'll listen to our story, watch you walk, check out your old shoe wear and get an idea for what you need.  Itmay cost a few bucks more but it will be worth every penny and then some. 

JAC -

Welcome back! The Southern Hemisphere was poorly represented in your absence, don't you know?

Congrats on the scholarship! Was that need-based, or talent-based? If the latter, I genuflect in your general direction!

Outside of summer camp, what is your outlet for drumming? Do you regualrly meet with other like-minded thumpers, or do you just twomp away on your own?

Jac is back.....and all is well south of the Equator! Whew!

We all miss workouts.  The only thing that gets the bad taste out of your mouth is the next workout, fortunately as soon as you get in the water, or on the bike, or tie your shoes it's all about the present and the missed workout is history. 
 

ELLEN -

Five days late, for which I apologize! This is one of the reasons I desperately try not to fall behind, as things are apt to get "out of sight, out of mind". Sorry!

I'm glad you like the 20-week plan, which is, as I wrote to someone else, is much more conducive to a strong race. The other 20-week plan - based on RPE - is kind of bare-bones and seems best for someone who is really time-crunched. I know you are a bit nervous about what your time will be when teaching picks up again, but overall I get the impression that you have a fair degree of latitude with your training. Is that kinda sorta correct?

It obviously helps you a lot that you are an Eagleman veteran, as it is a race that rewards familiarity -- more so than most half-irons, IMHO. It is also good that you are aware of your training deficiencies from last year, and I don't see any soft spots in the 20-week plan. Even if someone had to miss 10% of the workouts, I think they could be quite well-prepared for the race. There are just a lot of volume-adequate workouts there, in all three disciplines.

Thirteen days off total might make it tight, but we both know that other off-days can be added as needed, just so long as few of the key workouts are missed. But as I said in the last sentence of the previous paragraph, there are a lot of workouts htta border on key, if the actual key ones have to be missed.

As for switching around things, especially the swims -- yup, that has to happen at times. I've said before that if you gave a given week's workout specifics to 20 different coaches, you'd get back 20 different arrangements of those workouts. So, feel free to juggle workouts as necessary, but try as hard as you can to maintain the integrity of the program.

When do you begin teaching -- the 24th? And isn't that the week that Week 1 of the program begins, as it pertains to Eagleman? Also, have you thought about how to accommodate Columbia into the HIM plan? I will look at that later, but it shouldn't pose many problems. I did Columbia and Eagleman in both '03 and '04, and in both of those years I was following a training plan from my coach at D3; it all worked quite well. Where there's a will, there's a way!

(Ugh. Two dopey homilies in one post. I must be close to writing for Hallmark! )

Everyone misses workouts. People drink too much especially when we're out with fun friends Brush off the week, it's over. You're going through a job change too, aren't you? You're making a lot of changes. Just refocus yourself. Think through the week and build on it. We are the hardest on ourselves. Give yourself a break and go out and enjoy the nice weather So Cal is getting right now.
Johanne

Exactly!  I am currently working on changing my running form.  All of my runs have been on the TM with a mirror in front of me.  My arms were at an OK height but my elbows were pointed out and my hands were pointed in.  My hands were crossing the midline.  My upper body was swinging at the shoulders instead of the arms swinging forward and backwards from the shoulders.  So tough to change all of this and also increase my cadence from 80 to 90+.  My HR is higher at the same pace using a 90+ cadence.   In addition, I am moving my footstrike to midfoot.  None of this feels natural or efficient right now. 

You may ask, why change?  Shin splints and IT band issues.  Sore knees at times.  

I have tried to think quick, light feet yet I feel like I am tiring myself out quicker than I was before.  Any advice?   

Sometimes your mojo goes missing.  My mantra is, "fit in what you can and don't sweat the rest".

Sometimes it is mental and sometimes your body is just telling you it needs a rest.  Either way, a few missed workouts won't be a problem unless it becomes a trend.  Be good to yourself!

Boy you know when you are tired when this happens.

At our gym when you walk in they have a wall with hooks where you can hang your car keys.  Well I put my keys on the hook and went upstairs for my workout.  When I finished I came down grabbed my keys and went over to talk to some friends before I left.  When when I was leaving I went back to the hooks and stood there for about 2-3 minutes looking for my keys.  Once I could not find them i thought of my gosh someone took my keys.  I was about to walk outside to see if my truck was still there and if someone just broke into it.  On my way out I felt something in my hand and guess what, there was my keys.  Well I hope everyone has a great day.  I do have a question.  In tri races, do they allow Ipods, I didnt know if you can listen to music on the bike and run.  I know in the past on just running races they always have a clause that no ipods allowed, but everyone still brings them. 

Thanks
George

Edited by gdsemiller 2011-01-18 8:05 AM

George
I know at the races I have done and my husband does (which are mostly USAT races) Ipods are not aloud. They make the announcements several times before the race but people still tend to use them, I think it's mostly a safety issue?!
That's a funny story, sometimes your mind is just not there after a workout!

Happy training!!
Shannen

Edited by shannen 2011-01-18 6:51 AM

LORI -

Your post about running form and changes reminds me of something I neglected to tell Craig, and that has to do with arms/hands crossing the midline. Of the 2/3 - 3/4 of my race photos that show me with arms too low, thre could also be a category for ones in which my hands cross my midline; it might be about 10% of them. The thing is, though, that I'm not aware of that at all, whereas at least for the arms dropping too low, I know it's happening -- to some degree, anyhow. If you've followed my talk with Cathy about swimming, there is mention there of hands crossing the midline after entry, and that is another area in which "midline violations" occur, but too often we are not award they are happening. It must be a weird trick of proprioreception!

But I digress!

All of the things you are working on are valid, and then some. My advice would be to isolate them, at least for now. Think assembly line -- get all the pieces nicely constructed, and then fit them all together and see the new, sleek machine you have created!

It is very useful to have a mirror in front of you while on the TM, and that should be especially useful with the arm stuff. On my next run I will try to think more clearly about when the arm/leg/cadence continuum all clicks together; that is, what is the timing of my arm swings and my footfalls. I am sure it is very real, but it's one of those things where you can't quite replicate it from memory.

But I digress again!



About isolating foci, then, you have about four things you're working on: arm mechanics, shoulder swing, increased cadence, midfoot emphasis. That's quite a banquet! BUT, it is all very doable, with time and patience required throughout the process.

I think the first two can be combined as goals-to-be-worked-on-together, even though in many runners what happens with the arms does not determine what happens with the shoulders. Think of runners you've seen who have good elbow placement and carry their arms nice and high......but have a lot of side-to-side shoulder wiggling happening. And while low arms are not ideal, at least they aren't the big energy drains that excessively swinging shoulders are. The goal, then, is to get your whole upper torso nice and tight -- elbows in, arms moving as narrow-arc pendulums and not flailing madly, and shoulders moving hardly at all.

During another run, work on cadence; forget entirely everything form the ankles up! The thing with cadence is that it doesn't happen overnight, and in fact can take quite a while to get comfortably sustainable. I posted to someone (I think Craig) in the past couple of week or so about this in my case, which saw me initially be able to hit 90 for about a minute at a time before I felt my HR soaring. These were hard times, wondering if I would ever get to the point of being able to sustain it for 5 minutes......10'.......20'.......for a 5km run......and so on. In took quite a while (think months, and many of them) to get to where I could do it for a full 10km in an oly. A greta breakthrough for me was in mid-October when I did an entire aggressively-run half-marathon with a cadence of 90+. Now, I'm still not sure I can do that for the half-marathon run that is attached to a half-iron, or at least in the few HIM I have done since working on cadence, I am sure that cumulative fatigue has caused me to "baby myself" some on the run and just get into a slower shuffle at times.

My message here is to take the small gains graciously, and have enough faith in the process so that you believe that the 2' at 90+ now will evolve into xx minutes at 90+ in a half year or year from now. But keep this work separate from other form-based goals, and just focus at increasing your foot speed. It will probably help you to shorten your stride when you work on this, and maybe also to keep your feet closer to the ground -- almost a shuffle. You might feel you are "cheating" at this, but I think the big initial goal is to get used to those fast feet, and how it stresses the rest of you -- as manifested by your increased heart rate. It really was a sea-change effort for me, but what felt awkward and forced back then has become natural now.

And as you get better at midfoot-striking, that will aid and abet cadence; or maybe it's the other way around! Whatever, I find the two to be quite closely linked, but that might just be because, like you, I was working on both of those at about the same time. The midfoot emphasis should get your body in a more gravity-friendly forward lean, and were you a follower of Chi Running (are you?) you would be visualizing kind of "falling forward" into your next stride. Any amount of forward lean is valuable, just so long as your center of gravity is straight above where your feet strike.

One thing to watch out for with midfoot is your calves. I am one of legions of runners who have made the transition to midfoot/forefoot running, only to get ambushed and held hostage for a while by painful calves. And worse for me was that the calf problems then morphed into a resounding case of plantar fasciitis (long story of how I worked through that throughout the '08 season), which then morphed into an Achilles issue. Yikes!

Being very honest, there were countless times when I came close to scrapping this whole midfoot/forefoot project and returning to my former running style -- which had actually worked quite well for me! I just thought enough is enough, my runs are hurting and I'm missing time due to the calves and PF and Achilles....................but I just believed in the process and toughed it out and tried to be smart about it -- and it's made all the difference in the world to me. I'm knocking off better running times now than I did five or six years ago, and while most 60+ guys are showing dramatically slower run times, mine are going the opposite way.

Moreover, my injury problems have been radically reduced -- especially ones that are joint-related. But i guess you know that about midfoot/forefoot running, that it changes the point of impact and the pathways of running stress, so that many ankle and knee and hip problems are eliminated. As for shin splints, I haven't had them in a long time, so while that's not a joint thing, it is another problem that mid/fore has solved for me.

ITB, though, can still be a minor problem -- but that's more from me being an under-pronator than anything else. Well, that's not quite true. For many people who make the switch to mid/fore, along with that comes the tendency to land more on the outside of the foot -- the chracteristic of an under-pronator (or supinator, if you know that term). And I am sure that under-pronators are more susceptible to ITB issues, so for me I think there is a connection. An occupational hazard of running! (?)

WHEW! I've done it again --- way too many words!! (Hello? Lori? You still there??)

In a nutshell:
(1) You have very fine running goals!
(2) Isolate them in your training -- don't try to do everything at the same time.
(3) Be patient with the process, and accept any small improvements that you see.
(4) Have faith that these skills will evolve over time -- especially sustained candence.

And that's that!