Jeff Y's Group - CLOSED (Page 56)

I am no running guru, but Dirk's form looks great to me.  Very relaxed, very quiet, very steady, not much bouncing, no over striding.  No reason he can't run fast and injury free!  I'll get mine up over the weekend so there will be some fodder to laugh at.

On a side note, and not to sound too gross, but one great thing I get out of this group is that you don't have to be anorexic to be pretty good at this sport.  Many of the good runners/bikers I see have bodies I would not want to emulate.  I like seeing all you guys and knowing that someone with some meat on their bones can still get pretty fast.  My genetic code says "hockey player", so there's no way I could get to a Schleck-type body, nor do I really want to.

And "8 minute" and "easy pace" do NOT belong together!

I had to laugh at that comment!  One day I would love for someone to tell me that a "7 minute pace and easy don't go together" but I am not expecting that in the foreseeable future.

I also agree that I don't want the Schleck body type either.  I think many of those guys have the anorexic look to them too.  I actually would like to have the arms and chest I had when I was power lifting.  I saw a guy a couple of years ago that hadn't seen me for several years and he didn't recognize me because I had a much smaller frame.  All he could say was "you used to have some big guns."  At the peak of my lifting I was able to bench 2x my body weight and I had the arms and chest to go with it.  (The 2x max was with a bench shirt though.)

Thanks for the take on my running form.  I often wonder what I look like when I run but until that video I had never seen myself and I am not sure I could really advise anyone or their form either.  I think I can help amateurs with training ideas and techniques but not form.

Happy Thanksgiving everyone.

Lot's of great comments on here.  Love the comment about spectators Matt.  I agree with Jonathan on that avatar.  Regarding body type - I guess I've never been muscular at that level, but all my weight is from my belly button to mid-thigh.  I was/am very strong on my skates and unmovable in the corners, but all that butt/thigh weight doesn't seem to help much when I'm running!  As the linemen on my high school team used to say about me (I was the running back) - he's not big, but he's slow.

I'm picking my side Matt.............

GO BLUE!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

I cant' get to the official results for my race today but the unofficial results are:

100th overall out of at least 1120.  ( I am not sure how many actually ran and the number comes from the earliest results posted from the race.  I heard there were over 2000 at the race.  I'll wait until I can get to some official results later.

3rd for my AG out of at least 66. (Same here with the numbers as the above.)

4 miles at 25:55 for a 6:29 average.  About 1 second per mile faster than my goal.  I'll try yo write up a RR tomorrow.

Thanks Jonathon.  I do like to race, that's for sure.  I sometimes wonder why I am doing it during the races though.  When I start hurting is when I begin to consider never racing again.  But that passes as soon as I catch my breath after the finishing line.

Here is the Gobbler RR from yesterday.  I still don't have the official results and I have looked several times today and last night.  I imagine the standings will remain the same.  At least I hope they do!  I was a little disappointed that there was no awards handed out after the race.  But I understand that everyone wanted to get to their Thanksgiving festivities with their families too.

I am also trying to post my RR to facebook but it won't let right now for some reason.

Edit:

As for the "turkeys" in this group I think you're the largest by far, and I am pretty certain even you can't argue with that.

Videos for your viewing pleasure:

Long run pace:

http://youtu.be/fpoFdjg-trE

5k pace:

http://youtu.be/2QgBFpvN6hs

I am not much for being able to view and critique someone's running form but I think yours looks fine.   

You don't seem to have a lot of upper body rotation (which is good) and it looks like you might mildly over-pronate or be pretty close to neutral to me.

Hopefully you'll get to be able to get that large running volume over the winter and really fell the speed come out and be ready to play next racing season.

My son Isaac just finished his 1st 5K in a time of 32minutes.  Just like the number on his bib he took 1st in his AG!  I am so proud of him, now to get him some training and he should be ready for the start of the 5K season in April! The bad part is he will probably be faster than me!

Thanks for watching Dirk.  I compared a video from when I first started running a little over a year and half ago (no, I'm posting that one!).  I've made no conscious effort to change my running style, but a few things really jump out. Though I still over-pronate, it's way better than it was.  My shoes used to have no wear on the inside heel and the outside would be gone.  Now it's closer at least.  My head bobs a lot less, my stride rate is much higher, my arms used to cross in front like I was boxing.

That's awesome, your influence is positive!  I can't wait for my son(s) to be faster than me, it shouldn't be long.

That's awesome Matt.  I think it can be really important to get your family involved at an early age.  I think to many kids get too much xbox and not enough outside time.  You are providing a healthy example for a positive future and a potentially strong athletic middle and high school career.

Plus, you can share in the training time with him.  This could be some serious quality father/family time.

Happy post Thanksgiving to all!

Warren, I see what you mean about being the immovable skater!  Good build for a football lineman too.  Your physique is gifted toward sports other than triathlon!  So if you can't run 5:00 miles, let's settle for 6:00 miles OK?

You mentioned a good positive change in your running style since you first began which is pretty awesome....and those changes just happen through repitition.  I watched a triathlete friend of mine for over a year who went from looking like a non-runner to looking like a fluid runner.  I just noticed this during easy training runs.  And just after I noticed it, he proved it in a race we did together where he ran pretty close to my pace.  He actually closed the gap on me in the run during a year that I focused on the run and improved dramatically myself.

There is nothing about your gait that stands out as needing fixing.  You seem a little too straight upright.  But I'm a bit agnostic on this topic.  I think we naturally find our center of gravity and this must be yours.  There was no over striding.  Your stride rate (at least in your 5k pace run) looked to be about 88 strides/min.  That's a fine number.  But your strides did look a little shorter than necessary, but that's up to personal factors such as flexibility and leg strength vs. body weight.    You will naturally find the right mechanics at a given pace through lots and lots of running.

So in all regards, keep up what you're doing and continue to run frequently.  Your treadmill has LOTS of flex which protects you from pounding.  So don't hesitate to do a lot of training on that treadmill.  But always work on that light landing.  Think of that often as you run and continue to make that adjustment.

And about the pronation...don't stress on it.  It's a natural biomechanical process that attenuates impact.  It's actually good for you.  It's not always so good for running shoes, but it's good for your body.  It's not the great evil that we've always been told.  One of the worst pronators I've ever seen was back in high school....he was the top HS runner in the state of Minnesota.  Didn't struggle with injuries and ran like a beast despite practically running on his ankles!

I don't want to be anything other than encouraging (except truthful), but if you can lose 5=10lbs from your mid section your run will improve in a very dramatic way. 

Thanks for all the advice Jeff.  I have very thick skin and an overinflated view of self from growing up in a large Italian family - so absolutely no worries on saying whatever you need to in order to help me out.  My goal is to become the best triathlete I can and there's nothing you could say that would bum me out as long as intended to improve me.

Anyone interested in a Timex Global Trainer for cheap?  I run a lot in the woods and my 305 just does a better job of keeping my pace up to date.  I've never had a problem with it in a race, but then again, I don't do any xterras or anything like that.

So I didn't mean to, but family got in the way this weekend and I couldn't do my Sunday run.  Yesterday's run was awesome.  My legs barefly felt tired at all.  No soreness, very easy breathing.  I ran 4.2 at 9:22 pace at 144 HR.  Not sure where that came from, but I like it.

I am going to be set for a watch in about 27 days (as I understand it).  I am actually getting a choice between the Garmin 310XT or the 910XT.  I actually am not sure which one I will choose.  Obviously I want the 910 but I feel like there are some complications.

The 910 has more bells and whistles but some of them aren't really all that important right now.  The barometric altimeter and the swim stroke and lap swimming measurements aren't something that is particularly high on a "want" list for me.  The one big thing that seems to stick out to me is the vibrate alerts that can be set up for laps as well as nutrition alerts during long distance events.  I think they call it the Run/Walkmode (See the DC Rainmaker review here for more info). The open water swimming algorithms that smooth OWS tracks for references on a mapping system would be nice but, again, not something that is a huge deal.

The 310 has many more bells and whistles than the 305 I am used too just minus the things above.  It has the 20 hour battery life, 50 meter depth in water, ANT+ wireless sync (I really like that), faster GPS acquisition and it has a vibrate alert for laps and other uses.  I don't think the alerts will work the same for the 310 as the 910.

The bigger deal is the price:

910XT is $450 with HR monitor $400 without.

310XT is $350 with HR monitor $290 without.

I can use the current HR strap for my 305 to save $50 either way.

Thoughts????