Gearwhore/himself Group - FULL (Page 7)

This was kind of the direction the posts were going next, but since you brought it up already, I'll introduce a short primer here, then try to break these elements down in the the next couple of weeks (or hopefully shorter time span).

There's a lot of information out there right now on what I will call the "new" running form, which takes a bunch of different names depending on who it comes from and their subtle nuance on the technique.  You might have already heard about some of these, for example Chi Running, Pose Running, high cadence running, forward lean, etc.  I learned it from a guy named Bobby McGee, mentioned in Ryan's post above, and I'm totally, unquivocally 100% sold on the technique.  The basic concept of this new style of running is to stop the old "leap and land" form and move to a more controlled, efficient, directed, and less impactful style of running. 

The basic tenets of this style of running are:

(1) Slight forward lean (from the ankles, not the hips).  The idea is to direct the momentum of your running forward, instead of standing straight up, or worse, leaning back slightly and forcing your muscles to propel you forward;

(2) Increasing your cadence (# of times your foot strikes the ground, typically measured per minute).  By studying elite runners, Bobby McGee and others discovered that the most efficient runners in the world run with a cadence of 96+.  There are now reports of elite level runners and triathletes completing marathon distance races with cadences upward of 105.  This naturally means a shorter stride.  These same running experts agree that 75% of runners overstride (reach too far forward, kick too far back). Shortening the stride and picking up the cadence means you go just as fast with much higher efficiency and less impact. 

(3) Mid-body foot strike.  The point here is to move the foot strike in and under the body.  By reaching out with the heal, you're impeding forward progress.  Again, that old style is "leap and land" or "propel and brake."  It's slow, it hurts, and it's really inefficient.  The new style is to let your legs and feet roll underneath you while allowing your forward momentum to carry you with less muscular effort.

(4) Head slightly down, gazing forward 6-10 feet.  This is one of the most difficult technique points for those of us who like to sight-see while we run (especially in CO, where's there's lots to look at).  The idea is to keep your head slightly forward to accentuate the forward lean.  That big orb on top of your neck will blow your form faster than anything if your eyes are up looking around.  I have to constantly work on this, but I can tell you that seeing 26.2 miles of pavement 6 feet in front of my face at the R&R marathon paid off with less fatigue, quicker leg recovery, and a faster overall time.

(5) Shoulders relaxed, arms swing naturally, with elbows bent at 90-130 degrees, arms tight to your sides, elbows driving to the rear.  Long technique point to say a couple of important things: (a) most people have a tendency (like me) to pin their shoulders back and stick their chest out, OR round their shoulders forward creating tension across the back, OR shrugging shoulders upwards towards their ears (especially when attempting to run fast or after they get tired).  Any of these shoulder problems wastes energy and results in improper form; (b) arms must drive to the rear to balance the forward lean and high cadence.  In order to properly lean forward, your body must find a rear balance point to stay upright.  Most people will tend to reach out with the foot, which only reemphasizes the braking action, instead of allowing the elbow to swing high in the back to balance the forward lean.  This is hard, but practice will pay off; (c) Watch most people and you will see that they run with elbows out to the side, swinging laterally, rotating their torso side to side.  That motion impedes forward progress, slows you down, and wastes energy.  Keep the elbows tight to the side, brushing your shirt or jacket on every arm swing.  Two mental drills to practice: (i) imagine headlights on your elbows that you want to shine straight ahead on the forward swing, straight down at your side, or straight back at the back of the swing, OR (ii) imagine you're wearing rubber elbow pads, and every arm swing you "grab" a wooden rail and pull yourself through leaning on your elbow.

(6) While keeping your hips steady straight forward, rotate your torso slightly to accentuate the muscular dynamic between upper/lower body.  This sounds odd, and it's harder to write than demonstrate, but the basic concept is that you allow your torso to rotate slightly in order to take advantage of the power generated by your core muscles.  With all this other stuff going on, runners have a tendency to freeze the upper body, inhibiting a natural running rotation and slowing themselves down.

Those are kind of the macro points (can you believe there's more detail?).  This is hard stuff, and it takes a loooong time to master.  I took Bobby McGee's clinic last fall, and I'm about 60% of having this all right, settled and comfortable.  From a complete beginner standpoint, this is the kind of thing that you start working on now, and hope that in 1 year you have modified your form and gained some efficiency, but also recognize that it will be a career long (athletic career) process trying to perfect the form.

The number one thing to start practicing is the shorter stride, higher cadence.  But realize that if you try to get to 96 cadence in 3 runs, you'll probably injure yourself.  Take it slow, if you want to work on this stuff, and in the middle of a run try shortening your stride and picking up the cadence.  At first, 80 will be hard, but it will come around.  I have one of those Finnis Tempo Trainers that James mentioned in a post about swimming a couple of weeks ago, and that works great for have a "metronome" - so that you can match cadence to a known number of beeps/minute.

So to directly answer Keith's questions: No, don't slow the pace when you shorten the stride, pick up the cadence and run the same pace.

Same with walking (during a workout).  Try shortening the stride when walking recoveries, but keep your feet turning over.  Work on the lean while walking as well, and swing your arms when you walk like you would when you run, with hands high and elbows bent.

Yes, unfortunately this feels like starting all over again.  But for me, never having been coached as a runner, it finally felt like I was doing something right instead of just pounding my knees silly while plodding along.

Sorry for the long post, but this is a detailed and intricate topic.

Run the Redondo at like 70% effort, basically as a workout, drink some beers after, then watch the game (while drinking more beers).  Don't run hard though, too early to be hammering out a hard race, and unfortunately, not quite enough base in yet to go out for a super hard run. 

Can you tell I'm bored at work today? 

My take is that you are the only one who can answer this question, as there is no magic distance to preparing for races.  What does your schedule allow?  One hour of swimming 3x/week?  If so, then work up to going as far as you can go.  You can't swim "too far" because it will only increase your general fitness and endurance.  If you have a time limitation though, swim shorter and try to get more quality out of your workouts.

In general, for short distance races, you want to go "over-distance" in your training.  So for a sprint, it's a good idea to be able to very comfortably swim double the race distance, cylcle double the bike distance, and run double.  But not critical.  In fact, for my first tri my longest training run going into the race was the same distance as the race.  For long distance racing, this rule does not apply (for half iron, and especially iron distance).  Most plans will still have you cover the full distance in training for a half, but almost all IM plans max out well short of the full race distance for biking and especially for running.

Having said all that, once you get over about 1000 meters total distance in your swim workouts, it's time to start stringing together longer segments.  So, if in 1000 meters total workout you can only go 100 meters without stopping at all for breath, try to double that, then triple it, etc. 

Adding to all the good points Brian said, if you're out during the day, make sure the glasses are sunglasses. Snow has the second most reflective properties (behind quartz) and can be pretty intense on your eyes. His point about water and hydration is a particularly good one that often gets overlooked. As for what to wear, it's all about layering. If at all possible DO NOT wear cotton against your skin. It just absorbs the sweat and holds it against your skin making you colder. If you have any technical wear (polypropylene, merino wool, etc.) wear that as your base layer so it wicks the sweat/moisture away. I'm pretty sure you can also get these things fairly cheap at Target, etc.

Adam and I were able to get a ride in outside last Sunday, but other than that outdoor training has been tough to come by. We were both decently layered on the bikes that day too, but never got cold even though I think the high was 32*. Everyone around here's counting the days until some warmer weather hits so we can run and bike outdoors consistently again!

Be warned, I'm the Gearwhore for a reason:

Roadie: Cervelo R3 in CSC team colors with Mavic Ksyrium SSC-SL wheelset, FSA flat-top carbon bars (I have never loved a bike more than I love this bike).

Backup/Trainer Roadie: Scattante cheapie aluminum frame with Ultegra build-out and Easton Vista wheelset (replaced the Specialized road frame that I broke, swapped components straight across).  I actually really like this bike.  It's nothing to look at, but it's functional and tough, and I have no qualms about riding it in slick conditions or pounding the crap out of it on the trainer.

Tri-bike: Orbea Alletta with Zipp 404 wheelset.  I don't love my tri bike.  The components are fine, Ultegra, but the bike has never fit me well.  I do, however, love the 404s - that is a freakin' unbelievably fast wheelset.  Literally makes you 1 mph faster.

Mountain Bike: Specialized Stumpjumper full suspension.  Like it okay, but I don't get enough mtb time in to be any good, so this ends up being a hack around bike for the off-season or REALLY bad weather riding.

Cruiser bike: Electra single-speed with a coaster brake.  This bike reminds me of being 5 years old and riding in my neighborhood.  My wife and I ride our cruisers to get ice cream in the summer, and it is a ridiculously fantastic simple pleasure.

Commuter Bike: single speed built on a Nashbar mountain bike frame from spare parts in my garage.  I barely ride this thing, honestly, I just built it to build a bike and because I could.  I learned a lot in the process, and it is actually fun to ride.

I love them all in their own special way.

I'm having seat troubles lately on both roadies, and want to try one of those new Specialized Toupe specialized designed to keep the blood flowing to the nether regions.

I want a bike for every purpose.

Next, I would really like to have a cross bike, but the top tube on my tri bike is a titch long, so I think I'll be shopping for a new carbon TT frame first.  I'm slobbering over the Kuota Kaliber at the moment.

Between my wife and I, we have, I think, 11 bikes in the garage.  She has a road, mountain and cruiser, and we have a back up cruiser.  I have them all on stands and it looks like a bike shop in there.  Makes me smile every time I see it.

You all put me to shame!

I only have two ponys in the stable...

I have a GT Outpost Mountain Bike, cant even remember any of the goodies I have on it because I haven't ridden it in over a year.

As for the tri bike I tried out about 6 or 7 bikes and felt the most comfortable on the Kuota K-Factor. Yes the Kaliber felt a lot nicer but I couldn't afford the extra $2k with all of the components. So far the K-Factor is treating me well and I feel it will get me more than where I need to be come the Philly Tri.  I honestly never thought I would say this in my life time but I feel like I am starting to enjoy the run more than any of the other aspects of Tri. My entire life I hated to run but now I look forward to it... go figure! Enjoy the night fellas.

Bikes. I just want to ride mine outside again.

Road Bike: Cervelo R3 (carbon) in CSC team colors with Mavic Ksyrium SSC-SL wheels, FSA flat-tp carbon bars, Ultegra components, and a DuraAce crankset with an ergomo powermeter installed. Sound familiar? Yeah, I basically ride the exact same bike as Adam. Only difference now is that I put an ergomo on mine and have red bar tape. But like him, I love love love this bike. Light as can be and stiff as can be at the same time. It's ridiculous how stiff the bottom bracket is and how much more responsive it is as a result. Especially while climbing. I road more than a handful of bikes when I made my decision and found myself comparing them all to his. I can't find a bad thing to say about this bike.

Backup Road Bike: Felt F60 with Ultegra components and Easton Vista wheels. (Adam's wrong in his backup bike. He has an Easton Vista SL wheelset - not a huge difference though other than 100 grams of weight.). This was my first real bike that I bought and used when I got into tris. It's a road bike, but I had clip-on aerobars on it for a while that I've since taken off. Still use it to ride outside when the conditions are less than ideal. Rides well and is a good bike, but I wouldn't cry as long if I crashed on this as I would my R3.

Tri Bike: Guru TriLite with Zipp 404 (clinchers) wheels. Aluminum frame with Ultegra components and an ergomo powermeter installed. The training wheels I use for this are my Mavic Cosmos. Aside from having some issues in dropping the chain early last year, I like this bike. It's at a point now where it's comfortable and it rides really well. I may still end up replacing it for something that fits a little better, but it's still a solid bike all the way around. Riding on the 404s makes me want a pair of 303s for racing (or 202s for climbing days. )! That will have to wait though.

Mountain Bike: Yeti 575 with a Fox Float for the front suspension. I MTB more in the off season, but really ended up enjoying it. Don't get to do it enough, but I still like my road bike more. That said, this bike lets me ride stuff that's otherwise over my head and is a solid bike through and through.

Next Bike: Road or Tri? Next bike purchase will probably be a tri bike, possibly at the end of the year. We'll see how this season goes and what my plans (and budget) are for next year. Plenty of bikes to try out, but initially I'd lean towards the Elite Razor or Razor Carbon. The Guru Crono looks pretty nice too, as does the Kuota Kalibur. Gotta ride them first and see where I end up. At the top of my wish list for road bikes (and this one will have to wait a while, if ever) is a Pinarello Paris FP Carbon with a Campagnolo Record gruppo.

Just had a thought while looking through some of the logs and reading inspires. James mentioned the onset of a few minor aches and pains. You guys have all had a really good month of being consistent with your training. And among other things, one thing you'll notice in particular is that as your body continues to adjust to the workload and stresses, there will be a number of little aches and pains that pop up out of nowhere. Some will last a night, some will last a few days, if not a week. And then right when you're getting worried about them they'll disappear like they were never a problem. The key is recognizing if they're real issues or if it's just your body adjusting. This was one of the things that seemed to be a constant topic of conversation for Adam and me last year - kind of a 'what hurts today' scenario. Just keep being smart about things and listen to your body. If it means cutting a workout a little short, no problem. And be sure to take advantage of the rest weeks too! You won't realize it at first, but about mid-week into it you'll realize just how much your body was wanting that. And possibly a couple beers. Ya know, to help with the pain.

Hope everyone has a good weekend!

I think if the Colts show up at all they win, by 3.  If they play well, could be 7-10, and a blowout isn't out of the question if Manning has a career game.

Cartoons, since I skipped that earlier - Classic - Bugs Bunny, always like Bugs.  Modern - Simpsons.  I know, it's not a kids cartoon, but I love that show.

Have a good rest of the weekend and enjoy the game tomorrow.