My Running Journal: 011111; or, "The Foot Bone's Connected to the Ankle Bone."

No running this morning. I’m currently “running” about once a week, if that. The reason is that I volunteered to be an alternate for the Affiliate Team for Crossfit Portland. The way that the 2011 Crossfit Games are shaping up, I doubt that I will be able to offer much even as an alternate, besides being a great cheerleader. But I’m going to keep up my current training cycle until February, at which point I am going to (probably) shift focus to races.

This morning I was thinking about what Kelly Starrett of Crossfit San Francisco said the other day in his Mobility WOD blog. Specifically, in episode 141 he addresses tibialis posterior. Tibialis posterior is a muscle of the lower leg, and it sits behind your tibia (duh). When talking about muscles, you can talk about origins (where the muscle starts), and the insertion (where it ends). And our friend tibialis posterior inserts, without getting too specific, into the bottom of your foot by way of some tendons that pass behind your inside ankle bone (medial malleolus). Here, take a look.



What tibialis posterior does, amongst other things, is work to invert the foot. Which means it helps to pull your footsie inwards. If you stand up, and then roll up onto the outside edge of your foot (the side where your pinkie toe is), you are technically inverting your foot. The opposite direction is “eversion,” but that isn’t important right now.

Why am I thinking about tibialis posterior? Well, I have arches that aren’t exactly the greatest. Even running in minimalist shoes. Tibialis Posterior is part of the chain that keeps the wonderful suspension system that is your foot in position. Strengthen the links in that chain, and you strengthen the whole. Since a stronger, more integrated body is what I am after, this is good stuff to know. And it has me thinking about other things, but more on that later.

My Running Journal: 010910; or, Running for Fun and Profit!

Today was an easy 5k on the reliable Leif Ericsson trail. I didn’t time it, just wanted to get the distance in and shake off some lingering soreness from a particularly interesting workout last week. I met up with one of the members of the running team that I have put together for the Shamrock run, and one of my friends who has been talking the talk about working out showed up as well. All in all it was a nice run, and a surprise waited for me at the end. More on that shortly.

I’m trying to get back in the blogging habit. Really, I am. I originally started this blog as a way to keep myself motivated to “get back in shape,” and I think the blog took a back seat once I actually started feeling healthy and self motivated again. I know that this blog is almost all words – I don’t think that I have linked too much outside of it, and I’m not one for pictures of myself doing stuff. Being a text based blog may make it hard to really explain things at times, but I’m happy to rattle off a page of text where a single picture might suffice. Because I hate taking pictures.

When I started, I was just trying to get my butt out of bed early in the morning so that I could get myself together for a run before going to the office. Now I’m back to sleeping in till 7am (or later, sometimes). But whereas last year at this time I was staying in bed because I was unmotivated, now I actually am sleeping because I am working out. Sleep is good in this case.

At the end of today’s run I was showing a drill to one of my running partners (Hi Tami!), and while we were discussing it, one of the other random strangers at the trailhead asked if I was a running coach, and if could show her (and possibly some people in her regular running group) the proper techniques for Pose/BoF style running. Luckily, I had my trusty electronic brain with me, and shot off an email to her with my contact info. Sure, I’ve spent a bunch of time, sweat and money on learning how to train people in movement, but I wasn’t expecting for a potential client to come up to me at the end of a run. That made today pretty great. We’ll see if she actually contacts me and arranges a session or two, but the very fact that I was approached because of what I was saying and doing is cool.

So now I actually have to think about rates, curriculum, and where in my schedule I am going to fit this. This is not a bad thing.

"For in that sleep of death what dreams may come," OR, My Running Journal, 010611

So I’m not dead, contrary to no one in particular’s belief. I doubt that there is even the hint of a rumor out there about my demise. But to allay any possible fears on the part of my dear reader(s), no, I am not dead, and have not been near death any time in the recent past. Unless you count sleep as death, in which case, perchance to dream.

Anyway. Way back in May of 2010 I was all jazzed about running. Crossfit was treating me well as a training modality, I was feeling strong, and had high hopes for the Portland Marathon.

Well, at least I can say I finished the Portland Marathon. I’m not going to brag about my time – let’s just say that I finished before they re-opened the streets, and leave it at that. I did learn an important lesson that day. Of course, that was a few months ago, and so I have probably forgotten whatever it was that I was thinking.

Oh, I remember now. 2011 will be faster, and there will be 3 marathons. Two I am sure of – the Portland and the Marine Corps marathons. The third may be the Eugene or Haulin’ Aspen trail marathon. We will see. I’m in the process of planning out my year of races.

Oh, and that Crossfit thing? Totally a fad. Flash in the pan. Not only did I get stronger and faster, I got cockier (“No Way,” you say. “Way,” I say). So cocky, in fact, that I signed up for a trainer certification. I am now a Crossfit Level 1 and Crossfit Endurance certified trainer and a Pose level 1 coach. Totally a fad. In fact, such a fad that I am signed up for another Endurance trainer certification course, and am looking into all kinds of other exercise related stuff. Such a flash in the pan that I am now training five days out of the week, and have asked the owners of the gym that I go to if they need a helper monkey for their intro classes (fingers crossed).

When I was in my teens I couldn’t understand how people could get out of shape and unhealthy. I remember talking to a family member about how I felt that I was always going to be intensely physically active. At some point that thought process got away from me. I rediscovered that love of activity last year.

I’ve put together a running and training team. Ostensibly to have a fun run – training for the Shamrock Run in Portland. Just a simple 5k fun run. But I’m hoping to translate that running team into something greater.

So I’m not dead.

My Running Journal, 050410

Hey, look at that, I have a blog!

I haven’t forgotten about it, but I have been lazy. Not running as much as I was, and definitely not writing as much.

Both of which I should be doing. But I am at a point where I don’t have a huge amount to say. I’m still doing Crossfit work five times a week, and have been going on trail runs on Sundays. I feel that I am teetering right on the edge of overtraining – I know that I can push harder, but I have feeling that I will start to see longer and longer overall recovery times between workouts, and I’d prefer that to not happen.

I’m definitely way off on following the Higdon schedule that I started – but I have a feeling that, overall, I am at least as strong and fit as I would have been had I stuck with it. To be perfectly honest, I have a feeling that I am much stronger overall because of the Crossfit than I would be if I was just running. Having a good strength base will contribute to my success as a marathoner.

I’m pretty sure that I could run a half marathon tomorrow if I wanted to. I know that I would be slow, but based on what I did on Sunday, 13 miles doesn’t seem like a long way. Sunday I tested out my legs – I went on 5k trail run on the Leif Ericksson trail here in Portland in the morning, and then hiked a trail on Dog Mountain in the afternoon. The morning run I did without my metronome, and while my overall cadence was too slow, I did finish the run in 29 minutes. Which is by no means fast, but I was at a cruising speed where I was trying to focus on my form more than anything else. The first ½ mile absolutely sucked, and I was wondering if my aerobic capacity was shot – but then I remembered that the first ½ mile or so always sucks, I just haven’t been running enough recently to keep that in mind. Assuming that I pay attention to my cadence, I will go faster.
The afternoon hike was by no means a leisure stroll. Dog Mountain starts with a ½ mile climb that covers 700 vertical feet by way of switchbacks. At the .7 mile mark the trail splits, and you get to choose between “less” difficult and “more” difficult. Note that “Difficult” is a component of both. My buddies and I decided to go up the more difficult trail and come down the less difficult trail. More Difficult was 2.2 miles to the summit, while less was 2.6. More difficult was an aggressive trail, with sections that must have been 45-50 degrees in pitch. So steep in some sections that I could probably have put my hands out and climbed if I wanted to. Which made for an interesting hike. Round trip was a little over 7 miles, and I got to test my downhill running technique on the way back to the car.

Between the hike and the run, I was more fatigued by the end of the day than I was when I ran the Haulin’ Aspen half marathon a couple of years ago. Based on what I did on Sunday, I think I could handle a 13 mile run without too much issue.

I’m going to stick with Crossfit as my primary training mode until the end of this month, and then I’ll assess if I am doing as well as I think that I am.

My Running Journal 042010

I went running (finally) this past Sunday. Okay, not quite running, more of a trot, as I was running with friends who aren’t quite as far into running as I am. We were all wearing VFFS, so I wasn’t the only one fielding the questions from folks on the trail.

I’m at a point now where I think I am recovering quickly enough from my Crossfit workouts that adding the CFE workouts won’t be too painful. The specter of overtraining is one that has been looming over me – in order to maintain my current momentum, I need to avoid wiping myself out.

And I need to get back to running on a regular basis. I know that I’m not really improving my running without practicing the skills. It’s now been a week and a half since I took the Pose clinic, and I really haven’t utilized the skills or drills more than twice. The good thing is that the warm-ups at the gym this week all start with a 600ish meter run. That will let me practice some of my footwork. The run this Sunday was more of a trot, and the cadence we were moving at was slow enough that I really wasn’t keeping good form. But I can’t complain, I’ve been the out of shape one on runs, and it was fun to encourage my friends to keep going and to talk about technique and goals.

Speaking of goals, this week my micro-goal will be to get back into running on Wednesday mornings, and practicing my Pose footwork drills at least once a day for 15-30 minutes. And to get back to writing everyday.

More soon.

My Running Journal 041210

Today is a non running day. I think that I am going to spend a few minutes working on my jump rope technique, and maybe some of the skill building exercises that I learned yesterday in the POSE Technique class.

It turns out that the guy who taught the workshop yesterday Drew Miller, is also a Crossfit Endurance trainer as well as a POSE technique coach. He taught a great class, and it really helped solidify some ideas in my head about how things are supposed to work. It also became very clear that just reading about how to do something, and watching videos, does not substitute for good coaching. The workshop was small, a total of five of us. Two of the other guys were experienced mid to long distance runners and are training for the Eugene marathon - both of them knew about POSE, one of them the does Crossfit training, and the other one is starting to run in VFFs. The other guy, who had come up from Ashland, has been running in huaraches. The one woman in the group was not an experienced runner, which was probably good for her, since she didn't have to fight old habits, and was clearly able to focus on getting the pose right without having to contract old muscle memory.

We had a great conversation about Chi Running, the similarities between the two forms, and the bad blood between runners from all camps. I haven't encountered any negativity directly, but I'm not coaching people. Evidently there are loads of people who decide that if you aren't doing something their way, you must be doing it wrong ( I do this, but normally it is in response to other people's driving). And folks seem to be okay with criticizing other people's decisions, without knowing the other, "wrong" position. You see it in everything that has been systemized, and I guess running techniques are no different. Of course, the whole push behind the Pose technique and forefoot striding, along with minimalist shoes, is a threat to the current paradigm of running. Especially when you factor in how much money there is involved with shoes. Sarah, the woman at the clinic yesterday lamented a little over the fact that she had purchased a brand new set of nicely, heavily protective New Balance shoes based on the observation of what her foot did when she heel strikes.

The funny thing is that, and this keeps getting repeated to me in various forms, you cannot pronate or supinate your foot if you are utilizing the Pose technique. Your general center of mass is over your point of support, which happens to be your forefoot. If you aren't heel striking ahead of your hips, then there is no way that you can pronate or supinate your foot without really injuring yourself and doing it purposefully. I let Sarah know that I was in the same boat - I dropped a large amount of money on a pair of stability control shoes when I started ( those wonderful Brooks Addictions), and now they get used to transport me to the car on mornings when I head to Crossfit. Just to the car and the gym - I change over to my VFFs at the gym.

We went over tempo, body mechanics, uphill and downhill running, and skill drills. Drew videoed us running at the beginning of the class, middle, and end. And we all watched and picked apart our forms. I thought I had the forefoot stride down pretty well, at least as far as getting my foot to touch down directly below my center of mass, instead of ahead of it. Boy was I wrong. There were a host of other things that we kept an eye on, and by the end of the clinic I had improved a little bit.

Beside the specific skill drills and coaching that I got from the clinic, we also discussed effective training - this goes back to my thoughts on what it means to run as fast as you can. Drew reinforced my opinion in that it makes no sense to train poorly - if your basic skill set is deficient, and you have a bad running form, then you aren't helping yourself if you push yourself to run faster without taking the time to really improve your basic skills. You are a better runner if you have and can maintain good form throughout the course of your run. If you can't maintain a good form in a training run, then you are running farther than your skill, and aren't really benefitting from the exercise.

We also got some fun toys - a metronome and an EZ run belt. I'll discuss the belt in a future post, but it seems like it will be a very helpful training tool. The metronome is a much nicer one than I have been using, primarily because it is louder and has a belt clip.

Tomorrow I am going to go out and give my new found running skills a test. And hopefully I'll find other people who are POSE runners in Portland that would like to get together for group training and critique. Because Drew Miller is the only Pose certified trainer in Oregon.

My running journal, 040810

The Tabata training protocol is pretty cool. Wednesday's workout ended with us doing Tabata sit-ups. Four minute abs!
The Tabata protocol is pretty simple. The workout spans all of four minutes, and consists of eight sets of 20 seconds of all out effort, followed by 10 seconds of rest, then 20 seconds all out, etc. Four minutes. Easy, right? Well, it is and it isn't. The first set you feel like you have all the time in the world, and then as the sets progress, the rest times seem shorter and shorter, while the work time stretches out, and the work gets harder. My sets broke down to 17, 14, 13, 11, 9,9,9,9. That last one was hard to get - it took me three seconds to get that last sit-up in. There wasn't any pain in the sets, just a decided lack of response from my abdominal muscles to respond as fast I wanted them to. The study usually used to show the effectiveness of the Tabata protocol indicates that it is potentially as aerobically effective as a 45 minute step aerobics class. I'd like to see more studies before I completely accept that, but i have a feeling it is at least approaching the truth.

Now that I know how a Tabata set works, as far as timing, I really need to work them into my training set. And to avoid overtraining, I'm only supposed to do a major muscle group Tabata set once or twice a month. I think that I am going to start usig my early Saturday mornings for track work. I have already blocked out that time for CFE workouts.

It turns out that I don't need to buy a new watch after all. I started playing with my Forerunner 305, and it has an interval function. And I can set it up for timed intervals and/or distance intervals. Which will be good, as it is hard to figure out how far 200 meters are on the street - I guess i could chart a route and break it down, block by block, but the last thing that I want to try and do while sprinting is to keep an eye on street signs or mailbox numbers. Easier just to have a GPS watch beep to tell you when you have reached your set distance. We'll see if I am smart enough to figure out the basic programming needed to do this.

Interval training hear I come!