Tuesday, October 18, 2011

Haikulometer

10/14/11

Anticipate you
Drive the truth out of your legs
True work equals love

Cool, Calm & Confident

10/13/11

Sometimes there is more to the look than meets the eye. That the confidence on the outside can be a reflection of how the race will be run or a preview of how the challenge will be met. The distance must be covered but how is up to the runner. Stepping to the start line, gun held over head of an official ready to fire killing the motionless self with a burst of inertia and with that birth of motion there can also be the birth of a managed plan. Run the race with your head for the first two thirds, says Coach Daniels, and your heart the last third. When you toe that line let your mind tell your body to relax, the real work doesn’t need to be painful until the last third. Of course, the mind continues, I can handle the first two-thirds! The first two-thirds isn’t painful, or at least shouldn’t be if you follow proper pacing, but the last third is so very painful, and how much pain you can take should be left up to the blessed heart.

Mesmerrunning

10/12/11

The run can have a hypnotic quality. Small talk with training partners can take on an inundating aspect as the trail acts like the flute and you the cobra. Trance of talk elicits ears catching pools of words and tattoos your brain with sentences ripe with the venting, questioning or bullshitting of the person kind enough to join you for this outing.

Steppin’ on my style

10/11/11

How many steps do you take a minute? It is pretty much a biomechanical fact that from the 5k to the marathon elite runners take at least 180 steps a minute when racing and what occurs as they go at faster velocities correlating to the 3k down is they take more steps. If you want some proof to this count the swings of the arms of any of the runners in a lead pack marathon race. Thankfully arms and legs work in synchronization so if you get 45 swings for one arm in thirty seconds then they are running 180 steps a minute. What is also true is that these runners, in their regular training, maintain this quick 180 stepping cadence at all paces except those that are faster velocities training where they take more steps.

This can not be said about a lot of aspiring runners. Interestingly all form comes together a bit better when racing, except for at the end when you may be falling apart. One issue with taking say 160 steps a minute vs. 180 is that when you accelerate you are on the ground and you decelerate as you are falling. The more steps you take to run the same pace means you are spending more time in the air and falling from a slightly greater height because instead of rolling over the ground you are almost grasshopper like bounding over it. This brings up a much more serious issue with a slower cadence. Besides working harder to run the same pace you are risking injury.

Running is a repetitive motion venture. So when you extrapolate the difference of steps from a minute to the difference in all the minutes of a year you can see that you want to manage risk. The new quicker cadence may take some time to adjust to being natural but you will find that upon acclimation it is much more comfortable. The best time to work on this form is when you are easy running. Your form may need adjustments when you are training at faster paces, but chances they are more nuanced because form comes together more when you are running at race paces. However, watch the laborious bounding of a beginner runner, or even a vet who just defies conformity, they are spending a noticeable amount of energy to increase their chance of injury. Maybe they need to make a 180degree turn in their form.

Work envy

10/10/11

A moment of change happens when we step out the door. A runner leaving the door on some level is always acting on at least one principal; work. Freud said there are two things you need in life to be happy, “work and love”. While I don’t believe that Freud is right on all matters of thought, the breadth of his genius is undeniable and in this instant he is spot on. Remember fellow runners, work is something to be done, but it is rewarding; for the love of passion don’t let running work have some negative connotation.

World's end

10/9/11

It was that kind of pristine run, the one that you write home about. In the town of Hingham sits “world's end” a beautiful bit of park that was saved from development through a combination of charity and local politics some thirty years ago. Today, it greets the terrific trio, old teammates on the run again, of Colin and the Dagans. An almost sublime experience.
The exercise was full of remainders of Boston, like a scene of the city spilling in through a break in trees as the trail passes by water. However, even though we are definitely still in the greater Boston area it is almost as if we are not. As if at worlds end that world of hustle, fuss and culture which makes Boston the best city in the world does end, or at least for the time spent there.

10/8

Run on Sentence
Driving down crisp red chutes, outlines of white strips guiding them, with meters of emptiness anticipating my legs full of a hot body riding adrenaline that is ready for the next step and demanding faster motion out of an autonomy already participating to the fullest of its ability… still more!

10/7

I was held at gun point once…
A long time ago, but not so long for those twice my age, I stood at my first State Meet. Nervous as hell, and to this day I have no clue what I did for a warm up, I stood in an awkward manner full of teenage limbs minutes before the race began. It was chillingly cold, adding to the fully bloomed anxiety whose numbness was already gripping. Such dread and anticipation! Mostly from that fall morning there comes a recollection of a certain hotness begging to already be three minutes into the race, settling down into a rhythm instead of held a motionless hostage by the gun and mere slaves to the start line.

10/6

ABCDEFGHIJKLMNOQRSTUVWXY&Z
A broken calf denied evolving fortune. Give heart introspection, judge kindly lofty minded nature over person quenching relentless spirits. Thirst undone, victory washed…
Xude you & zoom!

10/5

Newtonian Physics

There is a direct relationship between high heal recovery and application of force. In other words the more you push off of the ground, all the time but for today’s topic to the specifics of when you are running, the more your foot will recoil up under your body. This brings to mind something to the tune of “for each reaction there is an equal and opposite reaction.” To some a lot of theoretical nonsense but for others it can lead to a better sense of running theory.

10/4

I propose a toast
Stretched out on bed, allergic reaction swallowing face’s skin saddened by forced position. Being sick is a horrible situation. Having itchy hives across my face and stuck in bed all day plus just feeling like crap is the worst for me so I count myself lucky. Tonight starts with a run and me feeling weak at the beginning then some strength seeping in slowly, flirting with me, but again towards the end I am tired. Afterward I am feeling and looking better. Cheers to the elixir that is running!

10/3

Purpose & Paths
With purpose and reason, but in judged pace, it is out the door at a second floor apartment. Down steps with walls that strongly hold smoke that filled this hallway hours ago as the downstairs tenant does not do the decent thing and go outside with his cigarettes. Auto-pilot drives the two over streets run a dozen times or more by now. For the third or fourth time we end at Blue Hills and enter the magical trails stuck in the middle of suburbia with its’ roads riff with pedestrians, cars, and miserable man made sidewalks pitifully incapable of comparing to nature’s touch of pure paths.

10/2

Every end is but a beginning….
After yesterday’s pretty good workout, especially all things considered, I started thinking about the next step. We are now in fall, a fact that crept up on me, and the BU mini-meets are coming soon. Not too soon but soon enough that adjustments need to be addressed if not actually made. We are going to continue on this ten or eleven day cycle twice more starting the first of the two cycles today. Then we will keep the training scheme the same except the sprint days will change from all out sprints to speed endurance.
The BU mini-meets are in the middle to the end of December and we are going after the 400meter at the beginning of the indoor season. At the end/towards middle of Indoor, so middle of January and all of February, we will transition to the 800meter. This means that in less then three weeks the sprint days will move from all out sprints of 60 meters or so with four or five minutes rest in between each to 200’s-500’s at 95%-all out efforts. These 200-500meter sprints will be accompanied by a lot of rest, up to eight or ten minutes after a single 200. This type of training will take all the speed we have been working on for the last few months and start to turn it into speed endurance for the 400meter. It is exciting to see the year start to unfold from the end of one phase of training and into the beginning of another phase.

10/1

You just call, out my name, and I’ll come running….
Today’s tempo started with a phone call from Colin. Someone had dropped the ball on setting up a move and he called on us two to help. Up and down stairs we flew carrying boxes and furniture by an old XC crew. The move was done and so was work but ahead of us stood the track. Originally we were aiming for a high volume tempo workout but settled on a little less. Moving people’s household goods takes a toll on the legs, bringing a tired sense to the body. At the end of the day we did the work all the while coming through for a friend in need.

9/30

A Shadow of the Past or an Inkling of the Future
The three met in front of Colin’s condo building. Shaking the porch light off, they sifted between bands of darkness and cascades of street lamp lights. The night was bustling as per the usual Friday evening in Quincy and Colin’s story of the cross country teammates acted as a nice blanket to all the hustle of one of Boston’s immediate neighbors. A night run that seemed as if it was a memory of something done before, but no! It is a night run that seems of many to come!

9/29

Haikulometer
Can a run be fun?
Can a run be difficult?
Can they be the same?

9/28

A Matter of Motion
Sometimes when I run it’s like a lot of the rest of the world is somehow gone. Drifting away like dreams forgotten the next day after waking you up puzzled just that past night. I can remember that there are things and pressures out there, but they don’t matter. Right now, they don’t matter at all. Just like the dream doesn’t matter the next day.
The dream does have meaning. Perhaps of some fear, desire, drive or love that you are coping with in your everyday waking life. But as far as getting up the next day and doing your thing, the dream is just a point in a direction and that day is due to unfold. Just like the rest of the world comes back, you can’t run from them forever. However right now, at this moment of motion, they don’t matter at all.

9/27

Great Times
The shorter route, discovered after our first trip to Braintree High School, gets us there today in about 15minutes. It’s a nice route, flying by our recently discovered easy day haven of Blue Hills Parks and Recreation. This is a reminder of the fun filled running that fills those easy days. Autopilot running where Jen and I get a sort of one-on-one time with each other even though we often are together at work and spend most of our free time with each other, this time is somehow different or somehow better. However, today is not an easy day.
Stepping onto the track after 15minutes of easy running we continue to do the rest of the warm up. Some light drills followed by some quick short strides and then it’s on with spikes. Even though today is not an easy day and does not come with that “easy going fun” that is often present on those days it is, however, filled with a more vibrant expression; Joy. We are prepared for today’s sprints and eager to work hard. It is seen in both of us as we do our four all out surges. In between each 60 or so meter dash is filled with four or five minutes of rest and that gives us plenty of one-on-one time.