10/14/11
Anticipate you
Drive the truth out of your legs
True work equals love
Tuesday, October 18, 2011
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.
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.
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.
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.
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.
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!
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!
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