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Shoes

January 28th, 2010

This is a short blog entry but I just had to share this from the BBC news website…

It basically details how runners with heavily cushioned shoes run compared with people who run barefoot or in very minimal shoes. As you know by now if you know me or read my blog, this topic is one very close to my heart. We need to learn how to run how we used to run before all these highly cushioned running clogs became the norm.

Look at the video and decide for yourself. How much easier does it look (and faster) to run on forefoot rather than hitting with the heel and effectively putting the brakes on with every single step. And let’s not forget that it is a LOT of steps in a marathon!

This video features Christopher McDougal, the author of Born to Run

Here is another interesting link…

So what am I saying? I’m saying that I’m going for a run in my Vibrams tomorrow. What will you do? Well, only you can decide!

At last! Someone has actually been studying the differences between barefoot and shod running techniques!

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Posted in Barefoot, Running, Running Form, Running Technique | No Comments »

Northern Cross Country Championships, Training etc.

January 26th, 2010

This last week has been a good one regarding training. Highlight of the week has to be the XC Championships in Blackburn. It was a long drive but well worth it to take part and see some amazing runners. I have learned a fair amount this week about myself and training.

Heart Rate

My resting heart rate sat at desk mid morning 11:30am 26thJan 2010.

I understand a lot of people are skeptical about how much good monitoring your heart rate actually is and that different monitors can give different readings. I think this is what I am finding out. However, I think as long as you adjust accordingly then use the new device as a yard stick it still is a useful tool to enable people to see when they should rest, when they could have run harder and how hard they are working in racing and training.

Lately my heart rates seem to have fallen quite a lot for  a given pace. Could this be since I had the new Garmin? I was thinking maybe until of course I realised that I have been training consistently well over 40 miles per week now for about 8 weeks or more. By now I should be seeing some training adaptations, the most obvious one from experience is that the heart rate for pace drops and the recovery rate to normal heart rate post exercise is quicker and resting heart rate is lower. I have noticed all of these markers, the latter of which is exemplified by the photograph.  Just a few weeks ago my heart rate at rest sat here mid morning was 58 bpm.

Therein lies the distance runner’s paradox. The fitter you get, the harder it actually is to get near your maximum heart rate. This could explain my frustrations at not being able to get HR up in races. It makes me feel like a lazy runner and I do need to get more used to getting out of my comfort zone. The irony is that the more training you do, then the harder you have to work to get the results you want. I’m fairly happy though and I’m looking forward to my next half marathon where I will then see if my fitness is where I want it to be.
I do feel like I’m missing the cycling now though. I have neglected it since the end of September when I tentatively started to run again. I will give it a week or two for the weather to improve a little more then I will start to put some miles in on the bike too. Cross training definitely helps.

Cross Country

SONY DSC

Despite the seventy five mile car drive each way I enjoyed the Northern Cross Country Championships. It was rather daunting to think that I was going to race take part in a race where the whole field were good solid club runners and the sharp end would be some of the best in the country! Once I had started racing though, despite it being brutally tough I felt honoured to be part of it. It was great to be lapped by the truly fast runners who simply glid past at a ridiculous rate of knots. There is a world of difference in athletic talent and ability between The Good and The Great runners. The Great ones are on a completely different level. I am in constant awe of them. the Ladies race started before us and Suzy from our club was in it so we had a good amount of time to watch before the Men’s race at 15:05. The winner was Hatti Dean running for Hallamshire Harriers – it was fantastic to watch her dominate the field from start to finish. Suzy of course ran a good race despite turning her ankle several times during the run.

I can’t help feeling rather insignificant against such a strong field of competitors. However, on reflection I think I did quite well to do what I did considering it was my first ever Northern Champs race and I never knew what to expect. I was quite surprised at how hilly it was to be honest. I counted eight hard climbs during the race and all were nice and sludgy, getting worse as the race progressed.

I was placed 379th from 602 runners, completing the 7.3 miles course in 56:58 so really, I can’t complain about that. I certainly learned a lot!

Hill Running Technique

I learned on Saturday about racing strategy and how to race cross country. To me it is completely different to fell or road racing. In a cross country race you simply have to run your heart out from start to finish. Starting off confidently and holding on to a lead is the name of the game or you quickly become swamped by the pack which of course is what happened to me. It is much harder work there because you are in constant danger of being trampled. Each time I hit a hill it got harder and at one point I was reduced to what felt like a half defeated trudge up the hill in a line of runners. I was accepting my fatigue and accepting the hill.

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Me demonstrating how not to run up a hill

Then the faster runners came past, simply bounding up the hill with alarming speed and vigour. I decided to see if I could emulate their bounding technique that looked quite easy. I realised then that I could run up the hills, passing people but also that it took more strength than I have. Each hill I could attack now and pass runners every time. I hung on to very near the top and I simply ran out of steam each time. It is more hill sprint training I need because I very quickly recovered when I went back to the slower, accepting technique and then of course the legs cam fully back to life on the down hills. So, it takes guts and faith in your fitness and of course having enough fitness in the first place but to get up the sludgy hills or get pace up over sludgy terrain you simply have to run your heart out and know that you will recover on the slightest of down hills. It is a sort of loping gait I saw most use and that seems most effective in those conditions. It is hard to explain how you do that but I think it is some kind of subconscious adjustment to he decreased rebound you get due to the soft ground soaking it up. I did notice that concentrating on picking my feet up out of the mud helped enormously too. This aligns well with my running technique anyway and also I found that holding form no matter how tired you are is paramount in XC otherwise you will just get beaten by the terrain. I love it though, I’m not brilliant at it by any means but I love it because it is so bloody hard and the satisfaction you get having done an event is very great indeed.

To summarise my performance I’d say I need more hill training and lactate tolerance training. I need to get in the burn zone more often and get used to holding it there. Something a little alien to a long distance runner to be honest, well maybe not alien but it’s not something I do for long enough in a race. Short races are going to help me with this. I think the key is to hit short races as hard as you possibly can and keep going. Gradually you get better at doing it and learn that actually you can do much more than your brain tells you you can. Verging on Central Governor theory here too. Fighting the natural safety mechanism that I happen to believe in and training it to accept higher and higher levels of discomfort in races.

Goals

I only have two for 2010. I have signed up for Stratford Half Marathon which is the same day as London Marathon. I will be running as hard as I possibly can to see where my fitness is. After Shakespeare I will assess the likelihood of me running a marathon this year. I would like to do one but it all really depends on my fitness, how well I respond to training and how great the threat of injury is really. All being well I will run an Autumn marathon and hit a new PB.
Everything else is either just for fun or for training. This means I will probably attend many races. It doesn’t necessarily mean that I will be racing them all flat out though. It all depends on what they are distance wise, and the timing of them related to my two goals.
I am likely to be seen running a fair few fell races this Summer.

iPhones

My interest in programming the iPhone is deepening. I find it quite soothing in that it allows me to focus on one activity that I enjoy and calm my head down albeit temporarily, forgetting anything else that may be weighing heavily on me.

Summary of the Week

I am happy with my training for the week and I think really it is the only thing that has kept me sane what with the Fishpond Disaster and Work Hell. Somehow I managed to run nearly 60 miles for the week, 7.34 of which was cross country racing. The rest of my training can only be described as base miles at various paces and some off road running thrown in. As yet nothing too structured; I’m just watching my RPE, HR and just doing one good hard session (race) per week for now. It is so nice to be back running and getting somewhere with it!

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Posted in Running, Running Technique | No Comments »

And I Will Run 100 Miles

January 15th, 2010

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That’s how far I have run so far this year. I’m really pleased that I am starting to get some reasonable training at last and with no signs of old injuries. I did manage to whack my knee so hard I nearly passed out on the fire surround in the living room earlier though! That hurt considerably and now it’s painful to walk on. I’m hoping it will recover quickly though.

It has been so very cold and slippy these past few weeks as depicted above – what an amazing view of our country! At first I was quite enjoying the wintry conditions; however, after several weeks of not actually being able to run without every footstep slipping does get rather boring! Good training it is though because every run becomes a strength and balance training exercise.

I haven’t worn my Vibram ’shoes’ though because they tend to keep the cold in and they do not grip at all in wet, slippy conditions. I need some Treks for better grip really and may well invest in some shortly.

Running Wild

This efficient running lark intrigues me; just the other night I was talking to a running club friend about it saying that I don’t think you ever really stop learning and that technique can always be improved. I’d like to extend that to perceptions too. We all have bad habits that we need to remain vigilant over. Mine is that I can end up pulling my legs behind me after a while, especially when the going gets tough and I get tired. Of course this is undesirable because when this happens you throw yourself off timing, start landing too early in front of yourself before your body has caught up with your new support point. If not careful you can then slip into the old reaching forwards with the foot and then it all goes to pot. Back to square one almost. I was reading on the Posetech forums and it occurred to me that I could use the knee forwards feeling as a cue. Quite a while ago I mentioned that if you get the pull right and the knees are folding correctly with relaxed quads (see fig 4, Pose stance in link), it actually starts to feel like you are doing the quads stretch as you are running: interestingly the bloke in the link demonstrates the exactly wrong leg position with foot behind bum! I noticed that I hadn’t been aware of this for a little while and sure enough my form had started to slip – due in no small part to the slippy conditions I reckon! Anyway, I made myself a mental image of the deadleg thing where someone knocks the back of your knees and the knee folds up, letting the kneecap travel forwards and your ankle progress straight up under the bum. When doing this in the house I noticed that if I started by tapping the back of my knee I got the proper perception back. Then I started doing the Pony (about 1:40 into the video) in the living room – lo and behold I was pulling correctly once more, knees coming forwards and ankles going straight up. I was once more taking my feet with me as I call it! Then WHACK!!!! I banged my knee on the fire surround and ended up in agony for a few minutes while I composed myself. Managed to cut my knee and my jeans too!

One issue to be aware of is that you need to make sure the knees forwards perception (video link demonstrates how to do it properly) doesn’t end up as a knees upwards movement because knees upwards wastes energy, uses the hip flexors which in turn makes you reach the foot out forwards, run with too much tension and yes, you are back to square one, running with the laboured effort of a muscle power runner rather than the guile and agility of an elite distance runner (nothing wrong with good imagery).

A Cushy Number

Another nail in the coffin lid of highly cushioned shoes! The article speaks for itself – read on!

Anyone who knows me will know by now that I ditched the cushioned shoes a year ago now and feel so much better for it. Some will be quick to point out that I was also injured last Summer but that was down to my silliness, determination to complete events and running with wrong technique! I was running in Nike Marathoners at the time. I still use them too because I simply like the shoe!

How on earth mankind expects to be able to compete with over four million years of evolution by using a bit of foam cushioning is both arrogant and silly in my humblest of opinions naturally!

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Posted in Pose Method, Running, Running Form, Running Technique | No Comments »

What I Did Over Christmas

December 29th, 2009

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A beautiful Christmas Day in Derbyshire

I couldn’t really think of a more imaginative title I’m afraid. However, I did manage to do a fair amount of running over the Festive Season.
I have a new widget that details my activities uploaded to Garmin Connect. Father Christmas was quite generous to me a I ended up with a quite unexpected Garmin 310XT which uploads automatically to the site. I rather like the Garmin Connect site to be honest; they have obviously put quite a lot of work into it and the gadgets are really rather useful. From now on I think Garmin Connect will be my running log of choice. I have also decided to venture into the world of alternative footwear – going back to nature or at least as close as you can get without slicing your foot open on a sharp stone.

Christmas day was my wife Heidi’s birthday and as is tradition nowadays for us, we headed out into the Peak District for a birthday morning run with Susie a dear friend of ours and Rosie our springer spaniel. It really was a fantastic run and there are moments in it that will stay with me for a long time. Seeing the joy on people’s faces, everyone saying Merry Christmas, the lovely weather despite freezing temperatures and the snow all made for one of the most uplifting and Christmassy runs I have ever done.

New Garmin

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The new Garmin 310XT

I was very surprised and delighted to receive a new Garmin 310XT for Christmas. My old 305 is getting a little old and battered after nearly 3.5 years of constant use in all weathers. the battery is starting to show signs of age and doesn’t last very long now on a full charge. As a unit however, the 305 has served me faultlessly since I got it in 2006. At the time there were a number of faulty units, I had mine replaced three times (without any trouble from Garmin) before I got the 305 that is still going strong.
I had noticed the new Garmin 310XT and decided I would wait until my old unit completely gave up the ghost. This all changed on Christmas morning when I opened my presents. I have taken the 310 out on a couple of runs so far; on the first one it performed faultlessly, locking on to a satellite signal within 30 seconds. The other day in the hills however, it locked up and stopped working. I switched it off and then it worked fine once more. I hadn’t updated the firmware though and Garmin advise you to do this so I will give it another try with the new firmware I have since installed.
The ANT USB receiver/transmitter works perfectly with my iMac, automatically uploading data to Garmin Connect as soon as the unit is within range. Updates are performed with the click of a button on the Garmin Connect site when you need to upgrade the unit firmware for example.
I view the lock up as a teething trouble but will keep you posted on progress with subsequent runs.

Boxing Day

Another nice outing in the Derbyshire Peak District with my wife Heidi and Spaniel Rosie. It was a lovely run/walk up onto Kinder Scout in the snow and ice. Descending proved a little difficult in places where it was solid ice so we walked carefully in these places. Rosie however was not troubled at all by the ice and hardly slowed down; she is definitely in her element in the hills and I’m so glad we have her. I have been thinking about doing some Cani-X events when she is a little older. At the moment Rosie is a little young and her endurance is just 8 miles although I suspect she will quickly improve when we start running her regularly. Need to wait until she is over 12 months old though.

New ‘Shoes’

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My KSOs and Injinji Socks

I have been considering trying out some Vibram Five Fingers for quite a while and today (29/12/2009) took the plunge, drove to Sheffield to try some on and bought a pair of KSOs. Initially I wondered if I had done the right thing but the feet quickly get used to them. I will try running in them soon and will blog about my progress. My initial thoughts are that these are a very good idea and they definitely allow the foot to behave much more naturally whilst providing adequate protection from foreign objects in the road or path. I have been wearing very minimal shoes for running and walking now for many months so my feet should be getting stronger.

Getting the Right Fit

These items of footwear do not ’size’ like any other conventional footwear so the best thing to do is throw away any preconceptions about what shoe size you are – it won’t help you. I used the advice here and here but I urge anyone who may be considering buying these to go to a store and try some on if you can. I was lucky in that I live not too far away from an excellent stockist of Vibrams in Sheffield. The Naked Ape stock all sorts of out door gear for climbers, walkers and runners. The atmosphere is very much a friendly, grassroots feel to the place – climbers are like that I find – they are a friendly bunch. I was helped and advised very well indeed and I walked away very happy with a pair of KSOs and two pairs of injinji socks.

Running

I have been running a little. Last week I clocked up over forty miles so that’s not too bad. I’m getting some regular mileage in nowadays and no niggles or anything so far which pleases me greatly. I am going to start training properly in the new year but for now I am simply trying to build my base up to a regular 60 miles per week.

Events for the new year are really just two where I plan to put in everything I have. Shakespeare Half Marathon and then hopefully on to Berlin in the Autumn all being well. In between I will be entering fell races and anything I feel like doing really. Some will be purely for fun, some will be training and some will be to race. I have no hard and fast plans beyond that for 2010.

I now upload my training to the Garmin Connect site and it posts my recent activities in the left sidebar on this blog for anyone who may be interested.

Happy New Year to everyone!

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A Festive Post

December 23rd, 2009

Apologies for not posting on here much these days. A lot has been happening in my life and I simply have had very little time to blog. I have been making time for running and learning professional skills that will enable me to develop my career.

Anyway, onto things of a festive nature.

Tonight I ran in the moonlit snow covered fields and woods near home. It was a special run, one of those I will not forget for a long time. I do love running so much. I am greatly looking forward to Christmas day with my wife Heidi and our dog Rosie when we will go for a run in the peaks somewhere.

Healthy Christmas cake. Yes, there is such a thing. Here is a recipe for a cake my wife baked recently. It uses no eggs or animal fats which is much healthier than most cakes!

Weetabix Cake

The following will make a 1lb loaf tin sized cake.

Ingredients

2 Weetabix
1 cup sugar
1 cup milk
1 cup dried fruit
1 cup self raising flour

Method

Mix the first four ingredients, leave for several hours or overnight then add self raising flour.

Bake in oven at 180 degrees for 30 to 40 mins

Optional Seasonal Ingredients

Nuts of your choice (esp. ground almonds), rum and lots of amaretto. Top cake with marzipan.

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Cross Country Makes You Stronger

November 16th, 2009

Long time no blog…

My running continues to improve and my recovery from the Summer long injury continues. I still only manage about a third of the miles I was used to running only six months ago. I now run about 30 miles per week but I enjoy it all. I have also started doing shorter races on a regular basis and have become quite keen on cross country races in particular. This kind of racing allows me to race all out yet for some reason I don’t hurt myself at all and my legs recover within 12 hours so I can train the following day with no trouble.

I continue to be pleasantly surprised at how I can run hard and simply not feel like I have run at all the next day. I know this is in no small part down to my technique. On Sunday I was experimenting with technique as I raced. The temptation of course is to try traditionally harder which means pushing yourself out of the mud and struggling forwards. Unfortunately this destroys your form and slows you down further whilst increasing the horrible fatigue feelings you get in your legs and pit of stomach on a tough race. Every time I felt myself bending forwards at the waist I made myself regain my upright posture and project my hips forward. This helped me a lot and allowed me to surge up the short hills although I was tiring.

I concluded that Pose Method or more like a proper running stance and technique works well whatever the terrain or type of race you are doing. The simple fact is that your biomechanics do not change from tarmac to grass, sludge or whatever. If you hit the ground like a brick you will hurt yourself even on soft ground – it may just take a bit longer…

During the race, every time I felt like I was slowing I checked my form and made adjustments to become more upright, project hips forwards and relax to allow myself to fall forwards. The sensation is one of riding on your legs, being dragged along by your navel/belt line and all you have to do is keep picking up your feet to catch up with the body and put them back down again to support yourself momentarily while you fall forwards again. The effort is felt in keeping the positioning right so you can keep the nice, light springy feel and maintain the falling forwards. Once you lose it you know because it all starts to feel horribly sluggish. Of course the race was very hard anyway but that is cross country racing. I like it simply because there is no let up,  just hard,  hard work from start to finish.

Helping a Friend

Today we visited a friend of ours in her new home. This woman is a keen runner frustrated with recurring injury. After chatting to her for a while I managed to convince her that since nothing else has worked maybe she should try to find out if she was doing anything wrong in her running technique. I knew there would be errors in her technique because I understood the nature of her injuries. The main recurring one is tendonitis at the back of the knee – sometimes the hamstring insertion, other times it’s the top of the calf/soleus insertion and typical runners knee – or patellar tendonitis. I took my camera along and made a short video of her running, then showed it back to her in slow motion. Sure enough she and I could very clearly see every error that I had earlier described to her that I said would be causing the injuries.I have summarised the errors below…

  • Landing in front of GCM with straight knee on heel
  • Pushing off hard and pointing toe
  • Staying on ground too long as a result of the push off (this will make the other leg land in front of body)
  • Swinging leg through rather than simply picking the foot up toward the bum thus using hip flexors to bring leg forward rather than hamstrings to simply pick foot up

Some time soon we will go on a very short run where I can show her what she needs to do to put things right. I did show her the basic principles but I was careful not to give her too much to think about all in one go. For now she will be practising falling towards the wall with both knees nicely bent in a relaxed manner. I never once mentioned Pose, Chi or any of the efficient running doctrines.

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More Running

October 13th, 2009

Well, some running and some stuff about the website…

New Website

Yes, it’s taken a while but at long last I have created my very first scratch written theme for WordPress featuring the JDGallery plugin and SimplePress Forum.

I really like both of these plugins and they seem to work very well indeed so full credit to the people that created these. Keep up the good work!

Now I know about the basics of theme writing I plan to do some more when I have the time and perhaps showcase them on another site separate to ThinkRunning. ThinkRunning is my little project that is a showcase for my work yes but also a place where I share my thoughts about running and my journey in the quest for better performance and injury free running.

Which of course leads me on to talk about my running…

Running

I am steadily coming back from a Summer of injury and no running. I have been completely pain free for a week or two now – I think there have been odd strange pains every now and then but nothing to tell me that the injury hasn’t healed or I have re-injured myself.

I have been very careful in starting back and have concentrated on getting my technique correct to increase the likelihood of me making a successful return to injury free running.

I still seem to learn a bit each time I run. The basics are quite astounding though. I will never understand how on earth I never realised how simple it was. It is as though the “secrets” of injury free and efficient running were hidden in plain sight. The harder I looked, the less I could see. You really do have to stop looking for magic and simply feel what your body is doing. Sadly if you are like me it will take a long time for you to train your senses, proprioception, reflexes and sub conscious to simply run properly again. This is what comes with a lifetime of isolating our senses and especially the nerves in our feet from the ground beneath us and learninig to trust our bodysense without assumptions. Of this I am sure. How many times have you found yourself saying “no, this can’t be the right wqy to do it, I must be wrong”. Why ust you be wrong? If it feels different, it doesn’t mean it’s wrong, just different and if you want to change that can be a good thing.

What I find saddens me is I see lots of people around me being upset and frustrated by running induced injuries and it is as if they are blind because they cannot see what is causing it all. Some people do not wish to listen so I don’t volunteer anything nowadays. If someone asks me for help then I oblige to the best of my abilities. I love helping people. It really gives me a sense of happiness to see people make positive changes that will allow them to continue to enjoy running like they never imagined rather than put up with the constant frustration of injury, rest, re-injury etc due to not changing what is the root cause of injuries.

I have been there, done that and had the stress fracture, tendon injury, you name it really. Running, or more correctly, running badly has left my body and mind battered and bruised to the point where I very nearly gave up.

I am so glad I didn’t give up though because now I feel as though I am just beginning to enjoy running all over again. Running feels so different nowadays. Yes it is still not easy but my pace for a given effort has improved, the aches and pains have gone and hopefully so have the injuries!

On Saturday (10/110/09) My wife and I ran with Beth, a friend of ours on a lovely off road course. We caught the train from Grindleford to Edale, then ran from Edale back to Grindleford for a chip buttie and huge mug of hot tea at the Grindleford Cafe. That is a lovely way to spend a Saturday!

This run was the longest one I have done since June and it was all on a hard off road course with lots of climb and descent. I have now learned how to use gravity even on the steepest of hills. I am releived that it still takes a lot of effort to do. When it was explained ot me ages ago I couldn’t understand how you could use gravity to help you up hills. Basically you fall forwards just like you do on the flat, picking your feet up and catchng yourself from falling on a knife edge, perpetuating the unbalance. Up hills this takesa lot of strength to maintain this constant stae of unbalancing forwards, hence the effort. I did notice though that this was comparitively the easiest way I have ever ascended these hills and I have run up there a number of times now! On the way back down LoseHill to Hope I learned how to control the speed and not let it run away with you on the steepest of hills too. It is leaning back a little to control speed – you have to on a very steep hill. However, the hips stay a tiny bit forward so you land properly and you pull the feet from the ground properly. I imagine the torso is actually perpendicular at this point but the steepness of the hill gives the perception that you are leaning back a bit. It pays to remember to bend the knees here and you will descend nice and softly following the contour of the ground down and away from you rather than stepping out into space then crashing down in front of your centre of gravity.

Saturday’s run saw me cover nearly twelve miles of off road running – afterwards there were no aches and pains, no DOMS the day after either, in fact I was fine to run five miles at a good pace on Sunday. This shows me that my technique is better than it ever has been and I am really looking forward to regaining my full fitness to see what I can really achieve with my running.

Here is the course we went on…

http://www.runsaturday.com/tabId/64/activityId/157939/Default.aspx

I do hope that somebody will find what I write useful or helpful. Some people may call me a “Pose nut” but basically I am just a runner and what I do is run. There is no such thing as Pose running as far as I am concerned because Pose is a teaching method, not a style of running per se. I don’t think about Pose when I run, I just concentrate on maintaining that state of unbalance and the rest just happens.

That isn’t to say that I don’t find Pose Method useful or a good idea because I think it is all these things. Pose Method has helped me to run again without injuring myself. It won’t work for everyone but it will work for a lot of people.

Tonight’s Run – 13/10/2009

Tonight felt really good from a technique point of view. My feet felt like they were just tapping the ground away beneath me and I was keeping a good pace. I don’t feel fit yet though and should consider running a little slower now. Oe thing that occurred to me while running tonight was about the fall as we call it. In order to be able to pull our foot from the ground properly we need to unweight properly which is when our bodyweight lessens as we travel over our support point. If this unweighting doesn’t happen properly then we cannot pull our in time and I think we may also try pushing to compensate. When this happens then our trailing foot is left on the ground too long and we put the othe rfoot down prematurely before our body has moved over support. Basically if we don’t unweight properly it impedes the whole running action.

How do we unweight properly then? I hear you ask. Well, we have to make sure that our alignment is good, our hips are forwards leading our fall and we have good posture. When we do this then everything else just happens on time. It won’t be perfect but it will be good enough to give you the perception fo running efficiently and I thnk you will realise that you can now adjust things as you run and feel the difference. The cruicial part as I see and percieve it is getting the hips forwards and the upper torso nicely aligned. It doesn’t have to be perfect but it has to be near enough. The hips have to be forwards enough to destroy balance over support and sustain that lean so you run with the least amount of braking possible.

This is what I thought tonight. It may make perfect sense to some of you, to others it may well be gibberish. Make of it what you will, if it helps I’d be interested to hear.

Here is my run tonight…

http://www.runsaturday.com/tabId/64/activityId/160453/Default.aspx

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Something More About Pose

September 25th, 2009

Saturday – Pose Clinic and Feeling the Force

It was quite a long drive down the Egham on Saturday morning after only five hours sleep yet it was worth it on so many levels. I met a lovely bunch of people there and found a missing piece of my Pose Jigsaw thanks to AA and of course Cabletow who reminded me of two key concepts.

I am really quite bad with names so I shan’t attempt to recall everyone by name. It was great to meet some new faces and some I already know. The atmosphere was a really nice and relaxed one which made for a very beneficial learning environment. Everyone without exception learned something on Saturday and all of the clinic attendees made vast improvements to their running style quite literally before my eyes. It was a wonderful sight to behold. So many smiling, happy faces.

I will concentrate on the fundamentals I observed there though in the hope that it will be of maximum benefit to anyone who reads this.

The Spot

CT explained that the day’s clinic would involve some new approaches to teaching as well as the teaching he is compelled to teach by Pose Method. One of the most useful approaches here was involving the pull. I have witnessed quite a few newcomers to Pose now pulling far too much and with a hamstring curl behind them. This means pull direction and intensity is off. CT explained that it could be down to how Pose Method tells people to pull up to the butt or backside. Of course people do exactly that and they end up slapping their own bums with their feet. This is a very inefficient and actually quite exhausting way to try and run – it’s like doing old fashioned heel flick drills permanently!

How was this resolved? Well CT went on to explain that the pull is different for every individual but the direction is always the same. You have to pull the ankle such that it traces or follows the line of your opposite leg up under your hips but not right up there…

CT told everyone to get into the Pose stance then he went around the group showing everyone where their ’spot’ was. Mine is about five inches behind the back of my knee when in Pose stance. This gives everyone a guideline of direction and how far to pull their ankle. At lower speeds you pull towards the spot, higher speeds closer to it and maybe when flat out you will go slightly past it but not consciously. This has the effect of you letting the knees come forwards properly and thus you have better alignment, balance and suspension while running. It all starts to fit together much better and the running is so much easier. I use ‘the spot’ visualisation to remind myself about pulling when I need to. This was a small yet important part of the Pose Jigsaw and I noticed that everyone in the group started to ‘get it’ much more rapidly after that.

Misdirection

Very often when learning something new in running it is easy to become obsessed with getting a new action right leading the runner to over focus on that particular movement which in turn causes tension and slows things down – precisely not what is required in running!

I used to have horrible problems with this when I tried to concentrate on NOT thinking about how my feet landed. It was a kind of don’t touch the red button scenario where no matter how hard I tried I could not stop thinking about landing. In doing so of course I automatically kept stepping out in front of me which was esentially destroying any efficient running action.

Cabletow had an interesting take on this at the clinic by asking everyone to work in pairs ostensibly on something to do with gettng people to lean correctly. In fact he wanted to see if he could get everyone to pull the foot from the ground correctly by making everyone’s partners run closely behind them. This made the runner in front automatically pulling the foot out of the way of the runner behind which resulted in a very good pull and direction of pull. Most people when fixing on the pull end up forgetting to let their knees come forwards as they pull which results in the pull looking like  a hamstring curl – pulling behind. This is not good form. This showed to me that taking a person’s mind off something by occupying their thoughts with something else can be a useful technique in helping them to execute correctly an action that requires less thinking and more simply doing.

Don’t Think, Just Run!

Lots of people say this and I had started to realise that this is what we really need to do. The paradox lies in the fact that too often we find ourselves asking the question “but how do I run?”. The answer is simply, let yourself run, don’t make yourself run. When I met AA on Saturday he exemplified the “just run” philosophy and I could understand why he and so many others get frustrated when they see people over thinking things, going over and over the same problems again and again. AA is a very relaxed individual and he showed me what he means by just let yourself run. Within a few minutes I had another ‘aha’ moment when I realised what it felt to let go properly and let gravity do the work. You do literally feel like you are being dragged along by an inexorable force and that is because you are. All you have to do is support your body through Pose stance and over each change of support. When teetering on the brink of a fall, you have no option but to pull your foot from the ground. Then it dawned on me: there are two things you need to do – lean forwards with hips, whole upper body and bent knees then as soon as your bodyweight passes over the ball of foot you pull that foot from the ground and the other one drops straight to the ground. Relax and just run. I found that the more I agonised over getting alignment right for example, the more I went wrong. I even managed to lean backwards at one point for some odd reason!

Stop Looking for the Force and Feel it!

Cabletow was the first person to say this to me and I think it is a very good description of what we need to do really. When you align yorself properly, you cannot do anything else but feel the force of gravity pulling you forwards. Instead, lots of people tend to get lost in the detail of  “pull the foot”, “ensure good alignment”, “land under centre of gravity with ball of foot” etc. plus they expect some sort of magical thing to happen. In reality we have little control over most of the actions we do while running and we shouldn’t attempt to control them. It was Saturday when I finally felt the true power of the force and I have to say I was once again quite amazed. Most of us seem to do everything in our power to stop ourselves from being pulled along by gravity. It was great to see though that everyone at the clinic was beginning to realise what it is like to tap into this force.

Thanks to Cabletow for another excellent clinic, AA for helping me to ‘get it’, RunFree for being such a fabulous hostess and everyone for making the day such an enjoyable and pleasant day out for me.

I would recommend that anyone who is interested in learning how to run with better technique either see a Pose registered coach or attend one of these clinics. It will open your eyes but don’t take my word for it, go and see for yourself.

Resources:

Find out about Pose

Find out why finding a coach is a good idea.

Find out about Pose Clinics/Classes

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Posted in Pose Method, Running, Running Form, Running Technique | No Comments »

The Art of Perception and How to be Hip

September 15th, 2009

Far be it from me to blow my own trumpet. On this occasion there is a reason for me wishing to write about me getting something right for a change. It is down to my improved perception. Perception is very difficult to quantify and understand simply because it deals with the way we perceive the world around us and how we “think” we are interacting with that world.

The first shock people get when they start to learn efficient running is the huge disparity between perception and reality most of us experience. I have to say, I was amazed and shaken when I realised quite how badly I ran when I “thought” that I ran actually reasonably well.

After many months of learning to run using the Pose Method I have now actually noticed that my perception is much better than it ever has been. So much so that now I know what my body is doing, I’m aware of it and consequently can correct any errors while I am actually running -- a feat that up until very recently I thought would never be possible for me.

I write this in the hope that it will help people in similar situations to perservere with their quest for efficient running. It is worth it; it is worth more than you would ever have imagined because it helps you to develop as a person and understand so much more about yourself. Furthermore, when you actually start running with greater efficiency you start to realise how much easier it all feels. It literally is like taking the brakes off and simply running without fear. The rush is incredible and it is something I will never tire of.

The few paragraphs below detail what I posted on a forum and what Jon, a registered Pose coach had to say about how I described my experiences.

Tuning Landing On the Fly

One thing I have noticed lately is that if you start to become aware of a much heavier feel to the landing -- i.e. LOTS more above 1 bodyweight then don’t simply accept it because this is telling you something is starting to go awry. Either stop running and start again or do running lunges as I do to get the pull sorted out which in turn will make the landing right again and the very heavy feel will go away.
Just a recent observation on my part as I get back into running.

Jon P’s response…

“Very good Ian. The best perception to run with is a feeling of bodyweight quickly releasing from your ball of foot and lightness on your feet (ballet like). A dead foot on the ground is telling you you are “late” pulling and have started to focus on the ground.”

Tuning the Lean

Oh and all this talk of lean made me realise something. I sort of tune my lean and fall as I run too -- probably due to being off road and having to do it.
I noticed that I actually straighten my body up again (probably getting rid of a k-bend starting) and then the running starts to feel smoother again. Something AA said the other night made me think about this. I get a feeling of my legs being slightly behind but not that much that you simply cannot sustain the lean. You can play with this balance until you achieve a good lean, speed and running action that flows rather than feels all staccato.

Jon’s second response…

“Very good again. perfect description of tuning the lean :-) :-) ”

Removing Errors

This is something that people have difficulty in understanding. What is efficient running? When I first started to learn I would have said it is characterised by unlearning bad habits, by enhancing running style and it is probably a very individual thing, as everyone is different. Thus everyone will have their own optimum running style, right? No, this is a popular misconception. Rather than retype lots of words I will include what I posted on a thread earlier…

“…there are things that need to be done the same no matter what because that is how our bodies work. Much like using the clutch or changing gears to the correct one for the bend, hill etc. Everyone needs to control the clutch and gears in the same way; there simply is no other way of doing it. Many folk fall over with this one because they believe that you can do other actions and still run efficiently. Efficient running is minimising movement. Anything else is adding unnecessary movement and that is the biggest problem. The unnecessary movements are these bad habits people refer to. They don’t need un learning per se, they need eliminating.”

Quite simply that is all efficient running is. It is about conserving energy, stopping ourselves hitting the ground so hard and removing any unwanted movements that burn energy and contribute to our energy usage and of course influence the way in which we interact with the ground. Using gravity to run is what we all do. Using it properly in a way that will not hurt us is a skill and not something many people do naturally -- contrary to popular opinion.

Posturing -- Striking the Pose

I have a little more to add after today’s run actually. It all started the other day when I ran barefoot around the cricket pitch. It was a really enjoyable run where I just let speed build all by itself to see actually how fast I could go with the least effort. In the video you will see me set off a little self consciously due to me knowing I was being filmed. I have a little motto or memory jogger now too, just thought of it. However you start a run is how you will continue to run. By that I mean if you see in the video I am pushing too much with the feet rather than simply lifting. This puzzled me because I know I should not do this. The run was a good one yet I wasn’t happy with it because I felt that something was wrong, despite me at one point hitting 18 mph which is probably the fastest I have run on grass.

I digress; for a couple of days I wondered what on earth I was doing wrong. Last night I realised that I was k-bending. This made sense to me because I would be wanting to feel the “boing” -- that wonderfully light, gliding bouncy (not up and down) feeling which is only possible if you have correct posture. I was k-bending therefore my subconscious made me push to simulate the now familiar “boing”. Doing this “simulating” is what leads to injury!  There are some bits of the video where I am running reasonably ok but you can see I am playing around with things -- which at least is good because it shows better perception.

Today I realised that it is probably my job that makes me naturally hunch forwards which of course makes me stick my backside out. It is undesirable when running because you stop being able to fall as efficiently which in turn leads you to pushing your way around -- ever decreasing circles just make it so you have to put more and more energy into the run.

Picture or photographs tell it much easier and more quickly than words. The second one is hopefully what I achieved today when I reminded myself that I had let things slip. Efficient running is a lifetime hobby…

Bad Posture

Good Posture

Hips Don’t Lie

I’ll finish off with a post I made today on Posetech which may help some people who may be struggling with “getting” efficient running…

“Hips forward and just pull…”

For a million times you can think you are doing it. You listen and try doing it. I speak from experience. I have shared Oliver’s frustrations and I know how he must feel.

It isn’t your fault, Pose Method’s fault or the teachers. It is perception and how we have a natural ability to slip back into old habits without even realising it. This has happened to me very recently. I looked at a video of me running and I was dismayed at my posture. I was k-bending again without realising it. I have now adjusted my perception. This will not be the last time I have to adjust. It will not be the last time that I think I have fixed something and have to accept that actually I have slipped backwards. I do accept now that this is why we train. Some of us use drills, others just have a look at themselves in an objective manner and make subtle changes while they run.

This thread has been a very interesting read for me.

I think people get the idea that Pose is cultish because when they ask questions about how to run they get much the same answer or set of answers. I think it is simply because actually there is really only one way to do the act of running. Many ways to achieve it yes but after all is said and done, there is only one way to run. Thus you get the same answers -- especially from a bunch of people who have been taught to express things from a structured perspective.

I guess people would say other methods were dogmatic or cultist if they were as popular…

I don’t think there is an unwillingness to stop beating around the bush and just tell people what they need to know. I think this is largely down to the Internet text based approach and coaches saying things in a slightly different way to different people in the hope that they get through to said individual.

Oliver, you will ‘get it’ and when you do you will wonder what on earth the fuss was about. In fact you will not believe that it can be that simple. This is how I felt and sometimes still do.

The most important advances I made were when I stopped second guessing myself, making assumptions and refusing to believe that it can be that simple. It takes some accepting after having spent so long over thinking and sending oneself bonkers.

I hope my ramblings here help. I figure that even if one person finds my perspective on learning to run efficiently useful then it has been worth collating this information.

I do not pretend to be an authority on efficient running, nor do I think that I can write any better than the many intelligent people that have written books on the subject. This blog is simply a collection of bits and bobs, some of them mine, some of them other people’s that I have found interesting and helpful. If I have found these things helpful then I hope that other people may do to.

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Posted in Pose Method, Running, Running Form, Running Technique | 1 Comment »

How Do I Fall?

August 21st, 2009

A question often asked by people trying to learn how to run with Pose Method. Lots of people overdo it, misinterpret it and basically do it wrong. This of course leads to nothing much changing in the way that they run.

Today I was inspired by reading the forum on Fetcheveryone. They (whoever “They” are) say a picture says a thousand words and this is true.

Here is the sketch he used.

Here are some quick (censored) descriptions of what to do by Avenging Angel from the forum.

“Think that. Body being pulled straight in a diagonal direction, speed relative to the degree, you’ll find your legs just go with.

Don’t USE your legs, just think of your body going in a diagonal direction straight like a missile but not uber forced and you’ll feel when you need to do a minimal pull just to catch up to the body and that be all.”

“Let the body lead and be the motion.”

“Think superman taking off in a diagonal direction, woosh, that’s you.”

Cabletow helpfully added this:

“Another visualisation that helps – the solar plexus is being pulled up and forward from a bungee cord from the sky – angle forward is speed dependent.”

In summary, we do not ever bend at the waist, we lean from the ankles. The lean itself is an illusion in as much as it disappears when we are airborne. We re-create the lean for every step or change of support. Notice I didn’t say forwards because we don’t step forwards. Our bodies move forwards due to gravity. We just change support from one leg to the other – that should be the perception so we minimise effort.

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Posted in Pose Method, Running, Running Form, Running Technique | 2 Comments »

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