running form continued

This is one of the amazing Nurse Practitioners that I work with, I call her Swankster. The characters from Rudolph the Red Nosed Reindeer are all throughout the hospital! I think this one is just a random elf guy.......

Thursday brought me my first long ride of the season, a good sixty miles on the computrainer followed by a short transition run. It's week two of me working on my running form, and I can feel it. I can't think of the last time I was sore from running, lean me forward a bit and get me on my midfoot and.... whoa..... muscles I have not felt in a while. Tomorrow morning Jesse and I will comb through a video of me running, frame by frame as I continue to work on this.

It's hard to change something you've done for years. It means you have to back up, slow down and literally start again. It means drills and it means sticking to form when you are tired and keeping your mind off of your pace and keeping it on your form.

Here is a great little video that does a nice job of really breaking down the running posture, Chi Running Style:



Just like when working on swimming technique, you don't want to work on running technique alone. While you are learning the feel of the water, or in my case the feel of the road, it's imperative that you have good objective feedback and video of your form. It will mean watching yourself run, big deal. get over it. I'd rather watch myself run and feel awkward about it, then develop an injury because I am not running with proper form.

In swimming I can't tell you how many folks cross their midline with their catch and have no idea.

Same idea here!

So as we evolve through change, expect it to be hard. remember, the brick walls are there for a reason, they keep those who don't want it bad enough,....... out. We need to go slower to develop technique and proper biomechanics. We have to endure the soreness. We have to be patience.

I think a lot about Julie (Swail) Ertel and how over the years she has transformed herself into a runner. She recently brought that 10K time during the triathlon leg under 35 minutes. If you have ever seen video of her running she went from running like a swimmer to running as a runner. It's her strength.

I think the most frightening place to be is thinking that you have nothing to improve, nothing new to learn. That my friends is a place of stagnation!

More to come from our run analysis tomorrow morning!