This summer Track & Field season, and in particular the 800m, was always going to be a quiet (i.e. slow) one. 

I have no winter base (although I did have a high mileage March, on its own not enough), and therefore nothing on which to build any summer speed (he says, in true Lydiard speak) style!) 



Even though I didn't have training from the lower levels of the pyramid in the bag, I still went along to the club on track-sessions, and put in some "Interval Training" and "Speed and Skills", as the diagram calls them!

I did this for three reasons:

1. As I've previously explained, I was pretty certain by early summer that I had my New Gait cracked at the slower paces. I needed to up the speed of the drills and repetitions, and the track has a smooth, firm surface where you can concentrate on style.
2. My coach Jon Tilt is there, and I knew that he could keep an eye on me, do a bit of filming.
3. I missed the crew - I'd been away from the track most of the winter and spring, to make sure I behaved!! 

The plan worked.

I made some mistakes in the early summer - put on too much speed too soon.  I've written about the mistakes in earlier blogs.  But steadily and surely, the speed rose as the style remained.  I was able to run further and faster whilst maintaining good form. 

For example, running 300m repetitions at a 1500m race pace in May ended in poor form.  I could feel it.  I didn't need to be filmed.  But by late August, I was happy that I was maintaining good form over 400m at 800m pace.

And here's the proof.  The linked YouTube video shows the first and second lap, at the bell / at the finish.  I've synched them so that the middle step is aligned, at the point I'm square on to the camera, passing that small traffic cone.

(With thanks to Adrian Harwood for capturing the footage)(oh, and putting me up for the night to avoid a 2 hour drive home!!!)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nuLXaDv4Dm0

I was absolutely blowing (a technical term amongst t&f folk for "completely exhausted of all apparent energy!!!) on the second lap, I'd hit the 800m lactic "wall" at the classic 650m, and was hanging on!!!

So I was very surprised to see that form had not suffered too much!  This, I assume, means that the brain to muscle pathways (the subconscious communications) are firmly established.  The shoulders have rounded a bit, and there's a little more bend at the midriff, but altogether it's not too bad!  Clearly I'm covering more ground on lap 1 - each stride is longer - but I'm happy to see that I wasn't resorting to over striding to compensate.

Finally, I was extremely happy and excited to get this message from Keith and Heidi who had caught the raw video on facebook, and was wearing a grin for the rest of the day!

"We think your transition is complete (as far as the brain goes). We think now it is just a matter of repetition and perfecting with the necessary strength building as you go. Simply using whatever cues work for you to be as balanced as possible each landing :-) You might try two tricks now: 1. starting at lower speeds try accelerating by taking of with slightly more power - encouraging that over any temptation to extend the stride length by reaching forward, and 2. On longer runs try slowing the cadence slightly to encourage a more powerful take off."

I thought I would post a slightly more positive post, as tonight I ran 4x400m, with the first at 3:15/km pace, the second and third at 3:00/km pace, and the last rep at 2:45/km pace.

The following video is at 02:45/km pace, and much better form than the 2:15/km pace, in the last post, from 3 days ago.

In this video, I've frozen the video for 2 seconds at the point of landing fully (foot fully loaded).

I think that the landing is better.  The hips are certainly collapsing less.  And the torso is not bent.

And somehow, the leading leg seems to advance under the body at a nice angle, but then straighten up too much before landing.  Perhaps some strides might help with that??

I think that I could still land a little later, but this is only my third session at this pace, so I have time and room to improve yet.

https://youtu.be/1WkoFRTQciI

Thanks for reading :)

Just for fun.. ...but with a serious learning outcome!

I took part in a Southampton AC session yesterday (Saturday) morning.

I love Saturday morning sessions.  They last about 2 hours, and we accumulate about 3 minutes running!  Most of the rest of the time we are chatting.  Chatting and warming up, chatting and activating, chatting and stretching!

Anyway, yesterdays session was a 6x150m in two sets of 3.  5 minutes between rep, and 20 mins between sets.

You may recall that I've done no speed this summer at all!  Some speed endurance, but no speed.

My desired outcome for the session was to see if the brain/muscle pathways can be maintained at speeds well beyond what I've already established.

In this regard, the session was a failure!

I ran consistent times between 20.5 and 21.4 - that's 02:15/km (well below target 800m pace of 2:32/km).

This is the result - I'm closest the camera in red.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NTpRLXFrCa0

Here is the bare minimum of what's going wrong (these still frames are from the 5th of 6 reps, and I was getting pretty tired).

On the left, I see bad hip drop - the left (suspended) hip is dropping off to such an extent that the right shoulder is almost coming down to meet the right hip!  I'm surprised my right elbow hasn't bruised the hip!

On the right, I see over-stride, and bent torso.

Of course, it would be nice to have some footage and still frames from a 2:45/km session that I did on Tuesday where I could feel much better style, just to prove (to you, or to me, I don't know) that I have made better progress than this in one year!!

HOWEVER!  Do not despair!  It's a long way from 2:45/km to 2:15/km and I need to work my way down in pace (or, up in speed!) gently, not in one jump.

Finally, I know that it is not good to be doing ANY training in poor style, be that at 2:15/km or 10 mins/km!  But I just wanted to have a blast!

My other motive for this session was just to have some fun, spend some time with some really good friends, and remind myself what it's like to let rip!   In this regard, the session was a MASSIVE success!

I've been talking to my coach, Jon Tilt.  I now have a new proprioceptive cue, and I'm very excited about it!  (I don't get out much any more...)


Jon had been talking to one of the Southampton AC sprint coaches, Gary Gray, about gait.  Bearing in mind this is a third hand quote, please allow for variances in interpretation, but essentially, if Gary sees an athlete's feet drift from a forward orientation to one of pointing outwards ("splayed") then he stops that athlete's session.


I've practiced this cue, in a 4x300m session, and two days later in a 500/1500/2200/1500/500 pyramid, with immediate benefits.  The fastest pace in these sessions was 2:40/km (one of the 300s) and the slowest 3:58/km (the 2200m).


As I ran all these reps, I concentrated on keeping the feet facing forward.  (Bear in mind that I've got 12 months of honing all the other cues around foot landing under hips, torso erect, etc, so I didn't have to think about those).


What I immediately noticed is that, at the higher speeds, there is good improvement in consistency.  I'd been complaining to Jon that, whilst balanced running is 'mine' at speeds of up to 4:00/km, at the faster speeds there's the odd foot placement that causes a leg to wobble, or the shoulders to dip, or a hip to drop.  What I noticed, particularly as I got tired on the 300s, was that I suffered no such issues.


============================================




A week prior to the conversation referred to above, I was talking to Jon about my approach to the next stage in the training. 


Jon highlighted the training variables: speed, distance, and number of reps.  Prior to the session outlined above, I could manage a 300m rep, at 55s pace (3:03/km), with Good Style for 250m, but then the torso bends, the hips dip.  I can manage 5 of these, before I get too tired, and the style breaks down earlier in the repetition. 


Based on this, I should be able to plan 2 or three sessions ahead of time.  The session may be longer and slower, or shorter and faster.  But the aim is to get to the end of the rep without loosing form/style.  As we now know, a new cue has significantly helped with this.


==============================================


Finally, I've just finished Richard Askwith's truly excellent book about Zatopek.  I'm not suggesting that I start hitting 100x400m reps, but there was one picture that caught my eye.  It makes me think that Emil understood the benefit of good form, as he's clearly practicing some sort of cue (apologies for the stolen pic - I just couldn't find any other copies on-line.

And this is the result...

His arms may have been all over the place, but look at the torso in shot 2, foot placement in shot 6! (hard to tell if the foot is loaded in shot 5...)

Wow!  It's been a year!  I can't believe it - that year flew by.


Overriding reaction as I look back:  I'm not done yet.  I'm not there.  It's been harder than I anticipated.


Ok, I've been striving for big change, when many practitioners advise making small changes.  I've been a little over-keen at points, when things were progressing well.  I've learned a lot! 


My gait is immeasurably better than it was 12 months ago.  And at all but the fastest paces, it's subconscious.  It feels smooth and comfortable.  It leaves me with fewer aches, faster recovery.  And I glide, float, and bound my way over all terrains, rather than drilling my heels into everything underneath me.


But on the way, I've fractured a metatarsal, I've had significant Achilles strain, as well as various little aches and pains that are most likely attributable to the changes.  I don't suppose I've seen the end of the niggles either - I still have more work to do at the mile/half mile/quarter mile pace work, and I'm sure this will find out more weaknesses before I make them stronger.


But I've got until April/May 2017 to get this sorted, so I shall behave myself, as I always say!


Next Steps
To get to my destination, there is a little more brain to muscle pathway building to do.


For example, I maintain good style for 5km at 3:50/km.  I maintain good style for 15km at 4:45/km pace.  I maintain good style for 250m at 3:00/km pace.  But as I get tired, the style suffers. 


To complete the journey, I need to work on extending these distances at the desired pace.  In other words, the basis for all training!

Update

The challenge with making a big change in an aspect of your life that's "been that way" for 35+ years is that your body will tend to complain.  A bit!

It's now 8 weeks since the Achilles went, and I've just completed a week of running without pain.  I can still feel it lurking, and so I'm still taking 2-day or 3-day breaks here and there, but it's definitely better than it was 2 or 3 weeks ago.

I haven't compromised on the shoes - I'm still using the flatter/flimsier soled shoes that I've been running with for 9 months now, despite the physio advising wedges in the heels.

I've not been to the track, and I've eased off the speed. 

The new style is still in place - feet landing nicely under the hips.  But I'm landing flatter footed than perhaps I was 3 months ago - I'm not trying to run on my toes all the time.

I chuckle when I read back through this blog.  I never knew it would be quite so hard to change running style, and the two injuries I've had (fractured metatarsal, inflamed Achilles) are classic move-to-minimalist-shoe injuries.  

But the new style just feels so smooth and light.  There's no way I'm going back to the old way.

I joked with a running friend the other night.  I'd been running 37 years with the old style, and it served me very well.  All I need to do is run for 37 years in the new style, and I'll be sorted!!

Ugh, you idiot!


Despite lecturing myself about layering on the speed gradually, I've gone and rinsed myself during a 5k-ish race, and strained an Achilles.  Idiot!


(OK, so I was VERY happy with the time *grin*.  A relay leg of 4.76k in 16:32 equates to a sub 17:20 5k, and that's sooner than I thought I'd get there.  And look at the great style too....!!)

However, it's cost me over 2 weeks running, as I wait for the Achilles to calm down.  And, I've had to bin two expensive race entries for longer slower events as a result.  AND, I'm going to have to build up slowly from 2k slow training runs again.


As with all my niggles, I did a 'down tools' straight away.  That's usually enough to clear up problems in 2 or 3 days, but after 2 weeks of continued inflammation and 1km aborted test runs, I thought professional help would be prudent.  So yesterday I went to see the brilliant Michaela McCallum in Winchester.  Michaela confirmed that a sudden jump in distance, speed or even incline, will do the damage, but that in my case there was no serious lasting problem.  However, an imbalance in left/right glute/hamstring strength probably wasn't going to help (logically, the weaker left leg has the Achilles problem).  And a small knot in the left calf was also found.


So I've got a series of glute exercises to perform, as well as proper instruction on self-massaging the Achilles.


But I'm happy to have been given the all clear to run again!