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.


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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.


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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!

Nutrition links

Just for info - I shall maintain this page as a link to some nutrition work that as influenced me.

These two clips move at 100mph!  They are only 8 mins each, but I had to listen twice to catch everything.  However, they are scientifically biased, light on subjectivity which is a good basis for assessing all other articles.



Metabolism & Nutrition, part 1
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fR3NxCR9z2U


Metabolism & Nutrition, part 2
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kb146Y1igTQ




Well researched programmes, and I've read most of the books that are referenced herein:
BBC Food Programme Eating to Run Episode 1
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06tq3tk

BBC Food Programme Eating to Run Episode 2
http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b06zqd89

Joe Rogan interviews Mark Sisson

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nwd6InD2nDk#t=26


Marathon Talk interview professor Grand Schofield
Part 1 - fast forward to 1hr12min
http://www.marathontalk.com/podcast/episode_335_professor_grant_schofield.php
Part 2 - fast forward to
http://www.marathontalk.com/podcast/episode_336_grant_schofield_part_two.php


A blog from T. Colin Campbell, Ph.D, that Scott Jurek would agree with!
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/t-colin-campbell/whole-book-excerpt-_b_3308560.html

Phase 1 Complete!

Without particularly aiming for it, I hit 315km in March - my 3rd highest mileage month ever!  The only two months I've topped that were in 2006, both during a successful sub 2:55 marathon campaign.  A whole year before I ever dreamt of an 800m race.


It's not something that was on the plan, it's not something I particularly needed to do, it just seemed to happen.


The key enabler has been the vastly improved recoveries.  There's nothing like doing a 10 or 11 mile run, and not feeling any fatigue the next day.  Even stringing 2 or 3 long runs together, day after day, doesn't seem to have had any impact.  And I've just enjoyed being out doors!


The improved recoveries are down to two factors:

1. The main factor is that the gait change, landing under the hips, causes less shock, and therefore less damage.  The resulting strengthened feet further improve shock absorption, this has left my legs, hips, core with less fatigue after every run.
2. The changed fuelling - metabolising fat rather than glycogen means that I'm not running low on any fuel type, and means not having to work so hard to refuel between runs.  Better quality food, in a nutshell.

This means that, according to the plan, I am officially finished with phase 1 - the building of the miles, steady pace, good gait.  Once again, here's the graph, with some more notes.  I'm officially at the "6 Months" mark:

Time to move on up the pace chart.  This week: 4:15/km pace.  I shall go to the track on Tuesday, but will time efforts to hit 4:15 and no faster.  I shall test later in the week with a 5k training run at 4:15 - make sure I can maintain strong hips for that distance at that pace.


The other runs I will keep to an off-road surface.  I don't want to get so hung up on hitting an exact pace, that I have to train on flat pavement the whole time!


More soon...