So Far, So Good; Better Form

Things are going well this week. With two days remaining, I’ve run 46 miles, and my legs feel strong. Hitting my goal of 60 miles shouldn’t be a problem. I’ve taken advantage of our exercise policy at work and have run at lunch twice this week. I've also run ten miles twice this week. I am a bit concerned about increasing the mileage beyond 60. I'd like to build up to 80 in a couple of weeks, but I hate running at night, so it will be a challenge to drag myself out each evening. Daylight Savings Time cannot come soon enough for me.

I ran a double today. In the morning I ran five easy miles. The harder workout came this afternoon when I ran 10 miles, including four miles at goal marathon pace (6:50/mile). Like last week, I ran a bit faster than I was shooting for, but this was partly caused by the wind. I ran the first mile into a steady, but not particularly hard wind in 6:53. Just before the first mile I turned so that the wind was coming from the side and somewhat at my back. I picked up the pace a little bit and used the wind to log a 6:42 second mile. The third mile was run along the bay, and the wind was a bit stronger here. To my advantage it was at my back at this point. I reached the turnaround with a quarter mile to go in mile three. The last mile and a quarter were run into the wind, so I increased the effort to maintain pace. I finished mile three at 6:40 and ran mile four in 6:45.

The best thing about this run is that I think I figured out where I was having trouble with my form. I had been concentrating on running tall, keeping my hips forward, and thrusting forward as I pushed off with each step. The problem was that I was running too tall. It made it difficult to keep my hips forward, and when I pushed off, I was pushing up instead of forward. During the run today, I found myself concentrating on running tall only from the waist up. I let my legs run more natural. Keeping this posture made it much easier to keep my hips in the right position and to push forward. It felt natural when running the faster miles, and I was happy to see that I was able to comfortably maintain this form after the harder miles when I was running easy towards the end of my run. Now I just need to stick with it until this form becomes natural so that I don’t have to remind myself every ten seconds to maintain the proper form.

Just Running and Cross Training

Really not much has been going on with my running. Last week I was above the 50 mile mark for the first time in a while. I could have reach 60, but I took Friday off. My legs were tired all day, so I gave them a rest. I guess it could be called wimping out, but I prefer to think that I’m listening to my body. Since then I ran 7.5 miles on Saturday, 10 on Sunday, and 5 today at lunch. I’ll add another 5 after work and hope to go over 60 for the week.




On Saturday I started adding a bit of cross training to my regimen. The sit-ups and push-ups just weren’t happening. I was either forgetting to do them after running, or I’d be in a hurry and would skip them. Instead I started working out on a Bosu. I use the workout on the DVD that comes with the ball. When I use it I look stupid and feel about as uncoordinated as a person can be, but it’s a pretty tough workout, especially for the abs and legs. Just staying balanced works muscles I never knew I had. I did the workout on Saturday and then again today before work. Hopefully I can stick with it.

Working on Form

I've been having a good week. Mileage wise I'm in the mid-30 range, and my paces have been quicker than in previous weeks. The big difference is that I've been concentrating on my form each time I run. My posture is better, and I'm better at pushing myself forward when my foot leaves the ground. My main problem is that I'm still struggling to bring it all together. It seems like I can either run tall with my hips forward, or I can push forward with each stride. The key is doing them both together. When I am able to get it together, I can feel the difference: I run smoother, my pace is faster, and it feels almost effortless. For now I'm going to keep on working on making proper form feel more natural so that I can nail it each time I lace them up.

Today at lunch I decided to run 7.5 miles, including 3 miles at goal marathon pace (6:50). I was able to run the pace miles. In fact I ran them too fast, averaging 6:38 for these three miles. I noticed that it's easier to maintain form when pushing the pace a bit. I think this is because at a faster pace, pushing forward is a more natural motion for me.

Update and Weekly Recap

I didn't realize it's been so long since I've posted anything here. After taking off Monday and Tuesday, my back was well enough so that I could run. I wasn't as cautious as I should have been, running 10 miles on Wednesday, Thursday and Friday. I had planned on two easy runs on Saturday, but only ended up running once (an easy five miles). I only ran once for a couple of reasons. The first is that it was my wife's birthday. We went into San Francisco for the day and didn't get back until later than expected. The other is that my legs felt pretty tired when I did run, so only running once was the smart move. My back is feeling good now. It's a bit stiff when I wake up or if I sit for too long, but there's not much pain.

Here's how my week ended up:

Sunday - 10.5 miles
Monday - off, back pain
Tuesday - off, back pain
Wednesday - 10 miles
Thursday - 10 miles
Friday - 10 miles
Saturday - 5.2 miles
TOTAL = 45.7 miles

I'm shooting for 60 miles this week, although at this point I'm not too concerned about the total. Right now I'm more concerned about consistency and running at least six days each week.

Too Much Too Soon

I’m currently on day two of another two days off from running. After doing nothing but trying to heal my back on Wednesday and Thursday of last week, I ran on Friday, Saturday, and Sunday. I felt pretty good and ended up overdoing it on Sunday. On Saturday I read an article here regarding tall vs. short runners. I was thinking about the article when I ran later that day and was paying particular attention to my form. I started concentrating on stride length and pushing forward as my foot came off the ground, and my pace picked up noticeable without much increase in effort (approximately 7:50 down to 7:35 pace). When I ran on Sunday, I ran an easy mile to get loose and then began to resume the form I had started on Saturday. Again, my pace increased, and I felt really good. In fact, I felt so good that I threw in a couple of miles at goal marathon pace. I ended up running ten miles total without any back pain or stiffness. The problem came on Monday. I woke up and could hardly move. I made it to work because I had a couple of things I wanted to get done, but I was back home before lunch. I spent the afternoon and evening laid out stretching and heating my back.

The question now is what caused the back pain this week. It could have been the increase to ten miles, the different form I used while running this weekend, the miles at goal marathon pace, or the fact that once I started running again I stopped caring for my back (no heat, stretching, or ibuprofen). I think it’s probably a combination of the marathon pace miles and the fact that I stopped heating, stretching, and taking meds. The ten miles didn’t feel like I was stressed my body, and the form I was using felt better than how I was running before. I felt like I was running tall and smooth. The marathon pace miles got tough at the end, and I was probably pounding pretty hard as it got tough and the form started to suffer. And of course not taking proper care of myself is obviously part of the problem. I’m not totally healed, but I feel pretty good. I’m going to run tomorrow and will take it a day at a time from there.

Minor Setback

I suffered a minor setback this week. After good runs on Monday and Tuesday, I woke up Wednesday with a stiff, sore back. I'm pretty sure that running isn't what caused the pain. My problem was playing with my daughter and one of her Christmas presents, specifically the one shown above. I guess dancing isn't my forte.

I was really hurting on Wednesday. I ended up leaving work early and spent most of the afternoon and evening laying on the floor with a heating pad. I felt better on Thursday but was still pretty stiff and sore. I probably could have run, but I didn't want to take a chance and run one day only do end up in worse shape and then missing three or four days. Anyway, I wasn't 100% today, but I felt good enough to give it a shot. I think it was a good decision. The only time in the last three days that my back didn't hurt at all was when I was running. Of course I'll have to see how I feel when I wake up tomorrow before I'll know for sure if running was a smart decision.

I also haven't done any pushups or crunches since my back started hurting. I'll probably resume the pushups tomorrow but will wait until the back is 100% before continuing the crunches.

Month and 2006 Overview

Overall 2006 was a good year. I ran a total of 2749 miles, which is an all-time high (previous high was 2477 in 2005). I didn't race much, but I did set PRs in the Marathon (3:06:39), half marathon (1:26:46), and 10k (39:40, my first sub-40 10k). The downside was suffering from runner's knee. I only ran twice for a total of 7 miles between November 16 and December 15, basically missing a month of running any shot of reaching my goal of 3000 miles.

My December is easy to sum up. I ran for the first time on the 15th. From December 15 through the end of the year, I ran a total of 81 miles on 13 runs, no doubles, and 4 days off. I basically took it easy and worried more about staying healthy, building a little endurance, and entering 2007 ready to go.

I have set a couple of goals for 2007. I'd like to run over 3000 miles, go sub-3 in the marathon and sub-19 in the 5k (my current PR is 19:13).

Happy 2007 to anyone reading.