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Running with my Stomach

Posted in motivation, training, tagged focus, running on February 15, 2010| 5 Comments »

I was in the last few miles of a hard 8 mile run a couple of days ago when I felt my pace slipping and my form failing. I had just fought through a mile of heavy headwind, followed by a protected stretch, but I was now entering a spot where the wind was going to be the strongest. I had been clipping along at about a 6:50 pace and I was tired. As I came around the turn, the wind hit me like a right cross from a heavyweight boxer.

Oh, man! I thought, this is not good.

I tried leaning into the wind. I was not going to let this wind kill my run.

It wasn’t working.

I could feel myself slowing down. The harder I tried, the sloppier I got.

C’mon! I yelled out loud. No Fear, Dammit!!!

It was all coming apart when I remembered something I had read in Chi Running. I don’t have the book with me so I can’t give you the exact quote or even the context in which I read it, however, I can tell you that I remembered something about leading with your stomach. Let you abs lead your body and your legs will follow. Something like that, anyway.

So I changed my focus. I stopped thinking about my form, I stopped thinking about my legs, I stopped thinking about my burning lungs. Instead I began to focus on my abs. I don’t want to say that I tightened my abs, but by focusing on them I felt like I was engaging them. As soon as I did that, the movement of my legs became effortless – literally. I’m not exaggerating. For about a half a mile, by focusing on my abs, I was able to run without physical effort. What’s more, my pace picked back up. After running the first half of mile 7 in 3:50, I came back with a 3:30 second half. I was only able to do this for a little over a half mile. Physically I felt great, but mentally I just could not keep the focus going. That half mile break from physical effort however allowed me to find my reserves. I closed the run with a 6:38 final mile.

So the task over the next few months is to train myself mentally as well as physically. If I can learn to stay mentally focused for three hours, Boston should be easily achieved. Of course, I had a hard enough time doing it for 3 1/2 minutes, but hey! what’s another 176 1/2 minutes, right?

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Redefinition

Posted in boston marathon, motivation, training, tagged boston marathon, running, running goals on February 11, 2010| 5 Comments »

Along the right side of this blog’s homepage is a list of my long-term running goals. They used to read as follows:

5K – 20:00 (PR – N/A)

10K – 43:00 (PR – 46:58)

1/2 Marathon – 1:35 (PR -1:40:47)

Full Marathon – 3:20 (PR – 3:54:04)

Within days of starting this blog I quickly knocked down the 1/2 marathon goal with a run of 1:33:14. It was somewhat of a breakthrough race for me. I had managed to take over 7 minutes of my previous best and it was the first time I had made it to the first page of a race’s results. Even with that race however, I figured that 43 was still a pretty good goal for a 10K. Last week I shattered that expectation with a run of 39:29 and in the process beat my long-term goal for the 5k with splits of 19:55 and 19:34.

So I need to redefine my long-term goals for the 5K and 10K. Fine. 19:00 and 38:00. Done. I think 19:00 is achievable, not sure about the 38:00, but what the heck, they’re long term goals, right?

But what about the half and full marathons? That’s a little trickier. When I ran the 1:33 half, I changed my long term goal to 1:30. It’s a leap, but not one that is too dramatic. It would still require me to take over 15 seconds off of my per mile pace. The full? Well, I crashed and burned in my first and only marathon, freezing up at mile 20 but still managing to finish. 3:20 still feels like a fantasy. When I got home from the Super Sunday 10k, I used to my time to find out what my vdot (performance based VO2 Max) was and how that translated into a 1/2 and a full.

1:27 and 3:02.

Really?

Are you frakkin’ nuts?

Yet there it was. Staring at me. Daring me. Taunting me.

1:27 and 3:02.

So, what do I do?

What. To. Do?

My goal all along has been to qualify for Boston. That remains in place and quite honestly, until I do that, I don’t think an even faster marathon has any place on my long term goals. If I finally qualify this year, then maybe I shoot for 3:00 marathon someday.

I will, however, put the 1:27 in for the half. It is somewhat out of reach I think, but I’m going to put it out there. Who knows? Maybe I’ve run as fast as I ever will, but I think it’s worth a shot.

By setting our goals slightly out of reach, we are forced to stretch ourselves beyond our comfort zone, beyond what we know we can do. It is in that uncomfortable area that we discover more about ourselves and quite possibly arrive at a moment of redefinition.

*I’d be curious how you go about setting your running goals.

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Was it the shoes?

Posted in health, training, Vibram Five Fingers, tagged running, running form, Time, VFF, Vibram Five Finger on February 4, 2010| 10 Comments »

So lately I have been going back and forth between my VFF Treks and my old Brooks Defyance. It’s due to a combination of things: the weather, the cold, the long treadmill runs. I used to hate putting on my “regular” running shoes because, well, I hated them. They’re heavy and I can’t feel anything with my feet when I run in them. Lately though, I’ve noticed something. I actually feel ok when I run in them. I’m not doing anything exotic (intervals, fartleks, etc.) with them, just long slow distances on the treadmill or my shorter, typical runs outside if the snow is fresh and deep or wet and slushy.

Last November, while I was running my local half-marathon, my buddy Mike (he seems to be popping up every where in this blog) was volunteering. He had planned to run it but had injured himself a few weeks earlier during a 5K. He said to me after the race that he noticed that my gait was different from when we had first run together 10 months earlier. It really didn’t register with me, except for the fact that I was running in my VFF KSOs.

But this past month has me wondering. I did more running in my traditional running shoes in January than I had since June of last year when I started running almost exclusively in VFFs. It used to be that if I put in a certain number of miles in regular shoes, my right knee would start screaming for a break. Consequently, I would have to take a week off from running and I would turn into a grumpy old man. But this last month has been different. When I went back to do the math I was shocked to find that I had run well over 100 miles in January in my Brooks.

Yet, the knee is peachy.

Why?

Did the VFF’s improve my form or did time? I remember reading early on in my rediscovery of running that you can very often tell the difference between a beginner and an experienced runner by the length of their stride. The longer you run, the shorter you stride becomes because your body learns how to be more efficient. The shorter stride means a quicker turnover and a lesser likelihood of your limbs flailing and wasting energy. My stride is definitely shorter than it was in November of 2008.

I also read when I first discovered Vibram Five Finger shoes that running barefoot or with a minimal shoe like the VFF forces your body back to the way we are designed to run (not on our heels), which in turn, shortens your stride. In the VFFs you tend to land more on the flat or balls of your feet. Has running in the VFFs for the last 7 month altered my natural footstrike so I can run that way in any shoe? I may have to take a trip to visit my buddy Pete’s lab to find out.

In the meantime, I ponder: was it the shoes or time that has made me a better, more efficient runner. The shoes or time that improved my form and now allows me to run pain free.

As has always been my way, I will take the middle path and say that it is probably the result of both.