building speed

if i ever quit drinking, i might make Boston :)

My brother and I had a pact not to drink at all in October, to get our bodies into maximum tuning for race day. However, i kicked our the pact when he told me he would drink a bit on holiday. So I downed a six pack last night, with 6 cups of coffee this morning to perk up, then time to run!

It was a spectacular run. I practiced real power sprints (fun!), and had so many great ideas! I even paused for a few minutes to whip out my voice recorder I got so excited. :)

some thoughts:

1. perfect form takes a lot of strength to get to. very similar to acrobatics. strength emanates from the core. tight abs and ass, then extend out through torso into legs and arms. doing a proper forefoot strike makes for extreme speed and performance, it also takes it out of me. still I practice it. also strong abs keeps the core stable. strong calves stabilize the ankle. i feel ideal form has absolute minimal sway in the trunk, the only reason we pump the arms is to counterbalance the footfall: chin up, chest forward, strong push off, only land on toes, lightning mudra in the hands :) learned a lot about core stabilization through recent high performance bike riding up nasty hills...  maximizing downward pedal force while minimizing wobble took massive arm power to accomplish. same applies to running.

2. just like acro, once achieved, perfect form also requires less effort. It is simply the most efficient way to run. The trick is training the body and muscles to do it.

3. the cause of most injuries is sloppy form. When the body is loose (i.e. jogging), it allows for twisted ankles, torqued hip joints, sloppy heel hits causing shin splints, planar fascia, etc. A proper toe strike has almost zero body impact because the impact is fully absorbed by the time the heel ever so lightly touches and bounces back up off the pavement.

So that was a lot of my thoughts. I turned off all tech devices (excepting my beloved iPod, gotta have music, yo!) and figured I was running 13-15 miles at about a 10:15 pace. Great surprise to find my actual pace was sub-10! Good omen for race day. Feeling strong. Did 10 minute cooldown walk, 15 minutes of deep stretching, and a 20 minute ice bath upon return.

Now am feeling *completely* chill. :)