New 5k season best

I just finished what started out as a tempo run but turned into a 5k time trial.  When it was over I ran it down in 24:12, which was more than three minutes faster than anything I've run this summer!  I started the season running 5k in about 29 minutes, which was kind of a let down (you always think you are in better shape than you actually are.)  I got a late start to training because of illness and injuries during the spring, and with such a slow start my plans of getting a PR this season went out the window.

But after only six weeks of serious training I've already knocked five minutes off and with my best 5k in High School being around 19 minutes, I only need to trim off another five!  Winter is coming fast in Utah so I don't know if I can get it done before the big freeze, but it's definitely possible.  The race is on.

Praise of my physique from unorthodox strangers

I've had a couple of funny experiences lately out running.  It's been wicked hot so I run in short-shorts and no shirt, which feels good but gets a little attention.  A couple of weeks ago I was running through a neighborhood and this little Mexican boy said, "Sexy bodyyyyyy" and sort of danced back and forth as he said it.  It was so goofy I totally started laughing.

Story two was last Saturday I was out for a long run on the Provo River Trail, and I passed by a guy that can best be described as being like the old sea captain from The Simpsons only scarier:

As I went past him he exclaimed, "You're in GREAT shape, bro!"  There was nothing creepy in his tone of voice, it was as if he had never seen someone athletic and was genuinely astonished.  I told my friends about it at dinner later that night and they all thought it was pretty dang funny.

Now I'd be lying if I said I didn't want people to be impressed as they see me running by, but 10-year old latino's and old homeless guys isn't really the demo I'm going for.  Maybe the girls are impressed too and they are just being coy...

Alberto Salazar immediately after London

This is a link to the most interesting interview with Alberto Salazar I've ever seen:

http://vimeo.com/47800948

This is the legendary coach a few days after the London Olympics and he talks about Mo, Galen, and the Nike Oregon project.  He even confirmed what many had speculated, that after the 2016 Olympics Galen will move up to the marathon.

Salazar is always a fount of athletic wisdom, but this interviewer asked perfect questions that solicited honest and insightful answers.  Enjoy!

Solid

I just finished my first full week of training for the season.  A piriformis injury and then bronchitis kept me running only on and off through the spring and first part of the summer.  But it feels so great to dust out the cobwebs and really go hard.  Here is the breakdown:

Monday: Strength training, Nike Training Club, 30 minutes medium difficulty.

Tuesday: 20 minute easy run.

Wednesday: 30 minute easy run.

Thursday: Yoga.

Friday: 20 minute easy run.

Saturday: 3 x 1000m hard.
 
I was planning on doing five sets on that interval workout, but it was 97 degrees at the time of the run so I had to cut it short.  It has been wicked hot here in Utah and I'm still trying to get used to the heat.

Thanks to my new Garmin Forerunner 10 I know exactly how far I ran this week (9.05 miles.)  I feel like this is a good place to start my training.  I'm moderately strong, have decent aerobic capabilities, and basic flexibility, so I can use the next few months to build off of that and develop some speed.

The heat has made me realize that I'm not really going to be setting any PR's until we get a decently cool day (I know race starts are early, but it's still like 80 degrees when I wake up so that's not gonna help much.)  So my plan is train hard for the next two months, then in the fall when the temperature starts to drop get in some races and see what I can pull off.  I really want to do a cross country race (not a road or trail race) like we did in high school, but I don't know how many of those are open to the general public, so I'll need to do some sleuthing.

How to transition to minimalist running

What is fore foot striking?

Transitioning from a heel strike to a fore foot strike is a huge change in your running mechanics.  Having done both they feel as different as running is to walking.  When you land on the heel your knee is the only joint that can flex to soften the landing. Then as the foot pulls through you flex your ankle joint and push off of the fore foot.  The pattern of movement for each step would be heel-toe.  This is demonstrated in the top picture below (you can ignore the graphs, I just wanted to use this picture to illustrate the foot motions.)

The other way to run is to touch down first with the ball of the foot (usually on the outside edge if your foot pronates) then you settle into the heel.  This is illustrated in the second image above.  Then as your foot pulls through you again flex the heel to toe off.  This rhythm would be heel-toe-heel.

Notice the extra motion in the latter case: you have another ankle flexion, this time on the landing in addition to the liftoff.  This is why it is a completely different form of locomotion.  I'm not going to get into the science of loading forces because the data on that is contradictory and inconclusive.  But I can speak from experience that it feels more fluid and powerful than landing on the heel, which is why I decided to make the switch.

What do you need to run this way?

You might be surprised to learn that minimalist running isn't new at all- only the name "minimalist".  Elite runners in the 70's and 80's always used racing flats and landed far forward on the foot.  The reason is that it is a much more aggressive, faster style.  You can't run 4-minute miles landing far back on the heel, it is much too sluggish.

The reason that these men had no problem running this way was because they were professionals so they were built right: thin, long bones, low body fat, and highly muscled.  This is what it took to run fast back then and this is what it still takes today.  The degree to which you can become built like a professional runner will be the degree to which you can run easily while landing on the fore foot.

Another thing you need is improved coordination.  Bending at the ankle as well as the knee as you hit the ground takes practice.  Also your cadence tends to be higher when you run this way, so your nervous system needs to be able to go faster to process all of this new movement.

Shoes also make a big difference.  It is uncomfortable to land on the heel without extra cushioning, so wearing a thin shoe will automatically encourage you to land on the fore foot so that you can utilize that extra ankle bend I discussed earlier.

How do I make the change?

It takes time to develop the strength and coordination that I described above, but the new shoes is a quick fix.  Go to a running store and try on different pairs until you find one that fits your feet well.  You want something with little cushioning and little support and a small if any heel-to-toe drop.  If you can easily twist the shoe in your hand it is the right kind; if it feels stiff and thick like a two-by-four that won't help you make this switch.

You have to start slowly with this new form because it uses such different muscles (it is much more demanding on the lower leg, ankle, and feet.)  I was sore after just one minute of running with my new shoes.  I did that for two weeks then switched to two minutes, four minutes, and so on until I could run a couple of miles at a time.  All in all I'd say it took me six months to get to where I could easily run for twenty minutes and not have sore calves the next day.

You will develop a lot of muscle just from the new shoes but I would also recommend strength training as well.  Running uses all of the muscles in your body, from you feet to yours hips to your shoulders.  I like Nike Training Club as an over-all weight-lifting program, but there are exercises more tailored to mimic the runners stride (check out these workouts.  I've seen videos of Galen Rupp doing these exact motions, and they seem to be working out pretty well for him.)

Coordination just comes from practice.  Focus on keeping your cadence high, be cognizant as you move through the running motion, and do drills that practice proper form.  It's easier to run with a long, slow stride or a short, fast stride, but to run fast you need to have a long, fast stride, and it takes time to develop the ability to move your legs that swiftly.

Commitment and Growth

As you can see this requires a major life-style change.  You need to commit to the new form, and although the commitment needs to be significant (at least several months) it doesn't have to be permanent.  If you give this a genuine effort and your body never seems to adapt, then for your particular body landing farther back on the heel might be better and you could always go back to the way you used to run.

No one can prove that this is categorically better for every person, but I can only describe my own experience and imagine that other people will experience something similar.  I noticed distinct, discontinuous changes in my running form and over-all strength as I moved in this new direction.  I had one such moment last night: after taking a break from running to fix a piriformis injury my first run back I felt more like a flight than a run.  Rather than trying to feel out exactly how long of a stride to take and how deep to bend into the knees, one specific motion felt like obviously the most comfortable way to move.  And I went faster than I've gone in months. Minimalist running is a huge investment but the payoff is equally dramatic.

Shoe Review: New Balance Minimus MT10

I bought my first pair of MT10's last spring and after running in them through the summer, fall, and winter I feel qualified to write a formal review.

These shoes are spectacular!  Finding the right pair is entirely a matter of fit, and the moment I slipped these on the shape seemed to match my feet perfectly.  They are light (only 7.5 oz), flexible, breathable, so comfortable in fact that at first I forgot I was wearing them.  Officially they are a trail shoe and as such they have decent traction, but they work just as well on the roads.

I wore them on the roads without socks for a couple of months but on my first trail run my feet got the nastiest blisters I've ever seen.  Running on even terrain the forces are almost entirely unidirectional, but on rocky, technical trails your shoe slides around a little in every direction so you need some protection.  Now I wear thin "Aspire Swiftwick" socks and I haven't had any problems.

The MT10's are fairly loose in the toe-box which apparently is part of the design; the intent is that your feet have a chance to splay out as you hit the ground.  Rather than gripping your foot from the sides they feel like they stay on from the top like a sandal.

They are comfortable through a remarkable range of temperatures: when it is hot they breath easily from a mesh upper, and when it is cold they felt pretty much the same.  This winter was monstrous in Utah, and even when I was out in 18 degree night runs my feet never felt chilly.  As the above picture indicates I wore them in an Xterra triathlon and they handled fine even when wet.  The only terrain where they struggled was on ice...but to be fair the only shoes that can really grip that have spikes.

I've logged about 300 miles so far and the sole is almost worn out so I have started looking into my next pair.  I'll take a look at some other brands just to be thorough, but running in these have been such a dream that I've all but made up my mind.  Apparently New Balance makes a black-on-black version which look totally badass...

WARNING:

These shoes have minimal cushioning, only 4mm of heel-to-toe drop, and no arch support, so they are a truly minimalist shoe.  Only buy these if you are already accustomed to landing on the forefoot or are ready to make a big life change.  I will talk more about the transition in my next post.

P.S.  This guy wears 'em too:

The anatomy of an injury

I've spent a lot of time reading about piriformis problems, watching videos, studying anatomy diagrams and experimenting with different treatment techniques and I think I've finally sleuthed out the problem I've been having with my hips.  It's a long and painful story:

Part 1: Bad Biomechanics

I was watching the Nike Cross Nationals and noticed that the leaders were all bending much deeper into the knees than I was.  Because they were high school students and less experienced their cadence was slower, which made it easier to see than in the videos of elites that I had been watching.  My shallow knee-flexion probably came from when I broke my knee cap: to avoid knee pain I learned to walk with mostly straight legs, and even after the pain went away this habit persisted.  This flaw in my running form led to...

Part 2: Injured Piriformis

The piriformis muscle is a small structure in your butt that rotates your leg from side to side (imagine opening and closing your legs while you are sitting.)  With shallow knee-bend I was inadvertently using this small stabilizing muscle to pull my leg through instead the larger glutes and hamstrings.  Because the piriformis wasn't made for this kind of heavy lifting it became tight from overuse.  I finally learned how to stretch and massage it in late December from a video on Runnersworld.com. (I would link directly to it but their video player doesn't allow it; just scroll through their videos until you find it.)  This did wonders by finally loosening up the muscle.  But unfortunately this caused...

Part 3: Inflamed Tendon

Because this was my first time seriously stretching this muscle it put a terrific strain on the tendon which connects the piriformis to the greater trochanter (hip bone.)  This is where things got sticky: I stopped running and stretched and massaged the piriformis, but tendons are avascular, which means that blood doesn't flow directly to them.  So they take much longer to heal than muscles.  The key at this point was...

Part 4: Ice

I didn't think I was neglecting this part of the recovery because I ice my legs often by sitting in a tub of cold water.  The problem is that because I am completely submerged the water isn't very cold, which is fine for general soreness but not good enough for a real injury.  I needed something more targeted.  So I filled quart-sized ziploc bags with ice cubes, connected them together at the top with an over sized paper-clip, and lie down on my stomach with the ice bags slung over my backside.  Connecting the two bags was the key because the ice really needed to be suspended on the outside edge of my hip, and the easiest way to do that was to counter-balance it with the other bag.  Another important thing about ice is that it needs to be done as often as possibly, every medical website says several times a day.  This means every couple of hours.  Realistically I can get in one in the morning and one at night.  Which finally brings us to...

Part 5: Recovery

My pain isn't completely gone yet, but some days I don't feel anything and the sore days are getting farther and farther apart.  I've also been slowly increasing my running frequency up to every day but keeping it light to avoid aggravating the piriformis.  I've felt like Dr. House trying to put all of this together, and like House I'm confident in my theory because it explains all of the symptoms.  Mostly I'm just relieved to feel like I've figured it out.  The worst part about being injured is not knowing whats going on.  After a couple of weeks of playing it safe and lots of ice I should be all better and ready to start training for the 2013 season!  Just in time because the weather in Provo is getting nice: