Just so you know I've been gleaning some knowledge, Mr. Anon.....
What I've learned so far:
~Run More
~Sleep more
~Waste less time on meaningless crap
~Get a good running watch (I do have one: a garmin 350)
~get a coach (uh, haven't done that yet....honestly, I am freaked out to just go find a random coach at ISU or IWU as you suggested....why would they want to give advice to some random girl off the streets??)
3 comments:
Basics of long distance running form:
The bottom line is this. When you run, do you feel that you’re moving through the air or just thrashing away in the 'water' ? You have to decide.
Key terms:
Forearm: the area from your elbow to wrist
Arm: area from should to elbow.
Stand up.
Have your hands, palms down, bent at the elbows, just above waist high.
Now look down, and you should see your hands about thirty degrees in front of your chest.
You know the focus is on your arms moving forward and backwards like pendulums. They will gently cross in front of your body,yet only somewhat. They key thing to do is have your forearms just slightly lower than your arms. Your hands just slightly lower than your elbows or equal. A ninety degree bend, if you will. Most people carry their arms too high. Or, their arms are crossing in front of them to an extreme. That lateral motion is constantly moving their body side to side which they have to waste energy fighting.
Above all else, let your gaze guide you. Lift your head so that your focus is toward the horizon, about 20 feet ahead of you. Keep your head level and your neck relaxed, and resist the temptation to look down at your feet. Let everybody else admire your kicks from afar.
Shoulders: Shoulders play an important role in keeping your upper body relaxed while you run, which is critical to maintaining efficient running posture. For optimum performance, your shoulders should be low and loose, not high and tight. As you tire on a run, don't let them creep up toward your ears. If they do, shake them out to release the tension. Your shoulders also need to remain level and shouldn't dip from side to side with each stride.
Stride: While sprinters need to lift their knees high to achieve maximum leg power, distance runners don't need such an exaggerated knee lift--it's simply too hard to sustain for any length of time. Instead, efficient endurance running requires just a slight knee lift, a quick leg turnover, and a short stride. Together, these will facilitate fluid forward movement instead of diverting (and wasting) energy. When running with the proper stride length, your feet should land directly underneath your body. As your foot strikes the ground, your knee should be slightly flexed so that it can bend naturally on impact. If your lower leg (below the knee) extends out in front of your body, your stride is too long.
Running up a hill. Shorten your stride, leaning forward and up more on the balls (front) of your feet. For comparison,when cycling up a hill, you take a smaller gear and increase your cadence. Same with running. Shorter, quicker strides and feel free to pump your arms forward to help drive you forward.
Running down a hill (or gravity gets me down). You have to practice this. You will take a longer stride and allow the hill to bring you forward. Practice allowing your hips, knees and ankles move your body and coast (not literally), expending less energy. While at times unavoidable, you want to do as little ‘braking’ as possible. It can use more energy and stress your body more than normal running when done improperly.
Keeping your hands loose is a significant problem. If you can’t stop stiffening up your hands try the following: your thumb will rest over the side of your forefinger. Place a dime under the thumb and over the forefinger and run just keeping enough pressure to keep the dime in place. Lastly, if your hands or arms start to stiffen up, shake them to loosen them up.
Hint: Two pairs of running shoes: same brand and model and rotate them. Okay coward (I mean that in a nice way) ask for coaching help from the owner of ‘Often Running’, Mitch Hobbs. And, ‘no’ , he doesn’t know me. Mitch gives advice to random people off the street every day. That would be YOU.
The bottom line is that you can think about this until the cows come home. You still gotta run.
Running Tip #5
Sometimes you gotta dump the iPod.
First, a diatribe:
Multitasking is the dumbest concept in the current zeitgeist. How it was ever given real credibility stuns me. You cannot really do more than one thing at once. Yet, your brain can shift from thing to thing at a high rate of speed. Have enough things going at once and errors start happening. The errors increase the stress and cause even more errors. Multitasking simply means you can do a half assed job of several things at once. We simply need to be doing fewer things, not more, yet we add digital device after digital device increasing the load. Ultimately, we only seem to blend our ego and foolishness with greater efficiencies.
Always remember, technology serves us, not ‘us’ serve the technology.
When you’re running, when you’re trying to improve, sometimes you need to focus on your movement, form and breathing. You need to pay attention. You cannot do that with ear buds playing music. You simply cannot get the level of awareness you need.
With that level of awareness you can reach an almost meditative state of running and focus. Your form will improve and you’ll even find your mind starts solving the problems of the day. Go figure huh.
Lastly, since you are trying to qualify for Boston, the USATF does not allow MP3 players in use by competitors for elite qualifications. If the Boston Marathon qualification counts under this rule, you need to be aware of that. I’m not ‘in tune’ enough with the USATF to know how this would effect your goals for qualifying for the Boston Marathon. They have disqualified marathoners for wearing iPods in elite qualifiers.
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