Get Out of Your Own Way!

Do you have a history of poor performance on race day? Do you often follow the insult of the day with a great training run a few weeks later? Do you find yourself repeating this cycle? If you are the kind of person who can't seem to finish your latest self-help book. I suggest you take Barefoot Bob’s advice and Relax, Relax, Relax!

Relax the body * relax the mind * relax the spirit

Get out of your own way! Stop second guessing your plans. Stop falling off your wagon. Stick to your diet and don't allow your short term pleasures to interfere with long term happiness. It takes practice and does'nt always work. But with practice and patients you can do it! Consistency is the key to reaching your goals.

Ok. So it's not running related....but it's funny!

Now for something completely different....

Even if the shoe fit's....at least occasionally, forget it.

Many runners focus primarily on the workouts and little on their form. You probably learned to run as a young kid right after you learned to walk. You could run and for the most part that was enough. Efficiency was not important. For the most part what ever you learned then is still a part of your running technique today. In addition, our body changes as we age. Flexibility and muscle tone, even your desk job can change what happens when you run. Do you bend at the waist when you get tired? Do you strike with your heal? To you over pronate? What do you do?

People spend enormous money and time finding shoes to correct discomfort caused by specific running deficiencies but believe there is nothing they can do to correct their form. Before jumping on a pair of extreme control trainers with inserts consider the root cause and forget about the symptoms. An extreme shoe platform can reinforce and amplify your bad habits.

A good place to start is by watching the best IVS runners as well as the elites on television. Forget about the blistering pace.....what is different about the way they run? What's different about the technique? Notice how effortless they make it look.

Have an objective third party like Adam, Greg or Blair watch you run. Have a friend video tape you running. Concentrate on making adjustments to make you run more like those who seem to run so gracefully. Time spent improving form can be very rewarding. Many form improving drills can be completed in a small amount of time and they are not especially taxing. The benefits can last a lifetime.

Strength training, flexibility, and techniques such as barefoot running are great ways to get your running form where you need it. Train your brain! Barefoot running gives you mucho feedback (at first a bit too much). It also strengthens the feet. This can improve efficiency and lessen the chance for injury.

Mark Sisson, who runs the blog Marks Daily Apple writes "When was the last time you left your house without shoes? Hard to say? When was the last time you ran without shoes? Summer, circa 12 years old? If you are to listen to the growing number of barefoot runners out there you are truly missing out.

It turns out we were all born barefoot. No, really. As hard as it is to believe, no one came strolling into this world pre-packaged with a pair of loafers or Nike’s latest cross-trainers. That alone is a good enough argument for not wearing shoes, right? Yeah, yeah, so goes the same argument for public nudity. But there really is something to the notion that going barefoot (not bare-naked) is good for you. "

You can check out the entire post in Mark's blog! It's a great read for anyone considering barefoot running:

http://www.marksdailyapple.com/even-if-the-shoe-fits-forget-it/

Cheers!

Rob

Will women someday be faster than men in the marathon?

Click on the headline for this story and read Amy Burfoots story on Women and long distance. When you think how long into the running boom we got before women were allowed into marathons, the latest scientific speculation about their endurance power becomes even more ironic: Women might have been better equipped all along than the men who were keeping up the barriers against them. At least that may be true as far as fuel is concerned, when you compare female endurance reserves to those of the stronger men who were protecting the "weaker sex" as too delicate for such a grueling distance.
More accurately, whatever advantage women do possess probably doesn't kick in until an event gets at least as long as the marathon – anything 26.2 miles or over, or its equivalent in another sport, that qualifies it as "ultra distance." And if our theories are correct, the longer the event, the greater the possible advantage. Tracy Sundlun is a former Olympic track coach who has trained over 30 Olympic Trials Marathon qualifiers, and in his view, "The differences as you probe farther into the ultra distances seem to indicate men and women are competing more on an even plane."

El' Danimal Set's Sights On Schroff

Dan Johnson sets his sight to be faster than Schroff on Saturday, May 24. He is competing in the Chillicothe River Run held by the Optimist Club. It's a pancake flat fast 5k along 2nd street through Shore Acres park and back into town. I am guessing Schroffy will need to run 16:50 or better to take on the Danimal. Both are capable of such times. I ALMOST wish I wasn't running just so I could get a video of the fun. This picture was from my bud Matt Stevenson. We all ran a race in Morton a few weeks ago. Winner was featured in this traditional sombrero! I haven't been able to catch him in a 5k.......yet. Thanks Matt. Just a suggestion Dan, I'd lose the hat before the start unless you get a really strong tail wind.

Nike Free Ad

These shoes are great. I need a new pair of Free 3.0's but they seem to be no longer available. Bummer! I can still get 5.0's. I like em....sort of. But the Free 3's were the Bomb! I raced myself to a PR at Delavan in them. I also had a personal first by beating Chris Alexander. Granted he had the flu and was overdressed. But hey, the guy is Faster Than Schroff!