Last update, I was a few classes into a two week trial period for Yoga. Since then, I've become convinced that the Yoga is helpful, in several ways. First off, there is the obvious flexibility gains, mostly in hamstrings and hips. The result of this has been an immediate improvement in how my lower back has felt. In fact, I realized I had gotten used to a certain level of discomfort and tightness in my back over the past couple years. A few sessions of Yoga and started loosening things up enough to make me conscious of the discomfort.
Another benefit I'm finding is getting used to the heat. At 105 degrees and 40% humidity, I sweat. A lot. After a few classes, I started getting used to it, and started figuring out the nuances of how to keep hydrated for this particular activity. But I feel like my body is getting more efficient at working out in hot weather - so my hope is that come the summer heat, when my performance normally suffers greatly, it won't be such a dropoff. While it gets hot in MA during the summer, it doesn't reach anything like 105 degrees and 40% humidity.
As I attend more classes, I find ways in which the postures work various muscle groups as well. Initially, my focus was just trying to do the postures with some semblance of correctness. But over time, I get a little bit better and more efficient, meaning I am using fewer muscles to accomplish the same task. I also find there are some poses that are potentially helpful in ways I didn't envision. One pose in particular, the standing head to knee pose, seems to really work the gluteus medius - which is a muscle that is typically very weak in runners, and helps with hip stability during running. In fact, multiple PT exercises were geared towards strengthening this muscle. I find that the standing head to knee pose on one side is significantly weaker than on the other side. My hope is that working the weaker side will ultimately help with hip stability, which should help with the IT band.
I've also continued swimming a couple/few times a week at the pool. At this point, I'm just doing the 36 laps (1800 yds, about 1 mile) in one straight session.
11/18
36 laps
31:59.5
11/22
36 laps
32:17
11/27
36 laps
32:09
I think what I've decided to do for the next couple months is do the Yoga 4x per week (Sunday, Monday, Wednesday, Thursday), and swimming 3x per week (Tuesday, Friday, Saturday). I found during the yoga trial that after doing it for 3-4 days straight, my motivation starts to drop - so I think doing 2x in a row is maintainable. Since the goal for swimming in the offseason is primarily maintenance with existing conditioning, doing that 3x per week should suffice - it still gives me a chance to have a shorter rep speedwork type session (if I so choose), a long distance increasing session (if I so choose), and a nice easy recovery 1 mile session (if I so choose).
Friday, November 19, 2010
Wednesday, November 10, 2010
Trying to find a routine
While I have been pretty good about keeping active, I've been a bit erratic at settling into a particular routine. For a short while, it was barefoot running a short distance each day. Then, a couple weeks ago I had a session with the TI coach to find some new ways to refine my swim stroke. That resulted in some focused effort on swimming, including some dilly-dallying into how I should go about swim workouts. Should I approach it like Daniels does with running - go with low stress, distance building type workouts first, before handling the more speedwork related sessions? Should I try to mix them all up and have distance and speedwork variation in my workouts on a weekly basis? I definitely want to keep doing long swims (~ 30 minutes straight) on a regular basis, just to keep that mental picture focus of swimming for that long a time.
In the meantime, I jumped from 2 miles to 3.15 miles of barefoot running. In working up to 2 miles, I was increasing distance very gradually - about half a mile at a time. This was to keep the calfs from getting so sore that I couldn't run the next day. However, after a couple days of two miles with little soreness the day after, I decided to try jumping from 2 to 3.
It might have been a tad too much, but not extreme. About 2 miles in, my left knee was feeling a tad abused (not the IT band, actually) when I'd plant every so often. As expected, my calfs were pretty tight and sore for about two days afterwards, but it really wasn't all that bad. I did the 3 miles on a day when I knew I'd have at least 2 rest days coming up due to work travel.
The bigger concern was that it appeared my quads were tight enough to make me feel the IT band rubbing on occasion over the next couple days. Not sure whether that was an effect of the distance jump, or the longer distance at a faster pace (about 8 minutes/mile) than I should probably be going at before getting fully warmed up.
As luck would have it, another curveball was thrown my way soon after. For a while, I had been looking for a Yoga studio close by, as I've been told multiple times from multiple sources that Yoga would help me with flexibility and core strength. Late last week I looked around and saw a local place had opened up, offering unlimited classes for 2 weeks for $20. The normal single class drop-in rate is $15 - so the $20 for unlimited classes sounded like a great deal for seeing whether Yoga would be helpful.
So at this point, I've signed up and attended a few classes. The discipline is called Bikram Yoga, and is done in a room @ 105 degrees with 40% humidity. It progresses through a series of 26 poses, both standing and on the floor. By the third pose, I'm dripping buckets. It is actually rather gross, and I fear for the owners of the establishment that I may chase some people away. But I do a pretty reasonable job of keeping my funk on my little area where I have my mat and towel - so hopefully that counts for something.
It is still a bit early to tell whether this Yoga will help what ails me, but I can definitely see where it could have huge benefits. Some aspects of flexibility have improved noticibly in only three classes, and although I'm not flexible enough to fully get into most of the poses and make it look good (actually, with that qualifier, I'm not flexible enough to get into any poses), I still get some benefit. I just have a lot of bottlenecks to work through.
Anyhow, workout information:
Swimming:
11/9
36 laps
32:26
(I am thinking the easiest way to judge improvement for this is to do 36 laps, 1800 yards, or about 1 mile and compare overall times)
Running:
3.15 miles
In the meantime, I jumped from 2 miles to 3.15 miles of barefoot running. In working up to 2 miles, I was increasing distance very gradually - about half a mile at a time. This was to keep the calfs from getting so sore that I couldn't run the next day. However, after a couple days of two miles with little soreness the day after, I decided to try jumping from 2 to 3.
It might have been a tad too much, but not extreme. About 2 miles in, my left knee was feeling a tad abused (not the IT band, actually) when I'd plant every so often. As expected, my calfs were pretty tight and sore for about two days afterwards, but it really wasn't all that bad. I did the 3 miles on a day when I knew I'd have at least 2 rest days coming up due to work travel.
The bigger concern was that it appeared my quads were tight enough to make me feel the IT band rubbing on occasion over the next couple days. Not sure whether that was an effect of the distance jump, or the longer distance at a faster pace (about 8 minutes/mile) than I should probably be going at before getting fully warmed up.
As luck would have it, another curveball was thrown my way soon after. For a while, I had been looking for a Yoga studio close by, as I've been told multiple times from multiple sources that Yoga would help me with flexibility and core strength. Late last week I looked around and saw a local place had opened up, offering unlimited classes for 2 weeks for $20. The normal single class drop-in rate is $15 - so the $20 for unlimited classes sounded like a great deal for seeing whether Yoga would be helpful.
So at this point, I've signed up and attended a few classes. The discipline is called Bikram Yoga, and is done in a room @ 105 degrees with 40% humidity. It progresses through a series of 26 poses, both standing and on the floor. By the third pose, I'm dripping buckets. It is actually rather gross, and I fear for the owners of the establishment that I may chase some people away. But I do a pretty reasonable job of keeping my funk on my little area where I have my mat and towel - so hopefully that counts for something.
It is still a bit early to tell whether this Yoga will help what ails me, but I can definitely see where it could have huge benefits. Some aspects of flexibility have improved noticibly in only three classes, and although I'm not flexible enough to fully get into most of the poses and make it look good (actually, with that qualifier, I'm not flexible enough to get into any poses), I still get some benefit. I just have a lot of bottlenecks to work through.
Anyhow, workout information:
Swimming:
11/9
36 laps
32:26
(I am thinking the easiest way to judge improvement for this is to do 36 laps, 1800 yards, or about 1 mile and compare overall times)
Running:
3.15 miles
Tuesday, November 9, 2010
Taking it to the next level - The Patriot Half Iron
At some point it was bound to happen. After doing an Olympic tri in both of the last two years, I had a goal this year of going a Half Iron. The half iron distance of 1.3/56/13 is about 2x the distance of an olympic (0.9/26/6). With only a few in this area a year, options were limited. So when I got an email from Sun Multisports last week mentioning the Patriot half iron in June, I thought about it and then decided to sign up. The other half's in this area I'm aware of are in Rhode Island - one in July, one in September. The one in July would probably be rough because of the temperature, plus I believe the swim is in ocean water. So I figured the September would be the likely target one. But I couldn't resist signing up for the one in June. So at the moment, I'm thinking I'll do both the June one and the September one. However, the June one is the day before the Webster sprint tri - so I'll likely be passing on that.
The real complication was that my original plan for this off season was to give myself a rest from running, and build mileage back up slowly starting in the spring. Obviously, having something like a half iron puts a wrench into those plans, so the buildup will be more aggressive than I was planning. However, given that I've figured out that my IT issues are mostly caused by overdoing it intensity (speedwork) wise, I'm hoping I will be able to manage the distance without too much of an issue. I'll probably have to start training earlier than I planned, though. I still want to take the 2 months running rest (at least) - which will likely be December/January with maybe some February mixed in there, but by March I'll have to be running at least 3 times per week. At that point I'll have 4 months to build back up to 13 miles. Actually, I'd like to get a few 15-16 mile runs under my belt before the tri, just to get that extra conditioning to help keep the hips from tightening up during the last couple miles.
I'll also have to dedicate myself to cycling. A big part of that will likely be riding into work a few times a week. That 30 miles a day will be a big portion of weekly mileage, but I'll also have to make sure to start cycling longer distances on weekends. I'm thinking of up to somewhere around 75 miles.
Swimming will actually be the easy part. I'm already conditioned for swimming a mile straight. My time of 30 minutes is ok - not great, but ok. During the winter I'll work on keeping that conditioning for 30-45 minutes of straight swimming, and also hopefully get the times down a little bit.
Ideally, I'd be able to simulate a half iron somewhere around the beginning of June. I'd be ok with taking breaks between activities - no need to put the stress of a race on the body 2-3 weeks before the race - but mostly to get somewhat familiar with the level of exertion both mentally and physically.
The real complication was that my original plan for this off season was to give myself a rest from running, and build mileage back up slowly starting in the spring. Obviously, having something like a half iron puts a wrench into those plans, so the buildup will be more aggressive than I was planning. However, given that I've figured out that my IT issues are mostly caused by overdoing it intensity (speedwork) wise, I'm hoping I will be able to manage the distance without too much of an issue. I'll probably have to start training earlier than I planned, though. I still want to take the 2 months running rest (at least) - which will likely be December/January with maybe some February mixed in there, but by March I'll have to be running at least 3 times per week. At that point I'll have 4 months to build back up to 13 miles. Actually, I'd like to get a few 15-16 mile runs under my belt before the tri, just to get that extra conditioning to help keep the hips from tightening up during the last couple miles.
I'll also have to dedicate myself to cycling. A big part of that will likely be riding into work a few times a week. That 30 miles a day will be a big portion of weekly mileage, but I'll also have to make sure to start cycling longer distances on weekends. I'm thinking of up to somewhere around 75 miles.
Swimming will actually be the easy part. I'm already conditioned for swimming a mile straight. My time of 30 minutes is ok - not great, but ok. During the winter I'll work on keeping that conditioning for 30-45 minutes of straight swimming, and also hopefully get the times down a little bit.
Ideally, I'd be able to simulate a half iron somewhere around the beginning of June. I'd be ok with taking breaks between activities - no need to put the stress of a race on the body 2-3 weeks before the race - but mostly to get somewhat familiar with the level of exertion both mentally and physically.
Monday, November 1, 2010
Ditching the shoes
For the better part of a year now, I've been intrigued and looking into running without modern running shoes. Initially, my thinking of doing so centered around using Vibram Five Finger's as a shoe replacement, so that the soles of my feet would have some protection against gravel, glass, and other things found on pavement that may scrape up the bottom of my feet. While there are those who run truly barefoot and buld up callouses to deal with such things, I didn't want to roughen up my feet quite like that.
So I went to try on the VFF's on during the fall last year. Unfortunately, I found that they didn't fit my feet all that well - my toes are relatively short, and the fabric of the VFF's would dig into the flesh between my toes. Assuming that every step taken while running would drive that fabric into the flesh, I decided VFF's weren't going to work for me. I then figured that I'd have to make my own sandals somehow, similar to how the Tarahumara make their own from leather, old tires, etc. Unfortunately I didn't have any old tires, and I never quite got around to sourcing sole leather. I was busy with PT over the winter, and got started in the springtime with shoes, and I didn't want to throw a wrench into that. By mid-summer, however, in the midst of PF and ITB issues, I began to revisit the idea of figuring out how to run barefoot. A random comment from someone on Facebook, and I found that Barefoot Ted sells running sandal kits for about $25. Perfect!
Once I got the kit in and made the sandals, I knew I'd have to take my time to build up to using them. For one thing, the small amount of barefoot running I did last year taught me that even just a mile would result in sore calfs for a while. For another, I have never worn sandals, so my feet were not used to having string between the toes. If I were to start running, I'd have a few things to get used to first.
So for several weeks, while I was working on building distance for the half marathon, I made sure to wear the sandals a couple/few times per week for 45 minutes or so. Usually this was when I was walking the dogs in the park up the street. this gave me an opportunity to start playing with mechanics, getting used to having something between my toes, and getting used to walking halfway decent distances without a thick heel that normal shoes have. Once I finished the half marathon, I decided I'd spend the rest of the running season getting started with actually running in the things. There were a few reasons for this:
1) Mileage would be low - so I'd be able to make progress on something with less chance of aggravating an existing issue (PF or ITB).
2) I'd have a chance to see what kind of buildup rate might be acceptable.
3) Some of the conditioning might carry over to next year, so I'd hopefully get a little bit of a head start.
4) Since the mileage is low, I'd have the flexibility to run at odd times of the day. If a run is only going to take between 10-20 minutes, it is much easier to run @ night, as opposed to a distance run of 10-12 miles after getting home from work around 6:30.
I initially started with running a few days in a row, but only running a mile. I didn't want to repeat last years experience of starting out at close to 2 miles, and having to deal with extremely tight and sore calfs for the next 4 days. Even only a mile resulted in some tightness and soreness, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't run another mile the following day. After 3 days in a row, I took a rest day (I was travelling for work), followed by a mile on a treadmill the next day. Took two days of rest, and then followed up with about 1.5 miles the next day. Over the next several days, I ran about 1.5 miles a couple more times. After maybe the 3rd day of this, the amount of soreness is minimal from one day to the next, an indication that at least the calf muscles are adapting. What I don't know is what kind of time is required for the tendons and ligaments to adapt and strengthen as necessary.
At this point, I've done 3 days of 1.5 miles, and I'm thinking I'll do one more 1.5 miler before extending to 2 miles. I'm still just a touch more sore than I'd like to be to move on to 2 miles right now.
So there is THAT part of the story.
The other part of the story is how different running sans shoes is. At first, it seems very laborious. It just seems like more effort is required of the lower legs than is necessary when wearing shoes. In fact, the very first time trying out the sandals was soon after I got them, and when I put running shoes on the next day, they (the shoes) just felt so much more.. normal. However, after only a few times running in the sandals, they now feel much more.. normal. I noticed this last week when I went to do a 5 mile run (the first time since I've had my license that I've run for a utilitarian reason - I had to run to pick up the car that was being detailed that day). I felt like every step, the shoe was absorbing a great deal of energy that is generated during the stride. It was like an energy sink.
What I have found, after tinkering around with the necessary mechanical adjustments when transitioning from running with shoes to running without shoes, is what advocates for barefoot running have said many times over and over - that there is an extra spring in your step/stride when running barefoot. As the arch of the foot is planted and supports body weight, it stores that potential energy and releases it when weight is shifted off. The result is significant - much more of the legs upward movement is a result of 'decompressing the spring', as opposed to physically lifting the leg. It seems to me that this is why wearing shoes felt like an energy sink during that 5 mile run.
Second, it is much easier to reach the optimum cadence of 90 footstrokes per foot per minute without shoes. Being unable to 'cheat', and plant your foot more forward than it should be - as you can with running shoes - running barefoot more or less forces you to place your foot directly under your body, and it is done more easily (for me, anyway) than when wearing shoes.
Finally - I feel a definite difference in horizontal/vertical motion. When running with shoes, even if I try to minimize vertical motion, there is still more present than when running without shoes. I believe this is largely because of the thick heel in shoes - in order to allow 'proper' mechanics when there is an extra 1" of stuff under your heel, I was tending to use vertical motion as an aid (maybe to try and get up and over that extra material? Maybe to give my leg that extra fraction of a second to get directly underneath the rest of my body? I dont know). When running without shoes, my hips feel much more like they are riding on a far more level plane, and that my legs are moving in more of a circular, as opposed to elliptical, fashion.
So I'll see what happens long-term. My hope is to be able to do virtually all running next year in sandals, because one thing is clear - at this point it seems like it would be very difficult to train in both methods simultaneously. I could be wrong about that - perhaps running barefoot is just teaching me better mechanics and I can easily transfer those mechanics over to using shoes.
So I went to try on the VFF's on during the fall last year. Unfortunately, I found that they didn't fit my feet all that well - my toes are relatively short, and the fabric of the VFF's would dig into the flesh between my toes. Assuming that every step taken while running would drive that fabric into the flesh, I decided VFF's weren't going to work for me. I then figured that I'd have to make my own sandals somehow, similar to how the Tarahumara make their own from leather, old tires, etc. Unfortunately I didn't have any old tires, and I never quite got around to sourcing sole leather. I was busy with PT over the winter, and got started in the springtime with shoes, and I didn't want to throw a wrench into that. By mid-summer, however, in the midst of PF and ITB issues, I began to revisit the idea of figuring out how to run barefoot. A random comment from someone on Facebook, and I found that Barefoot Ted sells running sandal kits for about $25. Perfect!
Once I got the kit in and made the sandals, I knew I'd have to take my time to build up to using them. For one thing, the small amount of barefoot running I did last year taught me that even just a mile would result in sore calfs for a while. For another, I have never worn sandals, so my feet were not used to having string between the toes. If I were to start running, I'd have a few things to get used to first.
So for several weeks, while I was working on building distance for the half marathon, I made sure to wear the sandals a couple/few times per week for 45 minutes or so. Usually this was when I was walking the dogs in the park up the street. this gave me an opportunity to start playing with mechanics, getting used to having something between my toes, and getting used to walking halfway decent distances without a thick heel that normal shoes have. Once I finished the half marathon, I decided I'd spend the rest of the running season getting started with actually running in the things. There were a few reasons for this:
1) Mileage would be low - so I'd be able to make progress on something with less chance of aggravating an existing issue (PF or ITB).
2) I'd have a chance to see what kind of buildup rate might be acceptable.
3) Some of the conditioning might carry over to next year, so I'd hopefully get a little bit of a head start.
4) Since the mileage is low, I'd have the flexibility to run at odd times of the day. If a run is only going to take between 10-20 minutes, it is much easier to run @ night, as opposed to a distance run of 10-12 miles after getting home from work around 6:30.
I initially started with running a few days in a row, but only running a mile. I didn't want to repeat last years experience of starting out at close to 2 miles, and having to deal with extremely tight and sore calfs for the next 4 days. Even only a mile resulted in some tightness and soreness, but it wasn't so bad that I couldn't run another mile the following day. After 3 days in a row, I took a rest day (I was travelling for work), followed by a mile on a treadmill the next day. Took two days of rest, and then followed up with about 1.5 miles the next day. Over the next several days, I ran about 1.5 miles a couple more times. After maybe the 3rd day of this, the amount of soreness is minimal from one day to the next, an indication that at least the calf muscles are adapting. What I don't know is what kind of time is required for the tendons and ligaments to adapt and strengthen as necessary.
At this point, I've done 3 days of 1.5 miles, and I'm thinking I'll do one more 1.5 miler before extending to 2 miles. I'm still just a touch more sore than I'd like to be to move on to 2 miles right now.
So there is THAT part of the story.
The other part of the story is how different running sans shoes is. At first, it seems very laborious. It just seems like more effort is required of the lower legs than is necessary when wearing shoes. In fact, the very first time trying out the sandals was soon after I got them, and when I put running shoes on the next day, they (the shoes) just felt so much more.. normal. However, after only a few times running in the sandals, they now feel much more.. normal. I noticed this last week when I went to do a 5 mile run (the first time since I've had my license that I've run for a utilitarian reason - I had to run to pick up the car that was being detailed that day). I felt like every step, the shoe was absorbing a great deal of energy that is generated during the stride. It was like an energy sink.
What I have found, after tinkering around with the necessary mechanical adjustments when transitioning from running with shoes to running without shoes, is what advocates for barefoot running have said many times over and over - that there is an extra spring in your step/stride when running barefoot. As the arch of the foot is planted and supports body weight, it stores that potential energy and releases it when weight is shifted off. The result is significant - much more of the legs upward movement is a result of 'decompressing the spring', as opposed to physically lifting the leg. It seems to me that this is why wearing shoes felt like an energy sink during that 5 mile run.
Second, it is much easier to reach the optimum cadence of 90 footstrokes per foot per minute without shoes. Being unable to 'cheat', and plant your foot more forward than it should be - as you can with running shoes - running barefoot more or less forces you to place your foot directly under your body, and it is done more easily (for me, anyway) than when wearing shoes.
Finally - I feel a definite difference in horizontal/vertical motion. When running with shoes, even if I try to minimize vertical motion, there is still more present than when running without shoes. I believe this is largely because of the thick heel in shoes - in order to allow 'proper' mechanics when there is an extra 1" of stuff under your heel, I was tending to use vertical motion as an aid (maybe to try and get up and over that extra material? Maybe to give my leg that extra fraction of a second to get directly underneath the rest of my body? I dont know). When running without shoes, my hips feel much more like they are riding on a far more level plane, and that my legs are moving in more of a circular, as opposed to elliptical, fashion.
So I'll see what happens long-term. My hope is to be able to do virtually all running next year in sandals, because one thing is clear - at this point it seems like it would be very difficult to train in both methods simultaneously. I could be wrong about that - perhaps running barefoot is just teaching me better mechanics and I can easily transfer those mechanics over to using shoes.
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