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May 18, 2024

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20072008
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Location:

Baden-Württemberg,Germany

Member Since:

Oct 29, 2007

Gender:

Male

Goal Type:

Age Division Winner

Running Accomplishments:

Started running in 2004.

PR's 

10k 37:44 Sülzbach May 08

Half 1:24:22 Bottwartal  Oct 06

Marathon: 3:06:18 Antalya Mar 08

Short-Term Running Goals:

Train consistently.  

Sub 37:30 10k

Finally break that longstanding 1/2M time

Run a sub 3:00 marathon.

Have a crack at a 5k, an uphill only race, a 50k.

Long-Term Running Goals:

2:55 marathon

37:00 10k

1:22 1/2 marathon

Place 1st in my age category.

Personal:

I'm a Brit living in a small town in the south west of Germany, on the edge of a nature park, the Schwäbisch-Fränkischer Wald. The landscape is very hilly with vineyards & orchards on the lower slopes merging into forest above. 42 years young, married since 1997 to my lovely wife.

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Miles:This week: 0.00 Month: 0.00 Year: 0.00
Wed, Nov 28, 2007
Easy MilesMarathon Pace MilesThreshold MilesVO2 Max MilesTotal Distance
3.903.104.300.0011.30

A.M. 4 loops around a lake on a bitter cold morning with minus temperatures. The workout was a warmup 6k, then 7k at just under half marathon pace, then 5k at gmp. This was similar to a workout I completed 2 weeks ago but I found it harder this time to hit the 7k at 4:00/k pace. The gmp at 4:15/k afterwards felt much easier to maintain.  It was a long time before I felt warm afterwards, my left hand much colder than the right and the left hand side of my face felt like a spider was crawling on it as it warmed up. I try to concentrate on one aspect of my form each day and todays was my awful habit of swinging my left arm across my body.  I've struggled to correct this and read a good tip yesterday from a Ron Daws book, "Running your best". Rotate the palm slightly upwards to bring the elbow in and keep the arm carriage low. This did help. Total 18k in 1:16:45, av pace 4:16/k, 6:52/mi.

Comments
From Benn on Wed, Nov 28, 2007 at 07:00:49

Ian I'm interested in your opinion about running form. I follow your runs daily and always love the entries. This one in particular today is interesting for me because I have horrible form. I get it from my dad (I look almost exactly like him) and I am flat footed and wear orthodics. I think I am "bowlegged" that is my knees and thighs face outwards while my shins and feet tend to want to rotate inwards. the orthopedic had told me I would be lucky to be running when I'm 40 :-. On top of that I swing my arms left to right. I don't consciously feel that, but I do. IN looking at video and pictures you can clearly see. I thought this was due just to the way i'm designed with wide hips and then the whole bowlegged thing. What's your take on it? or anyone else's for that matter? It stinks that I have such horrible biomechanics. Maybe I should just keep running. I know everyone's different so maybe that's just my thing. I just got to try that much harder to overcome it. When I try to run with "proper form" like they try to teach you in xc, it didn't help and I just feel alien and tense and unrelaxed. Yikes! (going to post this to my blog too)

From Dale on Wed, Nov 28, 2007 at 11:22:33

For what it's worth, on my easy runs, I focus on one form aspect like Ian does too. I've found that if I pick one, focus on it for several easy sessions (harder sessions require my concentration in other areas!), it becomes more natural and better...not perfect.

If it makes you feel better, I have badly splayed feet complete with winking kneecaps, poor posture, and a forward head, not helped by sitting at a computer all day long. Needless to say, I've got plenty to work on myself.

I did find that I had to focus on some strengthening exercises to help compensate for some of the bad form I just cannot completely overcome (i.e. splay feet). So I introduced some plyometric drills and some core exercises in to help.

In any event, I think you can improve form, it just takes some time and effort. And I think the "lucky to be running..." comments from docs are usually garbage from someone who doesn't understand how motivated you are to accomplish something. My 2 cents...

From Dale on Wed, Nov 28, 2007 at 11:23:40

Ian, Does that book have a lot of form tips? I hadn't heard of that text before....maybe I should look it up. I've got an Amazon.com gift certificate burning a hole in my pocket.

From Ian on Wed, Nov 28, 2007 at 11:42:39

Dale, what you've just written above is pretty much the same as I've written on Benn's blog. The Ron Daws book is a secondhand copy and well worth reading, full of good commonsense and one I always reread. A good book for form is "Distance Training for Masters" by Arthur Lydiard.

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