It's Thursday and that means it was another 8 mile run day. I like the 8 milers in the morning, something about that distance and the quietness of early morning really helps me clear my mind. This morning was no exception to that, but let me rewind to review the rest of the week first.
After the last post of a 90% 10 mile run on Monday, I went for a little recovery run on Tuesday morning, a straight and easy 4 mile job at about 50%. It was about 50% because my legs couldn't handle much more than that after a 10 mile - 4 mile hills - 10 mile in consecutive days. Also, I didn't eat breakfast before or really consume much of anything, just put on my Run 3 mix and headed out the door. And I took the dogs which was interesting because the woodland creatures are starting to wake and run around. Dogs like rabbits if you didn't know. I made it through that and rested on Wednesday, which was well needed.
Back to Thursday. This morning started with my 3 year old waking me up at 2:30 and my energy levels not allowing me to fall back to sleep. My body was ready to go again, so I was able to eat a banana muffin 2 hours before my run, and actually some chocolate about an hour before. So I had enough of both slow burning and fast burning carbs to get out a different run. I headed out a little before 5 am in some 46 degree, cloudy weather. I started at about 85% for the first mile, slowed a little in the effort to about 75-80% effort after that for the next 6 miles. During that time I was really working on form, and I will get into that a little more in just a bit. After around the 7 mile marker, I picked up the pace to about 90%. Then, when I hit the access road to our neighborhood, I went all out for that small bit. It was really a productive run, even with the early start. 2:30 am started to take it's toll as the day went along though, which might explain why I feel like I am rambling.
Alright, so I spoke of form earlier. I have talked to some people who are true beginners recently about their running and they were talking about their frustration in how far they can get. They feel like they are not progressing. Well, there are a couple of factors to that, first in being what are they trying to progress. Are they looking for farther distances, faster times? My first suggestion to people is to try to build endurance (run farther) before you worry about times. More than likely, unless you have been running your whole life, you are not going to be winning any major events. One thing that is going to help build endurance is to have a good form when running. Why? Well, having a good form means you are not going to be wasting away an energy from unnecessary movements.
I did a lot of research on this when I first started, so hopefully what I am writing is going to help and make sense. When you are first starting, and doing interval running (Jog X distance, walk Y Distance, repeat), this is the perfect time to pay attention to how you look when you run. I will have to put a warning, if you are a, shall we say well endowed female, you may not have a good comfort level for posture as you might get a few honks from passerby;s. I have talked to women that have told me that this does happen. Having said that, the upper body is very instrumental when trying to gain distance. First, keep your head up. I know, you want to look down to make sure you are not going to trip and fall or hurt yourself. Well, it is far better to scan ahead when running and not hunching over see where you foot is. With your head up, keep your shoulder down and back. This is important to pay attention to because when pushing yourself, as you start to tire you will start to notice your shoulder shrug. This is your muscles unnecessarily contracting and spending energy, and we want to save energy for our legs.
If you can hold this posture, you will notice now that is looks like you are pushing your chest out some. That is what some females struggle, and tend to roll in to avoid cat calls. Again, this is contracting muscles and wasting valuable energy. You will also start to notice that with good posture, you have increased lung capacity which will help fuel your muscles! So with good posture you can increase your ability to run longer. To finish the upper body, try to keep your arms at about a 90 degree elbow bend and DO NOT make a fist. Keep your hands somewhat loose, again preserving energy. Arms out as compared or to the side does not really matter much, but try to keep them somewhat quiet. Not need for large arm movements, that is more for sprinting, the faster the speed the more your arms will naturally swing.
That's about it for the upper body, I will probably post again on Sunday after hopefully an 11 mile run. In that post I will talk about breathing and good form for the lower body! Please, ask questions and comment, it will help me move forward and stay motivated!
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