Despite feeling crummy about my Pose progress, I've been staying the course with the drills. Monday and Tuesday I worked out at the local high school track, and endured all the off-leash dogs. I like dogs quite a bit, but I got bit by a dog several months ago while on a run, and I am now terrified of off-leash dogs. It's a little irrational, but then again it was an off-leash dog that got me, so maybe not so irrational. Then the dog owners have their dogs running all over the infield, which is where I like to do my barefoot running, and they're probably peeing all over the place. Ah well. I guess if you're going to run barefoot, you've got to pay the piper. (Did I just write that?)

I skipped today due to pain and tenderness on the top of my right foot. I've had these totally chronically shin splints all my running life, so when I get something new, it's always kind of a revelation. I have muscles on top of my foot? Weird! It seems to hurt more when I slow down after doing one of the short, post-drill runs. It was worse yesterday than Monday, so I figured a day off might be in order.

Saturday we leave for vacation. We're headed the north coast, where we can say good bye to 100 degree temperatures. Our first stop is Ft. Bragg, and the forecast is for 79 degrees. Then on to Arcata, and then to the Oregon coast, where it should only get cooler. I'll have to wear a jacket!!

impatience

It's true, I'm not a patient person. I can be patient with children. Patience with adults takes a lot of self control. Patience with myself...forget about it.

I am frustrated and a little depressed about my progress learning the pose running technique. I put a video up on the pose forum recently, and at first I thought it showed some progress. On closer inspection, I seem to still have a pretty straight trailing leg. The pull looks late. Now I'm not sure that it's much better than the earlier videos at all.

Hopefully I'm not the only one in the world who has had difficulty like this learning pose running. I want badly to go to a clinic, but it would be a little too expensive at this point, unless they have a clinic in California. So, I guess I will keep at the drills. But I need to start doing some mileage if I'm going to be able to run cross country or finish the crazy Saturn Relay thing.

100 degree trench warfare

I think I mentioned here that I was putting an irrigation system in. Did I mention that it's been over 100 degrees the last few days that I've been digging trenches? What a week to pick to work outside. It's been a little exhausting, and the motivation to get out to the track to do drills has been lower because of it. I skipped yesterday entirely, which makes two days skipped this week.

Wednesday I did my drills on the track, but didn't do much barefoot running because the football team was all over the infield. Today I did my drills, adding the forward hop, and did 4 x 400m with plenty of rest. I think I managed to slow down tonight because I didn't feel like I was going to collapse at the end of each quarter. Hopefully my form was ok. I reread the section of the pose book that likened pose running to a unicyclist. I tried different amounts of lean, and really felt how my cadence went up as I leaned forward, and how much I ran faster. I was pleased to feel some hamstring fatigue after the workout, as I take that to mean that I am using my hamstrings to pull more than using my hip flexors to drive the leg forward.

I feel as though I'm starting to get the pose thing. My pull was less dramatic today, but just as salient to me. At first I needed the pull to be very hard in order to feel it. I still feel uneven, as though one foot is not doing it as well as the other. For a while, the right leg felt slower to pull. Now I cannot tell which leg is doing what, I can just tell they are different. Hopefully a video will reveal some of these problems.

Things have been a little hectic, as J and I are in the process of putting irrigation in our back and front yards, so I missed a workout yesterday. Today I did my typical series of drills, and ran 6 x diagonals across the infield, barefoot. Things felt good, generally. I would really like to look at a video soon, but we haven't got around to it. Hopefully this weekend, if not sooner.

I was really trying to run slower tonight by decreasing the force of the pull. I was using the visual imagery of a yo-yo. You know how with a yo-yo you can really jerk it kind of hard, and the yo-yo comes all the way up to your hand, or you can just jerk it very lightly and it will only go up the string a few inches. "Jerk" is probably not the best word to use, but I was thinking of that light little flick you do with your hand to cause the yo-yo to travel slightly up the string.

I thought I'd break down some statistics and facts for tonight...

pre-pose mileage: 45/week
post-pose mileage: oh god. Maybe 7, if I round up.
pre-pose weight: 129 lbs.
post-pose weight: 129 lbs., (Surprising, but I'm actually holding steady here...probably all the yard work helps.)
pre-pose injury round-up: minor bilateral achilles tendonitis; bilateral pain in the lower medial tibia with running, kneeling, and, occasionally, walking; incredible tenderness to touch in both medial tibias
post-pose injury round-up: minor bilateral achilles tendonitis, but diminishing; no particular pain in the lower medial tibia with running, walking, or kneeling; tenderness to touch in both medial tibias, but certainly less than before
pre-pose "slow" pace: 8:30-9:00 min/mile
post-pose "slow" pace: 1:20 min/400m. (This makes it seem like Pose has transformed me into a world class runner, when in fact it just means that I can't run at a reasonable pace while doing Pose. Incidentally, 80 second laps equals my 1500m. PR, which was set around ten years ago now.)

All in all, I have to say that I'll take the 7 miles/week over the 45 right now, because I can see a way out of contantly stress fractured tibias.

A last thought, I found this video while browsing some old topics on the Pose message boards, and it kind of stuck in my mind as something to aspire to.

speedwork

Hopefully I didn't stray too far from the recommended beginner pose workout, but I managed to get in some speedwork today. I did all the drills that I usually do, and then took my shoes off for my barefoot run. I was having an especially difficult time doing all the pose stuff at a slow pace. So halfway through my first lap, I figured I would just run a lap at a time, resting in between. The more I thought about my form, the faster my cadence and pace were. On my second lap, after resting, the wheels started coming off at 300 meters. The whole thing kind of evolved into 2 x 400, 300, 200, with as much recovery as I wanted. My hammies were very tired and heavy by the time I was done.

Yesterday I just did my drills, no grass running. Both today and yesterday I felt like a much different runner. I'm pretty sure I'm running exactly like Michael Johnson, if you can imagine a slower, female, Eurasian Michael Johnson. I'll let everyone know as soon as I confirm that with the video. Seriously though, my form feels much different than it used to. It feels like someone else's running form.

I'm content with my progress, because my shins feel fine most of the time, (they're like a barometer for bad form; I just start pulling quickier and the pain goes away.) But I have these moments of mental panic when I start thinking about how I can't seem to maintain good Pose form and run at a slower pace. I start thinking about how I'll just have to become a quarter miler or maybe eke out a half. Can you run the half on no training slower than a tempo pace? (Actually, I'm not so sure I can maintain good form at my old tempo pace either.) I realize that I haven't been at this Pose thing for too long, and a little patience is probably in order, but when am I going to learn to run slow?

Little to report today, it was more of the same drills. I felt great a few different times. Things seemed to come together every now and then during the short runs. I'll see if I can get J to video again next week and hopefully there will be some visible improvement. I also ran a mile today barefoot on the grass which felt quite good also. I can't seem to run as slow as my typical slow day pace would be. Everything's more up tempo when I'm really working on Pose.

How about the Rome Golden Gala? Blanket finish in the women's 5k, a come from behind victory in the men's steeple, and very high quality times in the men's 5k. Plus the 3:30 winning time in the men's 1500, and good times in both men's and women's 800s. Sounds as if the women's 400m hurdles was quite exciting as well. Someday I want to go on vacation to Europe and time it for a couple of big one day meets.

nose to the grindstone

More Pose drills today, pose stance, pony, change of position, foward pony, hop in place, forward change of position. I had a minor revelation today; I felt the pull in a different way. All of a sudden in one of the short runs I could feel my heel being pulled toward my rear. I think I stopped pushing for a few moments. So that felt good, but it was a little bit ethereal. I wasn't able to feel it every run. I didn't do a barefoot run because I had a bad headache and just wanted to get home.

There was a mild hulabaloo on the pose message board recently. That board is really a gold mine of good advice and it is mercifully left alone by wingnuts and those who just want to provoke, but it's awful serious sometimes. A lighter attitude toward the whole thing would improve the mood there, I think.

J and I volunteered to the Saturn Relays as part of an effort by our running team to raise money for a teammate whose daughter is quite sick and will most likely be receiving a kidney transplant from her mother, (the teammate, who, incidentally, is pretty fast.) I thought it would be fun and it would help support our teammate, and at the time, I was training well. But then I got injured, and now with the whole switch to Pose thing, I really don't know if I'll be ready. I don't know which legs I will be doing, but basically it's a race from Calistoga, CA to Santa Cruz, CA, and 12 people do three legs each, while living in what has got to become a nasty smelling van. A teammate described one of the highlights from last year as eating top ramen under the Golden Gate Bridge at 4:00AM. Obviously something that you have to experience to truly appreciate. The race is October 15 & 16. Relay legs are between 3 and 9 miles. I was originally planning to run at projected marathon pace. Should I try and find a replacement or can I be ready? Opinions?

post-ouch

So I'm taking some flak for the whole barefoot running on the track thing. In my defense, I would like to point out that: a) it's a Mondo track which is not nearly as rough as other all-weather tracks, b) one foot was fine so I'm at least half way to being able to run 4 laps comfortably on the track, barefoot, and c) Zola Budd. Ok, ok I'm no Zola Budd.

I did pretty much the same drill routine as yesterday, but I added 2x50reps of hop in place on each leg. As I was doing some short runs after drills, I could actually feel how different and slower my right leg felt compared to my left. It just doesn't pull as quickly. So I thought it would be a good time to add the hop.

Quickening my cadence definitely helped me feel like I was doing things more right. (Thanks for the comment, Shawn.) It's funny because since I started wearing lighter shoes, my cadence improved almost without me trying. Whenever I counted, I was right around 180, even on slow runs. I think my cadence suffered recently because I was thinking too much about Pose stuff while running. I tried to cut that out today.

Unfortunately I didn't get to do my barefoot run because my toe was still kind of painful. It took a fair amount of conscious self control but I quit after half a lap. I could have run through it, but I could picture Pose message board guru, Jack, typing sternly, "too much too soon."

Some miscellaneous notes...

For any achilles tendonitis sufferers out there, the exercises described here, have really helped J.

Check out my junior college coach's ab workout. You've never seen animated gifs used so elegantly before.

ouch.

I did the same workout as Monday, but with 5 laps of barefoot running. My right foot was all ripped up afterward with a bloody baby toe and skin coming off a couple of the other toes and the ball of my foot. Seems kind of odd, but my left foot has no such damage. I wonder if it's got to do with my right foot being the outside foot as I run around the track. Might have to put this one to the pose message board and see if it means anything with regard to my technique.

The drills were challenging, I never know if I'm getting it right. The run felt pretty good. A couple of times I felt more fall happening. I was running pretty quickly, not on purpose, but because it seemed to be what happened when I concentrated on technique.

I found out that triathletes don't seem to know what to do when someone yells "Track!" at them. There was a big group of them walking on the only two lanes of the track as they were leaving. I yelled about 5 times and they pretty much never even looked at me. Sheesh.

video from today

This is a really unfortunate video. I don't know if it'll show up well enough in the compressed format, but I've got a completely straight trailing leg some of the time. Which I think means I'm pushing.

video link

out of sorts

Today I did 2x30s. ea. leg pose stance, 4x30s. pony & change of stance, 4x10m. forward pony & forward change of stance. Most drills followed by 30-40m. run.

No barefoot jogging today because I felt a little stiff and sore. I think it's residual from that ill-advised 800. I was frustrated today--I couldn't seem to get things right, and there were too many things that I was trying to do. I worked on the pull, but could feel myself placing my feet. There were brief moments when I felt the fall happening a little more. Changing your form is so annoyingly mental.

I got some more practice in focusing on my form during drills despite the presence of something really distracting. In today's case it was about 20 or 30 cheerleaders having practice. I could block out the yelling and dance moves, but when they started tossing each other round in the air and doing flips, I just had to stop and watch.

last few days

So the DVD arrived, I watched it, and started reading the book. It seems like a clinic is the best way to go, but there isn't currently one scheduled anywhere near me. So I went ahead and started learning the drills. After about 5 days of just doing drills and short runs, I was not feeling any shin pain. Pretty exciting, considering how inflamed they were when I quit running a week or so earlier. I went ahead and ran a mile around the track, just really enjoying the lack of pain.

After posting a video and getting some opinions from some Pose veterans at the forums on the posetech site, I decided to go with the advice of a really knowledgeable guy, Jack, on the message boards. He suggested sticking with a few basic drills for a while, and running only 30-40 meters after performing a drill. I could do a little more running, but only barefoot. I pouted about this limited program for an evening, and then decided that it was preferable to injury.

Here's my day by day workouts, you might have to get the book or DVD to decipher the lingo if you're not a Pose person.

Friday: 2x30s. each leg, pose stance; 2x30s pony & change of position; 4x10 meters forward pony & forward change of position; 40m run after almost every drill, incorporating what's going on in the drill; 4 laps easy barefoot jogging on the track/grass. I feel as though I made a very small breakthrough in that I felt a quicker pull--that part made a bit more sense today.

Saturday: I did drills about the same as Friday without the barefoot running. I was at a mini track meet that my running club put on to help time the races. It started before I got started with the barefoot jogging.

I slipped up big time on my pledge to focus on drills, and volunteered to run the 800 in a sprint medley relay because a team was missing a person. It was probably not smart, but it sure was fun. I ran the first lap in 86, trying to focus on the pull, and mentally preparing myself to get passed by a faster teammate who I had a 30-40 meter lead on when I took the baton. As I was approaching 600m, I still hadn't been passed and was feeling pretty good. My competitive insticts kicked in and I started kicking pretty hard around the turn. I really did not want to get passed on the home straight and I went all out through the line. I didn't get passed! I ran a 2:43 split, so I ran 86-77, some serious negative splits. I was concerned about breaking 3 minutes, so it was nice to know I had a little more strength than I had imagined. First 800 in 10 years. And most importantly, I never felt the shins. J said I looked good, but I definitely appeared to pushing on the home straight.

Sunday: Same as Friday, but with 5 laps of barefoot jogging. I was pretty distracted during the jogging because I was watching these three guys do a workout. Two of them got completely broken down only half way through it, and I felt sorry for them. Anyway, I think my form suffered a bit because I could not seem to concentrate on the pull, and I felt the faintest of shin twinges towards the end of the last lap. Have to work on that concentration.

bringing you up to date...

I'm going to be covering my switch to the Pose method of running on this blog. Info on it is available at http://www.posetech.com. Like a lot of people, I was motivated to learn this method because of chronic injuries. I even gave up running for several years, but, like a lot of runners, other activities just don't measure up in some intangible way.

I've been running since I was a little kid, first accompanying my father on road races. I joined a youth track club and mostly ran the 800 and 1500. In high school I had an okay couple of seasons before having a freak injury my sophmore track season that required major surgery. In my junior year, I was super motivated, and was training well. Not long into track season, I stress fractured my tibia and had to sit out the bulk of the season. This was to be only the first of a lot of stress fractures.

After high school, I went to Berkeley for a couple of semesters, then dropped out and landed at a local junior college, where I started running again. I saw some improvement despite not being able to get through a season without shin splints, and probably, stress fractures. The sports doctors were calling it medial tibial stress syndrome and recommending rest, strengthening, and possibly, surgery. I kind of limped my way through two years of track and cross country, and managed to PR in the 1500, 3000, and 5k on relatively low mileage, probably never more than 45/wk.

After the JC experience, I returned to finish my degree at Berkeley, and didn't bother much with running for a few years. I made attempts now and then to get into it, but I usually got some pain in the shins fairly quickly. I got into some other activities like cross country skiing and cycling. I always missed running though.

When I started back running again, I got myself some stability shoes, and got my old orthotics checked out by a sports doctor, who said my gait looked pretty neutral with them. I started back very slowly, with 12-15 minute jogs for a week or two before trying to increase the volume. I started to think that maybe things would be ok this time, but the shin splints were back.

Since then, I've moved to minimal shoes, gotten a lot of ART and other painful therapies from a chiropractor, and started new stretching and strengthening regimes. I seemed to be able keep a full blown stress fracture at bay with all the therapy, but I was still dealing with pain. Finally, after a mellow few weeks of base training, my shins were incredibly painful and I was incredibly dejected. I googled, as I am wont to do, medial tibial stress syndrome, and ran into a post on letsrun by a guy who was touting the Pose method as the thing that finally cured his shin splints. Now I own the book and the DVD, and I've got myself on a program of mostly drills as I learn the Pose.