Paying Attention to Running Form

Form is crucial to longevity in any kind of sport.  It become more obvious when you consider running.

Running is often viewed as an activity that everyone just "knows" how to do.  Depending on how you define it, that statement is true.  The key to running longer distances however is to stay healthy and injury-free.  If your form isn't dialed in, you WILL run into problems.

The run yesterday was a simple attempt to get a hill-run in while working on form.  My preferred form to emulate is POSE.  After taking the CrossFit Running Cert in 2009, and practicing Evolution running since 2005, the mid-forefoot strike while actively pulling the foot upward and practicing a forward fall works best for me.

This year however I changed shoes to the Altra Olympus and got sucked into the cushy.  While I can't definitely say that the shoes have caused my recent Achilles woes, they do suspiciously coincide as the more I ran with the Olympus, the more sore my calf muscles were.

The run yesterday was with more traditional shoes, not a zero drop, and not super cushy.  While my Achilles was still mildly sore, I was able to run POSE without the calf pain.  Quick strides, lean forward, practice falling.

As a result, I set several PR's on the run, at a lower heartrate, and still with a mild calf issue.  Not bad.  Also earlier in the day I got in a strength training session with deadlifts and kettlebell clean and presses.

Today my calf was pretty sore, so it was ice time and more deadlifts and kettlebells.

The Training Pattern

Gratuitous Deadlift Picture with Atlas Stones 

Lunch time run:  find/estimate lactate threshold.

• Run 20 minutes pretty hard
• Record average heart rate (~172)
• Record average pace(7:52 min/mile)
• Cool down
• Hydrate
• Recover

Get home.

PTP Deads and Presses:

• Conventional deadlifts 5x275, 5x250
• Shoulder Press 5x125, 5x115

Then, something totally unrelated, 100 arrows at 18yds.  Being a new archer (and hooked) I thought I'd try 100 with the recurve and work on the instinctive shooting aspect.  Getting better.

CrossFit 14.3 - Practicing, Always Practicing

Gotta say my fashion skills are really strong.

In light of my previous post regarding deadlifts and getting the "stripper pull" out of the movement habit, it seemed timely that I'd get an opportunity to do even more deadlifts.

You can see that the first series were OK, then, by the 20th 225lb deadlift, things got "stripper-ish".

I'm also breaking the rules by not having a person in the shot.  Well, I have my dog.  I didn't do any splicing with the video.

This week I took a break from training.  Not much running, just focusing on getting sleep and surviving without coffee during lent.  It's going just OK.

Can't wait to turn the heat up on the training and really start getting strong in the weak stuff.

Plans for the St. Patricks week:

• More PTP
• 4 runs
• Sleep
• Up the Protein

Rebuilding My Deadlift

The video above is one of me lifting a moderately heavy weight.  Nothing spectacular.  Maybe it's heavy for most runners, I don't know.  All I know is that I lift with OK form.  I don't know if it's my body leverages, or lack of muscle control in say the hip flexors...  but every time I pull weight off the floor my hips go up and THEN the weight goes up.  Drives me crazy that I can't seem to fix this.

Perhaps it's time to do some chair deadlifts...

Stay tuned.

Hit Your Weak Spots

 If you're a dad, and depending on the age of your kids, you might already have been informed that you simply don't know what you're talking about, that you simply "Don't KNOW". In this case your weak spot, according to your kids is about your inability to KNOW.

 Well that's not what I'm talking about today. Weak spots when it comes to lifting reveal themselves in different ways. Usually it's by what ISN'T progressing.  Say when you first started lifting and all your lifts were going up.  Then when 2 out of your three lifts continue to go up while one stays behind, you can safely say that the lagging lift is now your weak spot.

How do you get that weak spot to improve?

It depends.

If you're like me, I generally don't like accessory work.  But I should.  My lifts would go up.

Let's say your deadlift is really stuck.

Are you doing good mornings?  Rows?  Do you know WHERE in the deadlift pull you fail most often?  Are you doing only one deadlift version?

The WestSide Barbell approach is a great way to develop all-around strength while indirectly benefiting your target lifts. Cycle different deadlift styles to help strengthen the areas that need help.

Here are a few that I've been using with a modicum of success:

• conventional
• sumo
• deficit
• snatch grip
• rack pulls

Swap these out on a weekly basis and build in your speed days and max effort days.

Here's a sample week:

• Sunday: speed press (bench or shoulder) 2 reps, 12 sets bands or chains (initial weight is 50 to 65% one rep max)
• Monday rest or run Maffetone
• Tuesday: Max Effort Deadlift Conventional
• Wednesday: rest
• Thursday: Max Effort Press (bench or shoulder)
• Friday: rest
• Saturday: Speed Squats or speed deadlift (50 to 60%)
• Sunday: rest

Train hard this week!