See BamaDave Run (and Lift)

[BamaDave]

Thanks, Chris!

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TUES. 5.22.07
PM RUN

DISTANCE: 6.0 miles
TIME: 45:00
AVE. PACE: 7:30/mile

-- I was gonna do 0.5 mile repeats tonight, but I felt my legs were still too fatigued from the weekend. But then I wound up running this one fairly well, so I probably could have handled it. Now they are on tap for the AM!

I actually spent some time tonight trying to be conscious of my foot landing and moving it toward the ball of my feet. I couldn't keep it up at all times. I noticed when I would get into it and worked on moving forward and minimizing any bouncing up and down that my paces sped up. This is something I should work on - especially given that my biomechanical problems seem to occur at the heel. Makes sense to get the heels out of the equation as much as possible?

[UpNorth]

Gee Dave you really think a fast 9 miler, followed by what is probably the most demanding CF workout on back to back days could have had anything to do with struggling a bit running up and down mountains for 15 miles! Nice to see even Superman can get tired

If you keep at the forefoot landing it will become more natural. The one cue that was most valuable to me was making sure to land with my foot directly under my center of gravity (just slighty in front of my hip) -- don't reach. This shortened up my stride a ton and felt really wrong at first but it is necessary to land on the forefoot comfortably.

[BamaDave]

Haha. Thanks, Jeff. Yeah, I think I underestimated what Murph and the other stuff took out of me. Yikes!

I noticed when I was landing on the forefoot that my foot was more under my hip than when I land "naturally." It does feel different, but it felt better than I expected it would and sooner than I expected. I can certainly see how the raised heel on running shoes affects foot landing - it has to be easier to strike more forward on the foot when you don't have a wedge at the heel! Even though the one on the Nike Frees is lower, it's still prominent enough to hit the ground early. Anyway, your progress with gait training has been my inspiration to get interested in this!

Weigh-ins this week --

5/21: 186.0
5/22: 189.0
5/23: 188.0

My estimated daily calorie intake right now is around 3,000. I'll see how that goes for awhile and whether I can shave off about one pound per week.

[BamaDave]

WED. 5.23.07
PM WORKOUT

CROSSFIT "TABATA THIS"

For each exercise: 8 rounds of 20 seconds on/ 10 seconds off. 1 minute rest between separate exercises. Score = lowest rep set per exercise

A. PULLUPS: 8/6/5/5/4/4/4/4 = 4

B. SIT-UPS: 12/11/11/10/9/9/9/9 = 9

C. JUMP ROPE: 34/34/34/32/31/23/28/29 = 23

D. PUSHUPS: 18/15/10/9/8/7/7/7 = 7

E. SQUATS: 18/17/17/17/18/19/18/18 = 17

TOTAL SCORE: 60 (including jump rope) -- 37 (without jump rope)

-- Still sticking to bodyweight stuff to SLOWLY heal my freakin' back thing. I really screwed up a couple of weeks ago when I reaggravated it . This workout calls for rowing on a machine with a recommended sub of Sumo DL - High Pulls if you don't have access to a rower. But I certainly didn't want to do those with a back problem, so I subbed in jump roping. I did this workout last September and was better on pullups (not too much of a surprise, since I had just completed NROL Strength), but I did better this time on pushups, squats, and sit-ups (had my feet anchored this time). Last time my score excluding the Sumo DL High Pulls was 32. Of course those might have impacted other exercises, whereas the jump roping didn't. Easy to tell that I got tangled up in the rope on the 23 jump set!

I might dig up some bodyweight stuff from Craig Ballantyne's BW programs that I got when I purchased Turbulence Training.

I postponed my 0.5 mile repeats again this morning since we had end-of-the-year awards at the kids' schools. Plus we were shrouded in smoke from forest fires in Georgia and Florida. Bizarre! Definitely would not have made for good running.

[BamaDave]

THURS. 5.24.07
PM RUN

TOTAL DISTANCE: 8.05 miles
TOTAL TIME: 1:03:44

*0.8 mile warmup run - 6:12 = 7:43/mile

*8 x 0.5 mile repeats (on road) with rest intervals to HR=120 bpm:

1. 3:03 (1:27 rest)
2. 3:01 (1:00 rest)
3. 2:56 (1:27 rest)
4. 2:56 (1:15 rest)
5. 3:03 (2:17 rest)
6. 3:03 (2:00 rest)
7. 3:18 (1:22 rest)
8. 3:14

*2.64 mile cooldown run - 22:04 = 8:17/mile

-- Kinda crashed on those last two! Overall, I was pretty happy with how this went.

Weigh-ins:

5/24: 190.5
5/25: 189.0

[UpNorth]

Looking fast there Dave. Nice work on those repeats! Have you ever timed yourself for a mile? I bet you could crack 5 minutes.

[BamaDave]

Thanks, Jeff. I haven't timed myself on an all-out effort one mile run in, say, forever! Maybe when I was in college. Haha. I don't think I could crack 5 minutes, though, especially right now. The best 0.25 mile repeat I remember running when I was doing some workouts with those last year was 1:13 or 1:14. So no way I could have extended that effort for a mile, even if that was the whole workout.

[BamaDave]

FRI. 5.25.07
AM RUN

DISTANCE: 4.15 miles
TIME: 30:47
AVE. PACE: 7:25/mile

-- My calves are sore from trying to land on my forefeet. My plans for this run devolved from a 9 miler down to a 4 miler after staying up too late last night playing chef for my daughter's birthday party tonight and feeling too wiped out from last night's repeats.

I'm starting to wonder whether running is keeping my back aggravated. The only weight routine I have done this week was the Tabatas on Wed, yet the back is still annoying. I may have to take a week off of everything to hopefully clear it up if it doesn't get better soon.

AM WEIGH-IN: 189.0

[jruck37]

I hope you enjoyed the brithday party, Dave.

[BamaDave]

Thanks, Jamie. We did have a good time and a busy weekend overall with family in town.

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SUN. 5.27.07
AM RUN

DISTANCE: 6.55 miles
TIME: 47:47
AVE. PACE: 7:18/mile

-- This was going to be my tempo run day, but my lower calves were really sore from working on my foot landing... so I just did it as a steady run with a little more oomph.

[BamaDave]

MON. 5.28.07
AM RUN

DISTANCE: 13.1 miles
TIME: 1:42:42
AVE. PACE: 7:50/mile

-- Definitely happy about how this run went. I even beat my time from the Indy Mini on the hilly terrain. I felt strong all the way through despite some warm temps and was able to speed up to a sub-7:00 pace mile for the home stretch. This made up for last week's long run from hell - by far my best long run since re-starting running.

[UpNorth]

Nice run! Have you picked out your next race yet? You certainly seem ready to start planning for one.

Now that you've done some runs forefoot, I'm wondering if you feel like it hampers or improves your efficiency. I'm still unsure on the whole thing myself (although I'm still sold on the injury prevention aspect) but I was reminded of it today as there is an interesting discussion going on on the Cool Running board about the efficiency of the POSE method.

[BamaDave]

Thanks, Jeff. As far as races, I'm hoping to run a 10K trail race in June, depending on whether it works out with my schedule. I think it's on a Friday evening - hot, sticky, rocky, hilly, etc. The course is very challenging. I enjoyed it last year, except that I sprained my ankle after a bad landing on my right foot after leaping over a log. Then there is a race I like on July 4th - I think an 8-miler. It's mostly a road race with about 1.5 miles on trails. A long uphill stretch in the first half followed by a long downhill. Other than that, we mostly only have 5K's around here during the Summer due to the hot weather. I know I'm not in shape to threaten my 5K PR, so I'm not too motivated to run any. LOL. My next major race that I am targeting is the 50K trail race in Chattanooga, TN in early October.

Thanks for the link to the Cool Running thread. So far, I feel like I am running pretty well when I pay close attention to my foot strike and form, and I feel like I speed up... and according to the Garmin's real time pace info, it looks like I am speeding up. But I can't sustain that for a long time, so that may say something about efficiency. I'm trying to figure out how my foot strikes when I'm not thinking about it. In the Frees, at least, I almost feel like I strike nearly flat footed. I don't sense that I am coming down on the heel first. The worst wear on the soles of my shoes, by far, is up in the ball of my foot region... but I don't know whether that's from foot strike or pushoff or both. When my PT assessed my running shoes back in January (the pair previous to the ones I switched to when I developed the ITBS), he said it showed the expected initial landing on the outside of the heel, with pushoff from the inside of the forefoot. Obviously my heels are involved pretty severely in something given how I destroy them. So hopefully if I work on my landing, etc. I can get rid of that problem. I imagine having a biomechanical problem like that at the heel can't be too good for my own running efficiency!

[BamaDave]

P.S. I lost my first eBay auction for a pair of H Streets. If I get into an irrational bidding war and wind up spending $100 for a pair of these shoes, it's all your fault, Jeff!!!

[UpNorth]

Originally Posted by BamaDave

P.S. I lost my first eBay auction for a pair of H Streets. If I get into an irrational bidding war and wind up spending $100 for a pair of these shoes, it's all your fault, Jeff!!!

Whoa! You're the one with the shoe fetish, I can't be held responsible for that.

So you've committed to the 50k trail race? That's awesome.

[BamaDave]

Well, I did win an H Street auction. Jeez - had to get into a bidding war via text message while I was in the containment lab working with HIV to finish the auction off!

I haven't registered for the 50K, but as of now, I'm planning to go for it. The 10K trail race I want to run is one week from Friday.

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WED. 5.30.07
AM RUN

DISTANCE: 6.2 miles
TIME: 47:06
AVE. PACE: 7:36/mile

-- It would have been a decent morning for running except for the smoke-filled air. We are getting an unreal amount of smoke from forest fires in Georgia and Florida that are hundreds of miles away. I can't imagine what it's like in the actual vicinity of the fires.