A few years ago I made a decision to tone my activities down to just riding. The primary reason was because of getting married and having a baby girl. Though the other reason was simply a needed mental break and judging from my foot a physical one as well. Now it should be noted that I haven’t fully stopped running just did enough to keep active other then riding the bike. Plus of course while racing cyclocross.
In the last 3 months have started up running again. Since I’m restarting I looked upon this as an oppurtunity to rebuild my technique. Some of this was encouraged by what I read in Born To Run.
The primary focus to date has been to simply focus on technique. The 2 things I focused on was to kee it light and easy. Empasis on the easy part. When I use the word easy I’m meaning that it is an easy pace. A pace that I could have a conversation while running. This is also called the Talk Test, it is an easy and effective way to check your pace. This is something we especially don’t do well which is taking it truly easy.
So since the beginning of September have been doing a run once or twice everyday. The duration is about 10-15 minutes. The entire run is focused on proper technique. The reason behind it being so short is because the human brain can focus only for so long before it becomes distracted by other things like getting beer.
So far to date have seen some improvements in my running form. Though there have been some issues specifically calf, achilles, and the connectors between the two. Fortunatly nothing major to date and have been dealt with easily with stretching and massage. The ITB issue seems to stem more from the bike riding more then anything else.
There are no running events planned for at least a year. The primary focus of this is to simply run for fun and to improve my running. Nothing more as racing would distract from the purpose of this project. Though I do expect this will help extensively with Cyclocross racing in the fall of 2010.
Stay tuned for the report from the trip to Florida.
Chris,
I am part of the team running free out of the ajax store. I am contemplating trying cyclocross this fall. Wondered if you can give me some details on groups to ride/train with.
Thanks, Dawn