I haven't been posting about it much, but yes I am still
running regularly. I don't have any goal
races planned, so there isn't much to talk about. I've just been focused on ramping up the
quality and quantity of my mileage, and my knee has been well behaved until
recently.
Ah yes, that bout of runner's knee. It's been doing well for quite some time, so
I got a bit lazy about working on strengthening and stretching the legs. As I get better, faster, and stronger, my
knee is definitively telling me that it's not bionic, and won't tolerate all
the abuse imposed by muscles that aren't doing their jobs properly. It's tired of being the person at the office
that fixes everybody else's mistakes.
I'm also approaching my running differently than
before. While still a fan of walk
breaks, I'm now trying to do more of my shorter runs without them. It's actually pretty challenging in
unexpected ways. Briefly, walk breaks
work by allowing tired sections a muscle a chance to recover. However, muscle that's allowed to recover
doesn't get damaged, and thus doesn't have a chance to rebuild itself with new
infrastructure that will prevent future damage.
So when first giving up walk breaks, it quickly becomes apparent which
sections of muscle have been slacking off.
It's an experience in running very slowly in lots of pain. To compound matters, tired muscles cause bad
form which aggravates things like runner's knee.
Form is another weak point of mine. My natural inclination it to take long
bounding strides, sort of like I'm doing a series of long jumps rather than
running. I read a lot of advice online,
such as increasing stride rate will automatically lead to shorter strides and
better form. Or to lean forward from the
ankles. I haven't quite figured out how to
lean forward from the ankles. Instead I
try to keep my foot on the ground longer, it ends up being further behind me
when it does come off the ground, and that forces me into a leaning from the
ankle sort of form, at least for that end of the stride.
It's also difficult to make tired legs take more steps
per minute. Here a Jedi mind trick is
useful. It's much easier to swing your
arms faster. Since the legs and arms
want to move opposite each other, a faster arm swing will automatically cause a
faster stride rate, and the mind is focused on the arms, which are very happy
not to be the legs about now. Life is
good if you’re an arm out for a long run.
So no exotic destination races for me at the moment, just
running around the same old routes, swinging my arms faster, pushing my legs
behind me, and gritting my teeth while not taking walk breaks. And also the occasional ice pack on the knee
and strengthening and stretching. Can't
forget about those. Again.
