Runner Reborn - Taking to the hills

You know you read all that stuff about how hills are good for you? Well they are, but I think they should give hills a health warning. Hills are hard. Hills are dangerous. Never ever under-estimate a hill, treat it with respect. I didn't, I paid the price. Now I take hills very seriously indeed.

A couple of weeks ago, I did my first hill session since 'the injury'.  It was going on for four months after the evil day, so I reckoned I was about ready.  I'd always had hills in my training before, so I decided it was time to start taking them on again.

Now I like hill work outs. I like the way they push me and the sense of achieving something hard. Hills are a great way of adding a little bit extra to a run to push you a bit, especially when you're short of time. I saw hills as more about will than muscle and as I believe that I am, deep down, a really lazy person, I see hills as character building. I never had a single twinge or problem doing hills other than the usual pain and exhaustion!

Now I'm not daft, I did take it easy. I  have a run I used to do when I first started running which I wouldn't call a hill, more an incline. North Berwick Law, that's a hill and I have run (sort of) up it. There's a few other steep paths round here climbing up from the sea, so I thought I'd be fine if I avoided those and went for something much gentler.

So off I went. About 20 minutes in my injured calf started to give me a good nipping in exactly the place where the tear had been. Absolutely no doubt, I was irritating the bit I'd injured.  A recovering injury makes body-sensing almost inevitable.  I didn't panic, but I didn't run through it either. I used my running form to control the nipping - reducing my stride, slowing the pace a bit, making sure my posture was good, relaxing my lower leg. As I experimented, I tested my leg's reaction to how I ran. What was it in my running that lay behind that horrid niggling reminder of my dark days? What did I need to do now to avoid it happening again?

I gradually worked out how to work with the injury. I found I could stop my calf hurting, I was in control. I resisted the temptation to push the distance, even though the nipping stopped and I headed home along the flat - slowly and carefully and finished off with a really good stretch and a roller session.

I know now that my calf injury was triggered by me doing a massive steep hill in the second half of my  third half marathon distance long run on a Sunday.  Another major and stupid error for which I paid the price. I'd not done a reduced mileage for ages  - why should I, I felt great!  I was bonkers. I've cycled and walked up that hill before and it's a a struggle even in granny gear; even after serious spinning training. But that day before Christmas I ran up it. I went slowly but that probably made it even worse. When that calf muscle called out to me the other day, I realised what I'd been putting my body through as I pushed myself. I'd acted like I was invincible.

But, as a reborn runner I am starting again, rebuilding myself.  The combination of really listening to my body and not my i pod and having a method for analysing my form is transforming my running.  A small physical adjustment took the pressure off that muscle and I could run pain free. A massive mental adjustment and working on my focus meant I noticed a problem and responded to it before it got too big. A boost of discipline means I now walk up hills - unless I am specifically out on a planned hill session.

I'd never thought about hills as being high risk for my poor legs, but I do now.  I get the power of hills and how they found my weak spot.  I have to treat hills with respect and progress slowly and gradually.  Which I suppose is what I should have done in the first place - but hey isn't that life!

I've had a great running week. I am so enjoying my running just now, it's more rewarding than it's ever been. Every run has felt good and I can see progress - not just in speed or distance, but more importantly in what I learn and the type of runner I'm growing into. And as you can see flat running doesn't have to be easy or boring!

Three runs this week and one spin class. I've done another 10 miler in a slightly faster cadence than last week - pretty flat as you can see!  A shorter faster run and a recovery jog barefoot on the beach. I'll have an enforced reduction in mileage next week and instead of fretting about not being able to run, I'm going to be grateful that it it fits so well with my plans.  Well that's the theory!

Happy running!

take care

Suex

Spring clean your running garden

Some urges just have to be given into if we are to keep balance and harmony in our lives. For me spring cleaning is a must.  Like an itch that has to be scratched, there is no choice but to get on and do it and boy does it give you a Mojo make over!

The urge to purge runs deep. Like the homing instinct of salmon or the nesting behaviour of birds, when spring starts,  up pops the urge to clean out the nesting box and spruce up the territory; to get things in order, ready for the summer to come.

For the past few days, my eyes been honing in on cluttered cupboards, dusty corners, dead plants and overgrown borders. Everywhere I look I've been critically appraising what needs done and what I can get rid of ready for the blitz.

The deed is now done and I've boosted the stock of our local charity shops with books, handbags, coats and knick knacks. I have been ruthless - well almost!  Two years worth of bills have been shredded, Mum's papers filed and my desk is tidy. There is space in my wardrobe. I know that ere long it will stop feeling wonderfully minimalist and start taking on the characteristics of a yawning chasm that must be filled, but not dear reader just yet. I have pruned the garden to within an inch of its life and consigned to the compost and re cycling bins various ancient and woody plants that need to move on to pastures new. New plants and seeds are making themselves at home in fresh compost-rich soil.

My compost bin, shamefully neglected for two years, has been sorted. I got the fright of my life when two tiny mice leapt out as I took out compost for the raised beds.  I ran into the house and grabbed a sleeping cat. Kyle shivered and hobbled back inside again with ne'er a backward glance. I looked at the mouse and it looked back at me straight in the eye, my heart melted. It will live, but if there is as much as a paw over the threshold of the house, that mouse and its family will be toast. I hope we have an agreement. Note to self to agitate compost bin weekly from now on to make it less of a safe haven.

As I type, my hands are calloused and grubby, my finger nails broken and my knees a bit creaky, but my soul is sated. I have transformed the wild and woolly wilderness of the inside and outside of our house into order and harmony.  Soon summer flowers and frocks will grace the empty beds and rails. For now I gaze on order and it feels good.

I love that feeling of everything being in its right place and being in tune with the season. It makes me feel real and human and in balance, like I have met some ancient human need to till the soil. I don't grow much these days, I don't have time to look after things so I have to be sensible or plants just don't survive. I've put in sweet peas in memory of Dad. I love the colours and the smell and the glorious over-the-top abundance of the flowers that you have to pick if you want the plants to keep flowering - how wonderful is that! I don't do much veg now as I used to, but I like my fresh herbs and this year I've put some runner beans and onions in and I'm having another crack at asparagus.  A token gesture but I love the thrill of eating food I've grown.

Looking back, I've done nothing in the garden for the last two years and it was getting me down. The front of our house was festooned with dead plants in nice pots, the back by overgrown bushes of various kinds.  Every time I look out of the window I felt despondent. Same inside the house. Old clothes cluttering up my life. It made me feel unbalanced, out of kilter, guilty.

The root of the problem? Lack of balance: too much running and rushing about.  Every spare moment I was running, up and down hills, building speed sessions, long runs and intervals into a busy schedule. If I wasn't running I was dashing about trying to do things in a hurry so I could run. Life was a roller coaster of charging about, until of course I could't even walk.

With the Chi Running,  I'm back to basics and it feels good. I'm starting to feel at peace with my running and to go with what feels balanced and right rather than what I think I should do.  I've started to feel less urgency about having to run every opportunity and I'm chucking out some weird ideas I've picked up. One notion I had was that a good runner runs all the time, only rubbish runners walk.  Now I stop and walk when my form and pace drop. I'm amazed how quickly I'm refreshed on every level because I'm not grinding myself into the ground

Because running time is still limited, I have to make choices, and just like with the garden, I need to think carefully about what seeds I want to plant and nurture. I chose to keep my long run and I've re discovered the deep pleasure that comes from just running round North Berwick and getting into that wonderful mind and body thing that happens as you run and run. Who cares about times and distances and marathons - they will all come in due course. That's what I want from running now, that's what motivates me.

That feels a bit like treason, but right now I don't care, I have my Mojo and that's what matters. I just want to see where my Chi Running journey takes me. I've a follow up session with Nick Constantine on Saturday, I'll report back!

Lots of you tapering at the moment, about to harvest the fruits of your labours, the seeds you planted are coming to fruition. May your harvest be rich and timely. Good luck! Major respect for taking on this challenge and looking forward to hearing all your tweets.

Take care

Suex

Runner Reborn - Barefoot Chi Running

It's not every day that you get the chance to start again, but every now and again something happens; that wee window opens and there it is, a life changing opportunity sitting there right in front of your eyes, waving. I've got one  in front of me right now as I contemplate my running future and what I want to do.

I had an amazing day in the company of Nick Constantine, @soulsinmotion to Twitter folk. Nick is  a Chi Running and Walking instructor as well an Iyengar yoga person and he was my coach for the day.  I've been mentored, but never been coached or had a personal trainer (unless you count being yelled at whilst learning to swim a breadth at primary school) but I'd read Chi Running; tried it in practice and knew that to get it right I needed some face to face coaching.  I was right and Nick was perfect for me.

Nick started off by running me through the basics, getting my head into the right place and then off to the beach.  First Nick assessed my current running form. Now I thought I had quite good form, guess we all do! But in the critical gaze of Nick's IPad, I saw a slow loper with her bum sticking out, her feet dragging and her head down.  I really hadn't tried to be perfect, but I'd been quietly confident I'd get a good mark.  My footprints on the sand were a testament to a runner heavy on her feet, who pushes off quite hard. Nick was several stone heavier than me and a heck of a lot taller, but my footprints were much much deeper than his, and that told the story.

Faced with the evidence and with Nick explaining to me what I was doing, we set about getting me re-programmed. I decided to go barefoot and I am so glad I did. I love to walk barefoot on the sand and I am an olympic level paddler, but I hadn't run barefoot on sand since I was a child.  There was something about my feet hitting the sand that helped me take it in and focus on my feet and what they do when I run.  Gradually I began to learn how to get my posture right; how to just start running without pushing off hard like a sprinter. I saw how my asymmetry affected my running and gave me a lazy side I need to tackle.

I began to understand how the way I ran was putting a lot of strain on my legs and lower back. No wonder I got injured as I began to test myself with marathon training at an age when things are losing a bit of their youthful elasticity!  Marathon training is pretty good for finding out your weak spots, but if you don't know what they are, you can't handle them.

As we chatted over a lunchtime bowl of soup at the Scottish Seabird Centre, I asked loads of daft questions, and Nick helped me make sense of my experiences that morning, including that how I run is very much like how I live my life - too much, too quick, too big a rush, always looking and planning one step ahead. Yup, that's me, even if it's largely imposed on me at the moment. I saw my video and looked at some other folk before and after chi training. I saw hunched up bouncy people becoming relaxed smooth movers. Was I going to be able to do that too? I so wanted to be one of those chi runners, they looked so good.

I was eager to get back out and learn some more so I could be a Chi runner and be one now! The tide was in so we headed off to the grass bank, but I kept my shoes off. Now for some more running practice. Nick likened it to swimming lengths and how swimmers practice by getting their form right by doing it over and over.  He also taught me I have an 'edge',  a point up to which I can hold my form, and over which things go belly up. I need to focus on extending my edge, not speed, not my distance, not racing, but extending how long and how fast I can hold my form. That tapped nicely into my Pilates head and made a lot of sense.

I learnt a lot of amazing, transformational things that afternoon. My favourite was the importance of running at a fast cadence - 175-185 steps per foot per minute. Running at round 180 reduced my overstrike, helped me lift my feet and helped me keep light. It felt effortless, in the zone; I lost that slow draggy feeling I get when I have to run slowly. It also satisfied my need for speed but without the damage that I'd been doing. One of my big problem areas is my shoulders and the need to keep my arms and hands relaxed - I really hunch up, I need to run tall. I am going to have to focus on the basics for quite a while before I start to go up the gears a bit, I am going to have to take this seriously.

At the end of a great day over a much deserved cup of tea, I felt enthused and inspired as Nick summed up what I'd achieved, what I'd learnt and what I had still to do. This is a way of running that feels great, that has pace, that will challenge me lots and will help me run forever. I know this is what I want to do. My biggest challenge though is going to be me and the way my mind works. Next morning the video, technique tips and notes arrived and I'll be sending Nick a video or two of my progress to get feedback over the next 6 months.

I've got a decision. I could just pick up where I left off and try to get back to running normally integrating  Chi techniques. I could build distance and then work up the speed, do my marathon, and hope that the Chi stuff has stuck. But what a wasted opportunity and somehow that doesn't feel like the right thing to do. I have a very strong sense that my injury demands that I start to do something different about my running if I want to run long and strong for the years ahead.

If I am going to commit to running better, I am going to have to give up, at least for now, a focus on a marathon and focus simply on how long I can hold my form for. That is going to mean heading to the beach when I can and practicing barefoot. It probably mean pulling out of the Edinburgh half in April and not running a marathon this year.

I have to say I am a bit torn, surely I could just do the marathon and then sort my form out?  Well I might get away with it, but I probably wouldn't, and if I am honest, I know that.  I know what I need to do. Have I got the mental discipline to do it? I hope so. I really really hope so.

So thank you Nick for helping me get onto the right path for my running journey, helping me set my goals and how I might get there. I'm looking forward to your next video of me showing a relaxed and confident Chi runner!

Lots of halves, 20 milers and great running this week our there in the Twittersphere. Whatever you're up to, be great, run strong!

Take care

suex