Weather is totally bad at the moment so it was necessary to do a workout on the indoor trainer instead of cycling in the rain and cold. I'd forgotten how difficult it is to race against yourself on the computer controlled "Google Earth" course. Despite being very unmotivated I still managed to get to within a couple of minutes of my best time - but it was a real battle all the way with bucket loads of sweat on the floor by the end.
Working on running technique again and made a better video (though Christiane is still not used to using the camera!) The aim here is to be able to see the stride and all of it's components, posture, lower back, shoulder relaxation, inclination, foot strike, placement of the foot (not far ahead) outside edge of forefoot, pronating inwards and then onto the heel, the reach backwards - pelvis included, the lift of the foot (no push off), the pull forwards with the psoas and the posing of the foot below, the placement of the feet one in front of the other, the active use of the arms to counter the legs - and back to counter the forward body lean, hands held strongly - thumb against forefinger. Used the Bikila Five Fingers today because we were on a smooth surface not a trail or gravel. In this clip I'm not getting enough on the forefoot - especially the right foot is landing more mid-foot instead. The left foot is mostly landing on the forefoot but the heel doesn't always come right down. This is why you have to video things. I'm relatively happy with the rest of it. In reality my technique is a pretty accurate representation of ChiRunning because it is based on midfoot striking. I'm personally more convinced that forefoot striking is better - it just makes more sense. I'm also not totally convinced about the requirement of a forward lean - but I seem to do that naturally just now.
Working on running technique again and made a better video (though Christiane is still not used to using the camera!) The aim here is to be able to see the stride and all of it's components, posture, lower back, shoulder relaxation, inclination, foot strike, placement of the foot (not far ahead) outside edge of forefoot, pronating inwards and then onto the heel, the reach backwards - pelvis included, the lift of the foot (no push off), the pull forwards with the psoas and the posing of the foot below, the placement of the feet one in front of the other, the active use of the arms to counter the legs - and back to counter the forward body lean, hands held strongly - thumb against forefinger. Used the Bikila Five Fingers today because we were on a smooth surface not a trail or gravel. In this clip I'm not getting enough on the forefoot - especially the right foot is landing more mid-foot instead. The left foot is mostly landing on the forefoot but the heel doesn't always come right down. This is why you have to video things. I'm relatively happy with the rest of it. In reality my technique is a pretty accurate representation of ChiRunning because it is based on midfoot striking. I'm personally more convinced that forefoot striking is better - it just makes more sense. I'm also not totally convinced about the requirement of a forward lean - but I seem to do that naturally just now.
It was extremely interesting working on Christiane's running again. With the technical information we now have at our disposal it's now possible to have an intelligent approach to analysing the activity. I could see that Christiane was tilted too forward at the hips and we then realised that she needed to pull up her pelvis at the front to stabilise the spine. At first she locked the hip joints when trying to do this but was soon able to separate out the various joints involved. She also believed that she had a problem with loose muscles failing to support the sacrum but we were able to identify that it is the same postural problem. Correcting this immediately made her back feel better and allowed the body to function as one unit when running instead of something "broken" in the middle. Working on all of the components was perhaps a bit much to think about but good progress was made. It's amazing the contrast between this intelligent and more importantly "mindful" approach to running compared to the normal relatively thoughtless approach where only goals such as speed and distance are considered. She did have sore calf muscles by the end of a brief workout - so I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who is taking time to adapt to changes.
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