Sunday, March 15, 2009

76 minute 5-mile long-length-paced run: powers of variation and chant(?)

Sunday March 15:

Prior to the run footwear-wise I put into effect a recommendation I made to myself after the March 14 run. Keeping everything else the same, in the left shoe I increased the padding to the sides of and behind the heel by 8 m-wrap layers.

The recommendations I made to myself after the March 14 run were:

"Left foot: increase padding to sides and rear of heel by 8 m-wrap layers; start with shoes tied loosely (http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/03/73-minute-five-mile-run-new-personal.html )".

Results foot-comfort wise:

Left foot: Yet again, due to a feeling of looseness in the heel, the shoelaces being too loose had to be tightened. This resulted in slight feeling of numbness/tingliness, & feeling of unevenness under the forefoot, for a couple of miles.

Right foot: Just about perfect.

Like some kind of mad hatter, I keep adding more and more padding around and behind the heel, yet the problem of a feeling of looseness in the heel remains.

(Could it be those mercury fillings put in my teeth when I was a kid? I had one of them replaced with a non-toxic filling, now I have to go on to having the rest of them replacied with non-toxic fillings)

I want to feel tighter in the heel without tightening the shoelaces because tightening the shoelaces produces some numbness, tingliness and feeling of unevenness under the forefoot.

Problem is that the padding around and behind the heel is too high vertically. The slippage of the heel is occurring below the padding.

Sunday March 15:

I ran the round the block course again (1st 3rd 5th miles run, 2nd 4th 6th miles walked), using the long-length-paced style for every mile, not taking breaks to record split-times. Time after 5th mile: 76:25 (81:22 - 4:57 subtracted for delays = 76:25), only 15 seconds slower than my personal record for the long-paced style, which I achieved on March 13 (http://davidvirgil.blogspot.com/2009/03/76-minute-five-mile-run-new-personal.html ).

Pauses were due to: tying shoelaces; removing long-sleeved sportshirt, removing t-shirt. I recorded the split times when I paused but I did not pause in order to record split-times.

The entire run, during the run and also during the walked miles, I used the long-length-paced style. For most of the first 5 miles, I used the following chant (chanted in my mind not with my mouth/tongue):

'Long are our strides as we streamline the sky
Far is our distance per unit of time
Lord of Roads of Magnificence am I
Lord od Roads of Painlessness am I'

Mile split times incidentally recorded:

1st, run: 16:15
2nd, walked: 14:15
3rd, run; 4th, walked; & 5th, run: 45:55

The footwear during the run was:

Left shoe:

lightweight removable sole that came with shoe +
foam/gel heel-to-toe insole +
8 layers m-wrap pad under big toe +
'toe bed' (forefoot gel pad for ball of foot and toes) +
8 layers m-wrap under ball of foot +
12 layers m-wrap pad under ball-of-foot & line between toes & ball of foot +
20 layers m-wrap pad attached to toe area of gel forefoot pad beneath big, index and middle toes +
40 layers m-wrap pad around sides and rear of heel
Adhesives: tape, not glue.
'Pretaping' type m-wrap used.
SHOELACES: medium to tight on top shoelace, loose on other shoelaces

Right shoe:

Lightweight removable sole that came with shoe +
foam/gel heel-to-toe insole +
'toe bed' (forefoot gel pad for ball of foot and toes) +
8 layers m-wrap under ball of foot +
12-layers m-wrap pad under ball-of-foot & line between toes and ball of foot +
20 layers m-wrap pad attached to toe area of gel forefoot pad beneath big, index and middle toes +
16 layers m-wrap pad around sides and rear of heel
'Multipurpose' type m-wrap used.
SHOELACES: medium tightness

The temp was on average 54 degrees with wind at avg 4 mph during the run (5th mile completed at 5:39 PM):
(http://www.wunderground.com/cgi-bin/wxStationGraphAll?day=15&year=2009&month=3&ID=KMAWESTO6&type=3&width=500&showsolarradiation=1&showtemp=1&showpressure=1&showwind=1&showwinddir=1&showrain=1 ).

Total sunshine, not a cloud in the sky.

A long-sleeved collar-less sportshirt made of t-shirt type material, t-shirt, sleeveless t-shirt, visibility-vest, sweatpants, shorts, and headband were too warm.

After the first mile I removed the long-sleeved collarless sportshirt made of t-shirt type material. I continued to feel too warm. After the 2nd mile I removed the t-shirt, and did the rest of the miles with only a sleeveless t-shirt and the visibility vest on my upper body, and felt about right in the 54 degree sunshine.

As a young adult white couple bundled up in sweater-type stuff walked towards and by me as I ran towards them, the gentleman said regarding me, in a gentlemanly tone of voice, 'He's a polar bear'.

Oh and there was another young adult white couple, who walked towards me as I ran towards them; the man said approvingly as he looked at me: 'and that's striding out'; he understood that I was running using a long-striding style.

The cloudless sky resulted in feeling a heat that would not be felt with the temp the same and clouds and shade.

Advice to myself for the next run:

Left foot: increase padding to sides and rear of heel by 8 m-wrap layers, make sure the padding is vertically low enough to have heel-tightening effect; or, adjust padding already on shoe to bring padding low enough to have effect.

Right foot: no change

Run using double-emphasis on long strides AND high level paces per minute; pause to note split times.

Chant to use, the old one:

'Long are our strides as we streamline the sky
Many are our steps per unit of time
Lord of roads of magnificence am I
Lord of roads of painlesness am I'

Running tactics/strategy

Things are beginning to get complicated the way they have become complicated for me in baseball pitching, basketball, soccer, tennis, weightlifting, track-sprints, and swimming.

Before the March 15 run of today, I felt advantage could be gained by alternating between various types of runs: medium-length-paced split-timed; medium-length-paced not-split-timed; long-length-paced split-timed; and, long-length-paced not-split-timed.

The medium-length-paced style produces the best speed; the long-length-paced style helps to increase length of stride; the split-timed runs produce knowledge and allow for mental concentration regarding time for a specific segment; the non-split-timed runs develop the endurance that comes from minimizing breaks taken over six miles.

Pausing to note split-times gives the body a little rest between miles, which may be useful in teaching the body to run or walk at a faster speed.

I came up with a planned rotation:

A Medium-length-paced, pauses to note split-times
B Long-length-paced, no pauses to note split-times
C Medium-length-paced, no pauses to note split-times
D Long-length-paced, pauses to note split-times

During the run I noted the difficulty of switching from medium-length-paced to long-length-paced. Once you get used to medium-length-paced, it is hard to switch to long-length-paced and stay at long-length-paced. One can tend to when intending to run in the long-length-paced style, run paces that are too short, or not take enough paces per minute.

My solution to this problem was to in my mind chant:

'Long are our strides as we streamline the sky
Far is our distance per unit of time
Lord of roads of magnificence am I
Lord of roads of painlessness am I'

Chanting this chant in my mind, helped me to lengthen out my stride without decreasing to an excessively low number of strides taken per minute.

Today March 15, I started with my old chant:

'Long are our strides as we streamline the sky
Many are our steps per unit of time
Lord of roads of magnificence am I
Lord of roads of painlessness am I'

But I realized that the old chant in combining emphasis on length of stride with emphasis on number of steps taken per minute, was resulting in an emphasis on a large number of steps per minute that was interfering with the length of stride that I wanted to achieve during this particular run.

Thus I changed to 'Long are our strides as we streamline the sky, Far is our distance per unit of time', so as to mentally emphasize length of stride in combination with speed, without bringing to un-wanted mental focus the steps-per-minute emphasis that interfered with the intended emphasis on length of stride.

I now realize I will have to devise chants for other types of runs also so as to prevent deviation from the intended style of running for the day.

I felt the results Sunday March 15 were very good, though I did not feel like I was going fast during the run.

Usually after setting a new personal record that beats an old personal record by a significant amount, I recuperate by producing a few slow times. But today March 15, I was only 15 second slower than my personal record for long-length-paced style, even though just yesterday I set a new personal record (regardless of style used) that broke my old personal record (regardless of style used) by 3.5 minutes.

For a few weeks I have been enjoying the mental quiet of running without mental chanting. Now I realize I have to go back to mental chanting so as to adhere to an intended particular style of run while varying my style from day to day.

During the run I realized I will have to add to my intended rotation two more styles of running: emphasis on length of stride COMBINED WITH emphasis on number of paces per minute with NO pausing to take split times; and, emphasis on length of stride COMBINED WITH emphasis on number of paces per minute WITH pausing to take split times.

This complicates the rotation I described earlier in this blog-post. The more advanced rotation is:

A Medium-length-paced, emphasis on paces per minute, pauses to note split-times

B Long-length-paced, emphasis on long paces, no pauses to note split-times

C Double-emphasis on long-length-paces AND paces-per-minute, pauses to note split-times

D Medium-length-paced, emphasis on paces-per-minute, no pauses to note split-times

E Long-length-paced, emphasis on long paces, pauses to note split-times

F Double-emphasis on long-length-paces AND paces-per-minute, no pauses to note split times

In weightlifting and body-building, the established wisdom for a long time now, has been to avoid working a given muscle in the same way two days in a row. Some more modern types go so far as to avoid working a given muscle in a given way more than one day in a week.

Application of this principle to the six mile runs, was a factor behind me coming up with the idea of rotating between the six different ways of running.


@2009 David Virgil Hobbs

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