Okay, first, the answer to the big question - Yes, I ran today. I ran slower than usual, and more careful than usual. The run was good.
It rained rather heavily overnight. The sky was still covered by rain clouds in the morning, but they were just showing their teeth and nails to scare people of the road. It didn't look like it was going to rain, at least not heavily. So I decided not to take my rain jacket. I did put on a pair of full length running tights as I don't like rain water hitting my body directly. I also wore a full sleeve thermal top, just in case. Moreover, the temperature was 64 F (17 C) with about 12 mph wind which makes things a bit chilly. So a full sleeve top that can provide a bit of warmth and one that can breath well seemed like a good idea. As it turned out, it didn't rain at all and the top turned out to be a bit too warm for the weather. I think that top was probably the most uncomfortable part of the run, quite bearable nevertheless.
I did pay a lot of attention to the ankle both before and during the run. I had kept ice on it yesterday morning. Again for a good amount of time last night, and spent some time stretching the foot as well. I also gave some gentle rub on the affected area. All that made the ankle feel a lot better. In the morning when I got up I did some stretches, especially targeting the affected foot and, of course, the other foot also to balance things off. I didn't want to hit the road with a foot that is not warmed up - not today.
I wanted to really focus today on reducing unnecessary stress and impact, and running efficiency. That meant paying a lot of attention to how I was running. First off, you want to eliminate any vertical bounce. Though this one is not a big issue for me, I think, I want to mention it anyway because this should be on the top of everyone's list. We've all seen movies where some romantic couple would be singing songs and running around the park - have you noticed how they run? They go bouncing up and down a lot, like kangaroos! You don't want to do that. Running is lateral motion. You want to spend your energy propelling yourself forward. Any effort spent on launching yourself vertically is wasted energy. Even worse is, when you land on the ground, your feet and legs need to absorb the ground shock of your vertical fall. That is not good for your ankle and knees. So, dump the bounce. Your body should only be moving forward. How do you know if your run has vertical bounce? Here is an easy method. Keep looking at an object that is some distance away from you when running. If that object goes up and down as you run, you are going up and down unless, of course, you are looking at a kangaroo. How do you remove your vertical bounce? Our friend Meb whom I referred to in a previous post says imagine that you are running on a road paved with eggs. Try to run in such a way you don't break the eggs. You will want to run gently gliding with no jumping up and down. Another method I've used is this - Watch how high you are raising your heels behind you when you run. If they are going more than a foot high then you are bouncing vertically. Try running with the heel of your back foot closer to ground. That will help you reduce or even eliminate your bounce. When you spend your energy in forward motion rather than vertical motion, you are spending in the right direction. You will feel less tired and your legs will have it easy as well.
I don't have much vertical bounce, but I do need to pay attention every now and then on how and where my foot strikes the ground. Especially uphill and downhill - which is pretty much most of my course :(
If you've seen how sprinters run, you may have noticed they literally run on their toes. They land on their toes and they even take off on their toes. They run short distances, and that is okay for them. We are in the business of long distance running. That makes us very different from sprinters. For us, a heel strike followed by a gentle roll of the foot forward to mid foot and the ball of the foot as we run is the recommended style. Some experts recommend a mid foot strike. But never a landing on the ball of the foot. I personally find my heel striking the ground first more comfortable, especially when it lands right under center of mass which is right under the hips. Pick whatever form comes more naturally to you and is more relaxing to you, as long as it is either the heel or the mid foot making ground contact first. I was paying a lot of attention when going downhill as my feet have a tendency to reach out and land on the ball of the foot. This also puts strain on the ankle. It was easy to correct this problem today as my tender ankle was sending a gentle reminder whenever I was lax. Uphill my tendency is to land on the ball of the foot again. Paying attention to these things made it a lot easier on the ankle and for my legs overall.
The most important thing I focused on today was the cadence. That is how many times the feet strikes the ground in a minute. Here's you thinking running is a very simple activity. What could be simpler than putting one foot in front of the other and pushing yourself forward? Well, that is all good if you are running a block or two. It is like your car. If you are driving at 30 miles an hour for 10 minutes to the local ice cream store, everything may look good. But if you are driving at 75 miles an hour on a long trip, your car may start showing signs of problems you may never notice when driving at 30 miles speed on a short trip. Only if you keep the car in top condition will you have a smooth drive on a long trip. All the pounding that running involves is very hard on the legs. If your feet spend too much time on the ground then there is more stress on your legs. Every time you land on the ground the impact force is about three times your body weight! Every time you propel yourself using leg action there is stress on the structure and muscles of the legs. This is the hard reality for the legs when you run. There is a lot of stress on them and a lot of energy is needed to keep them pounding. Now the good news. It turns out that our legs have a natural elastic bounce when they strike the ground and lift off. This is most effective when your strike rate is about 180 per minute. If you strike the ground at this rate, your ground contact time is optimal and you get to use the natural elasticity of your legs to lift your legs. Leveraging this natural elasticity requires you to spend less energy and reduces stress on the legs. So, when I wasn't focused on syncing my breathing and steps (as mentioned in here), which is usually uphill, I was counting "one thousand.. one thousand.. one thousand" and making sure I was taking three steps for each 'one thousand'. You can run slow, or fast, but try to practice 180 steps in a minute. You vary your speed by varying your stride length. When you run faster, increase the stride length, but maintain the cadence of 180. When slowing down, reduce the stride length but again keep the cadence of 180.
I believe all the above helped me run smooth and safe without aggravation of the ankle. Overall, I was very happy with today's run. Running a bit slower is not really less beneficial. Whether you run at 50% of your maximal rate of 80% of it, there is not much difference from a health and fitness point of view. Once back home, I did a few stretches to relax the tense muscles, and went for the cold shower. There was no leftover discomfort or soreness during the day. I do need to keep working on the ankle area for the next two days to prepare it better for the long run on Sunday. And I will need to be more mindful of my running form. Until then, more ice on the ankle, more stretches, some massage, good rest. Repeat.
Focus on your form. Reduce impact and increase efficiency. Glide. Not bounce.
If I can run, u can run.
Keep at it.
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