Month: November 2017

The Treadmill Struggle is Real

Nicole Lowe McBride4 Comments

 

I hate treadmills. I know they are useful and in some situations better for your body than running outside in extreme weather or pollution. Treadmills are troublesome for a few reasons. First, they’re inside. Second, the scenery is limited and the same day after day. Third, you are not going anywhere. Fourth, there are numbers right in front of you telling you how much longer your torture session is. Sixth, it’s not the same workout.

A treadmill can be helpful if you are working on cadence, stride length, and form. It’s easier to pay attention to these things when you’re not going anywhere and the surface doesn’t change.

Treadmill and outdoor running are different. You expend less energy running on a treadmill than you do outdoors (running at the same pace). The reasons for this is the lack of wind resistance, terrain changes, and because the treadmill belt helps propel you along. To compensate for this, raise the incline to at least one percent.

Another difference is your smaller stabilizing muscles in the lower legs don’t work as hard on a treadmill as they do outdoors. This is because the surface is level, and you don’t have to propel your body forward as much. Your calf muscles, on the other hand, work much harder. Because of the extra work, runners can have calf muscle pain, shin splints, Achilles tendonitis and other issues if they run long distance on treadmills.

The biggest challenge of treadmill running, for me, is the monotony. How do you keep yourself entertained while on the treadmill? (really, I want to hear from all of you on this one).

Here is what I’ve come up with: music, audio books, podcasts, Netflix or other video streaming, and books (yes, I can read on a e-reader and run. Actual books are more complicated). For longer runs, I have to take all of these.

Other ways to entertain oneself while running the hamster wheel are to do various types of workouts. Here are a few suggestions:

Hamster Wheel Speed work

Workout: Six/Sevens
Warm Up

1 Set: 90 seconds @ 6 percent grade and marathon pace
1-minute recovery @ flat jog
1 minute @ 7 percent grade and marathon pace
2-minute recovery @ flat jog
Do 6-10 sets.
CoolDown

 Workout: Faster, Faster
Warm up
1 Set: 400m @ easy run pace
400m @ 15K (tempo) pace
400m @ 3-5K race pace
Do 4 sets.
Cool Down

Workout: The Pyramid
Warm Up

Set 1: steady pace 1 minute each @ 4, 5 and 6 percent incline
2-3 minutes recovery @ flat jog

Set 2: steady pace 1 minute each @ 5, 6 and 7 percent incline
2-3 minutes recovery @ flat jog

Set 3: steady pace 1 minute each @ 6, 7 and 8 percent incline
2-3 minutes recovery @ flat jog

Set 4: steady pace 1 minute each @ 7, 6 and 5 percent incline
2-3 minutes recovery @ flat jog

Set 5: steady pace 1 minute each @ 6, 5 and 4 percent incline
2-3 minutes recovery @ flat jog
Cool down

Workout: The Lab Rat
Warm up

Stage 1: 4 minutes @ easy run pace
lower speed 2 mph for 2-minute recovery

Stage 2: 4 minutes @ stage 1 pace + 1 mph
lower speed 2 mph for 2-minute recovery

Stage 3: 4 minutes @ stage 2 pace + 1 mph
lower speed 2 mph for 2-minute recovery

Stage 4: 4 minutes @ stage 3 pace + 1 mph
lower speed 2 mph for 2-minute recovery

Stage 5: 4 minutes @ stage 4 pace + 1 mph
lower speed 2 mph for 2-minute recovery
Cool down

Tiggers Bounce, Should You?

Nicole Lowe McBride2 Comments

I know Tigger is very adorable bouncing on his spring like tail down the trail of Hundred Acre Wood, but running is not supposed to be adorable and runners don’t bounce, right?

Common sense says that pushing off the ground with a higher stride angle, the angle of your ankle joint, (so you travel up more than forward), would equal less running economy, but there’s at least one study from 2013 that says more bounce is better. Don’t get excited my bouncy friends, there are lots of studies that show bounce is bad.

It’s a long-held belief that running with a bounce, or vertical oscillation, wastes energy because runners want to move forward not upward. Runners with more bounce tend to be heel strikers as well. If you think about it, it just makes sense. Pushing off so you move up rather than forward, when forward is the goal, is going to use more energy over time than moving forward without so much upward motion.

Of course, it’s not that easy. There are runners who bounce and land toward their forefoot. There are two types of bouncing runners: those who run with a forefoot strike and have an elastic bounce and those who run with a heel strike and have a muscular bounce.

An elastic bounce uses the stored energy of the Achilles tendon to power the runner and can reduce energy costs. A muscular bounce on the other hand, is caused by a long stride length, the breaking action of a heel strike followed by a hard toe-off from the forefoot. The problem with the muscular bounce is it places more stress on the musculature of the lower legs and feet.

Not only does this waste your energy, but the impact of hitting the ground flows through the body in the wrong way and can cause injuries such as shin splints, runners knee, lower back pain, and soft tissue vibration and injury.

Alright so you’re a bouncer, what now? If you are a beginning runner, the bounce may fade away as you build muscle and get into your running groove. If you’ve been at this running thing for a while and you still bounce, make sure your stride is short and your leg turnover is about 180 steps per minute. Pay attention to your arms as you run too. They should be at a 90-degree angle and swing mostly straight forward and back. Your elbow comes up to your hip and your wrist goes back to your hip. Keep your hands lose.

If you’re a heavy heel striker, try to adjust to landing on your feet when they are beneath you, so you’re landing on your mid-foot or forefoot. This will happen automatically if you have a slight forward lean, your shoulders are pulled back, and your head is up.

Tigger is very happy bouncing on the trails, but you’ll be happier and faster if you reduce the bounce.

 

Start and Restart

Nicole Lowe McBride4 Comments

Over the last year, I’ve had to restart my running four times. It’s been very frustrating. I know everyone gets injured eventually. It’s just part of running. I skated by without injury for years and years and then it caught up to me, hamstring, rolling left ankle, and rolling my right ankle. I tried so hard to reframe and find the positive in restarting. Often, it was difficult to remain positive, especially, when you’re running better than ever and then you watch and feel all the gains you’ve made slip away.

I know many runners who have experienced injuries of all levels and never returned to running. Some picked up another sport and others just hit a wall in the area of physical fitness. There were days where I considered walking away (cause I sure as shit couldn’t run) and doing something else.

I thought maybe the universe was telling me it was time to switch to triathlons. I know, I know it’s like sacrilegious, but if I’m being totally honest that’s where I was at on some days.

How did I keep starting over? I told myself you started once and look what you achieved. You can start again. You’re not a quitter. You don’t quit during 100 milers and you’re not quitting now. I told myself it was the ultimate endurance event and I had to stay focused.

I also had a lot of support from family who reminded me I could get back to where I had been and reassured me that it would come back faster than gaining it in the first instance because the foundation was there.

This fourth time of restarting is for an amazing reason, being pregnant, but it’s still been difficult to come to terms with it and I’m sure part of that is the three other restarts and the future restart I know will happen.

Running as always is one of the best metaphors for life and teaches life lessons we often don’t learn the first go around or resist when presented in other areas. Restarting is another wonderful example of this.

I’ve restarted many times in my life, but my most epic restart was when I was 17. I had just overcome an addiction, returned to high school, recovered from a rape, and was raising my first son. This is a picture of me then. If you are needing some extra inspiration or just love stories of hope and determination, I’ve linked a short story published about my restart on Epoch Times. Here