Running
I am a distance runner. I have been running for about 2 years. I decided to do some research on running for part of this project. I have recently been training with my city's high school track and cross country teams. I am not allowed to compete with them, as I am not in high school yet. But I have learned some interesting things while training with them! Here are a few:
Cadence- This is the number of times your feet hit the ground, and how wide your stride is. I have been taught on the last lap of the mile to increase my cadence, a.k.a shorten my stride and increase the number of times my feet hit the ground. This will make it easier to go into my sprint on the last 200 meters, because my body isn't completely worn out. My coach has an app on his phone that is a metronome. He has me and my teammates listen to the metronome as we run, hitting the ground with our feet with every beat. At first he starts the speed slow and times us. Eventually the speed is raised, and surprisingly you make it farther in the same amount of time, without any more effort!
Pace- I have been taught many different paces. My coach has a book called "The running formula" by Jack Daniels. In the book it shows mile times, and different paces for each different mile time. It tells you times for an easy run, interval pace, and race pace. Each tell 200 meter times, 400 meter times, and mile time at each pace. Race pace for example tells you what your splits should be for each lap to run the designated mile time. At track practice we do workouts using 2 paces to feel the difference. One of our main workouts is to run 4 minutes at race pace, then 2 minutes at interval pace. This basically makes you run at the pace you would run in a race, then go a little slower, to drop your heart rate. I have done this workout for long periods of time. It's exhausting, but it works! I have been shaving time off of my races!
Core- To be a good runner you have to be a strong core, aka abs. I know many, many, different ab workouts. After track our team does long ab workouts which usually last up to half an hour. We do many different things all for one minute. Another good resource for ab workouts is Insanity. These workouts are often very difficult, but they help you out greatly.
"Barefoot/Five Finger Study"-My Dad was part of a study at Brigham Young University examining minimalist running shoes. "Barefoot" or five finger running shoes are literally like running barefoot. Runners all around the world have been switching from normal running shoes to these "five fingers". Each runner who was part of the study first had an MRI done on their feet. Half of the runners were asked to gradually transition into the minimal drop shoes/five fingers, while the other half continued to run in traditional shoes. The runners transitioning were given a specific workout of only 3-4 miles in 3 weeks. At the end of 10 weeks all of the runners had another MRI done on their feet. The runners who were running in the five finger shoes suffered large increases in bone marrow (Inflammation causing excess fluid in the bone) and more stress injuries than those who ran in the traditional shoes. Wayne Johnson, science faculty member (and also my bishop!) concludes "People need to remember they've grown up their whole life wearing a certain type of running shoes and they need to give their muscles and bones time to make the change. If you want to run in minimalist shoes make sure you transition slowly." The scientists have warned, give your body enough time, maybe even a year, to transition into these shoes. Here is a short video as well as the BYU website talking about the study.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=foGXt-UKTww
http://news.byu.edu/archive13-mar-minimalistshoes.aspx
A Question, and an Answer-I have always had a small leg flip in my left leg. Although it doesn't do any harm to me, I still have always wanted to fix it. But, it is a difficult problem to fix, especially because others can tell me if it's improving, but I, myself can't see it to know what else to do. My track coach; Bob Lange helped me with some things to fix it. He had me do some strange exercises, but they worked! I skipped down the lane line, did lunges down the line, and also ran down the line. I was also expected to specifically think about it some days and try and straighten it. I learned to pull my leg straight through instead of letting it flip. I went through some muscle tension and exhaustion but my leg is now naturally fixing itself! Below is a picture of my flip, although the shown picture was not at it's worst point.
-Here is a video of my track coach this year! She holds the 2nd fastest time for the 800 meter in the nation!
UW invitational-time: 2:05
http://nightly.flotrack.org/speaker/3086-Lacey-Bleazard/video/284374-W-800-H05-20519-Cramer-UW-Invite
Mt SAC relays
http://www.athleticos.org/speaker/11153-Tara-Bird/video/630394-W-800-Olympic-Development-Bird-203-2012-Mt-SAC-Relays
Cadence- This is the number of times your feet hit the ground, and how wide your stride is. I have been taught on the last lap of the mile to increase my cadence, a.k.a shorten my stride and increase the number of times my feet hit the ground. This will make it easier to go into my sprint on the last 200 meters, because my body isn't completely worn out. My coach has an app on his phone that is a metronome. He has me and my teammates listen to the metronome as we run, hitting the ground with our feet with every beat. At first he starts the speed slow and times us. Eventually the speed is raised, and surprisingly you make it farther in the same amount of time, without any more effort!
Pace- I have been taught many different paces. My coach has a book called "The running formula" by Jack Daniels. In the book it shows mile times, and different paces for each different mile time. It tells you times for an easy run, interval pace, and race pace. Each tell 200 meter times, 400 meter times, and mile time at each pace. Race pace for example tells you what your splits should be for each lap to run the designated mile time. At track practice we do workouts using 2 paces to feel the difference. One of our main workouts is to run 4 minutes at race pace, then 2 minutes at interval pace. This basically makes you run at the pace you would run in a race, then go a little slower, to drop your heart rate. I have done this workout for long periods of time. It's exhausting, but it works! I have been shaving time off of my races!
Core- To be a good runner you have to be a strong core, aka abs. I know many, many, different ab workouts. After track our team does long ab workouts which usually last up to half an hour. We do many different things all for one minute. Another good resource for ab workouts is Insanity. These workouts are often very difficult, but they help you out greatly.
"Barefoot/Five Finger Study"-My Dad was part of a study at Brigham Young University examining minimalist running shoes. "Barefoot" or five finger running shoes are literally like running barefoot. Runners all around the world have been switching from normal running shoes to these "five fingers". Each runner who was part of the study first had an MRI done on their feet. Half of the runners were asked to gradually transition into the minimal drop shoes/five fingers, while the other half continued to run in traditional shoes. The runners transitioning were given a specific workout of only 3-4 miles in 3 weeks. At the end of 10 weeks all of the runners had another MRI done on their feet. The runners who were running in the five finger shoes suffered large increases in bone marrow (Inflammation causing excess fluid in the bone) and more stress injuries than those who ran in the traditional shoes. Wayne Johnson, science faculty member (and also my bishop!) concludes "People need to remember they've grown up their whole life wearing a certain type of running shoes and they need to give their muscles and bones time to make the change. If you want to run in minimalist shoes make sure you transition slowly." The scientists have warned, give your body enough time, maybe even a year, to transition into these shoes. Here is a short video as well as the BYU website talking about the study.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=foGXt-UKTww
http://news.byu.edu/archive13-mar-minimalistshoes.aspx
A Question, and an Answer-I have always had a small leg flip in my left leg. Although it doesn't do any harm to me, I still have always wanted to fix it. But, it is a difficult problem to fix, especially because others can tell me if it's improving, but I, myself can't see it to know what else to do. My track coach; Bob Lange helped me with some things to fix it. He had me do some strange exercises, but they worked! I skipped down the lane line, did lunges down the line, and also ran down the line. I was also expected to specifically think about it some days and try and straighten it. I learned to pull my leg straight through instead of letting it flip. I went through some muscle tension and exhaustion but my leg is now naturally fixing itself! Below is a picture of my flip, although the shown picture was not at it's worst point.
-Here is a video of my track coach this year! She holds the 2nd fastest time for the 800 meter in the nation!
UW invitational-time: 2:05
http://nightly.flotrack.org/speaker/3086-Lacey-Bleazard/video/284374-W-800-H05-20519-Cramer-UW-Invite
Mt SAC relays
http://www.athleticos.org/speaker/11153-Tara-Bird/video/630394-W-800-Olympic-Development-Bird-203-2012-Mt-SAC-Relays