Same Time, Same Channel

Medium-long run.

8:35 am, 18-27°F, 39-21% humidity, wind 3 ESE, sunny.

My training plan said 11 miles today and 13 miles tomorrow, but I switched them because I have more time today than I do tomorrow on account of the holiday.

This was just an ordinary run. I tried to keep the pace fairly easy but not too slow. There was some snow in spots from yesterday's storm, but it wasn't too bad. I ran my home-work loop, which is hilly, and then the better part of my normal 6-mile loop the opposite direction from how I usually run it.

AP: 9:17. Splits: 9:55, 9:36, 9:31, 9:31, 9:37, 9:25, 9:06, 9:07, 8:55, 9:08, 9:01, 8:59, 8:49, 0.12 @ 8:55.

OK, boys and girls, this weeks proprioceptive cue is Navel to Spine. Here is the description from Brain training for Runners by Matt Fitzgerald:

"Concentrate on pulling your belly button inward toward your spine while running. Using this cue will activate the deep abdominal muscles that serve as important stabilizers of the pelvis and lower spine during running. In runners who do not properly contract the deep abdominals during running, the pelvis tilts forward excessively as the thigh pulls backward during the thrust phase. When the deep abs are kept tight, most of the force generated by the buttocks and hamstrings is transferred to the ground, hence into forward movement. But when the deep abs are not kept tight, some of the force generated by the buttocks and hamstrings is wasted in stretching the deep abs, causing the pelvis to tip forward, and consequently never reaches the ground."

He warms that this proprioceptive cue requires a lot of concentration to sustain throughout a run. I can't say that I focused on it for the entire run, but I tried to bring my thoughts back to it whenever they wandered.

Medium-long run.

5:13 am, 10°F, 66% humidity, wind 2 SSE.

I didn't realize it was that cold before I went out this morning. I thought it was between 15 and 20 degrees. I should have dressed a little warmer and a I should have covered my face. I was cold for this whole run and I think my face froze.

I tried to really focus on the Navel to Spine cue today. About the last mile or so of my run, my butt was feeling tight, probably from all the Navel to Spine action, but I feel okay now.

It turns out that running over 10 miles two days in a row is a little bit tough for me, or maybe it was the cold that did me in today. It took me a long time to get going.

AP: 9:35. Splits: 9:53, 9:52, 9:55, 9:45, 10:03, 9:39, 9:23, 9:17, 9:14, 9:16, 9:09.

Recovery run.

5:15 am, 27°F, 45% humidity, wind 4 SSE.

Just another slow run, focusing on the navel to spine cue. In answer to auntieem's questions of the last couple of days, yes, I do noticed an improved hip flexor lift when when I do the navel to spine cue.

I've got a busy morning with work and getting ready to head out of town. I'm leaving this afternoon to drive to Des Moines, Iowa with my oldest son and his giant string bass. We're going on a campus visit/music department audition at Drake University. We're driving as far as York, Nebraska today. So I'll be running in Nebraska tomorrow morning. It looks like farm country. Then I'll be running in Des Moines on Friday morning, and then back in York, Nebraska on Saturday morning. We'll get home Saturday night.

I did the last mile+ in the Vibram Five Fingers today. I don't run very fast in them. Maybe that's because I keep wearing them on my recovery days.

AP: 10:19. Splits: 10:24, 10:10, 10:11, 10:17, 10:33, 0.12 @ 10:26.

Tempo run. 3 miles warm-up, 4 miles @ 15K to 1/2M pace, 2+ miles cool down.

8:01 am Central Standard Time, 17-24°F, 74% humidity, winds calm.

Here I am in York, Nebraska. It's about 1/4 mile from my hotel to the begining of a dirt road. I ran west on that dirt road for a couple of miles then turned north onto another dirt road and went for 2 and a half miles, then turned around and came back. On the way back, I was a little unsure which east/west road to turn onto, but the breadcrumb trail on my Garmin solved the mystery.

These dirt roads just ran between snow-covered fields. There were big round bales of hay in some of the fields, and I saw a few farm houses. The roads were rutted in some places and icy in a few places, but on the whole not too bad.

I ran this tempo run a little faster than I usually run it at home. I guess the lower elevation and the relative flatness of the terrain helps.

I didn't get out particularly early and I was out for a while, but my son is still asleep now that I'm back. We've got not quite an hour and half until we have to check out of this hotel, so I better wake him up.

AP: 8:35. Splits: 9:22, 9:12, 9:20, 8:08, 7:55, 7:59, 7:47, 8:42, 8:51, 0.16 @ 8:45.

Recovery run.

5:30 am Central Standard Time, 19°F, 65% humidity, wind 2 ENE.

They've got a lot of snow on the ground here in Des Moines, Iowa. What little shoulder there might be on the roads is covered in about a 2-3 foot pile of snow. I discovered that there are sidewalks and they had been plowed with a varying lack of success. But I stuck to the snowy icy sidewalks because running in the road with no shoulder seemed too dangerous even though there wasn't much traffic at this time in the morning. I had to walk through deep snow on a couple of occasions and nearly fell a couple of times too.

My stats are somewhat approximate because my watch didn't have satellites for about the first .6 miles and wasn't looking for them because I had told the watch that I was indoors when it failed to find satellites from within the hotel. So after about .6 miles when I realized it wasn't giving me pace or distance, I stopped, turned off the watch and turned it back on and waited for it to find satellites.

I brought my VFFs and was going to change into them for the last mile today, but I decided that the roads are too treacherous. Also, I'm short on time because we've got to get to the University fairly early this morning.

AP: 10:24. Splits (from the point at which I got satellites): 10:02, 10:13, 10:50, 10:38, 10:10 (0.42 miles).

Medium-long run.

5:38 am (Central Standard Time), 24°F, 86% humidity, wind 7 NNE.

We're back in York, Nebraska. I had to get up early for this run so that we can get out of here at a decent time. Last night my son was talking about wanting to leave at 7:00 this morning, but it's 8:15 now and he's still asleep. I'm just back from my run and desperately need a shower.

I was out on the farm roads again today. About half of this run was in the dark. That was a little challenging because my headlamp needs new batteries and so I couldn't see really well and the dirt road is a quite rutted in spots. Also, apparently they got a little snow here yesterday and so the roads were just a little bit snowier than they were on Thursday. The temperature was pleasant enough until I turned east for the last 2 miles and was going into the wind. (The wind also picked up a bit around that time). Then I was pretty cold, so I hurried to finish.

Number of vehicles I encountered on the farm roads on Thursday: 2.

Number of vehicles I encountered on the farm roads today: 0.

I tried to work on the Navel to Spine que as much as possible, though my mind did wander some. I've thought about repeating this que for another week, but I think I'm ready to move on.

AP: 9:20. Splits: 9:41, 9:38, 9:24, 9:22, 9:34, 9:30, 9:27, 9:20, 9:21, 9:12, 9:08, 9:27, 9:08, 9:07, 8:57, 0.16 @ 8:28.

The University visit went well yesterday. My son liked the school and the bass professor told him that he gave him a good rating in the audition. So we'll just have to wait and see whether the music department gives him a good enough scholarship to get hiim there. It would be a challenge to send him to school at Drake because of the cost and the distance from home. He prefers to stay in Denver and go to the University of Denver, but that's even more expensive and he hasn't even been accepted there yet.

We didn't find anyplace great to eat in Des Moines. In fact, we had a hard time finding any place at all to eat in Des Moines. Also, it snowed quite a bit during the day in Des Moines yesterday and we had a tough time getting out of town. We saw a lot of cars off the road in the median. We did finally get to better roads about 50 miles are so west of Des Moines.