Frankly, I didnt know who Pete Jacobs was till he competed in Sunday's AVIVA Singapore 70.3. And I didnt know that he did the fastest marathon in Ironman World Championships Kona 2010. All along I thought Craig Alexander did the fastest run time of 2:41:59 then but Pete did it in 2:41:06. 3rd fastest in Kona's history, the record being held by Mark Allen (2:40:04), followed by Dave Scott's 2:41:03. The last 2 since 1989!
Anyway, lessons I learnt much from Pete during the session:
1) Stretching exercises should not comprise of 20s static stretches. He believes that dynamic stretching is more apt because static stretching may tend to overstretch the muscles. The idea of stretching is to allow the muscles to retain its elasticity. This is to prevent any possible injuries from overstretching.
2) We have probably learnt from magazines, books, that while running a marathon, we need to keep our chest up and stand tall and straight. All this while, leaning slightly forward. The landing of the feet should be just under your body so that the pounding is not fully on the knees, thus reducing any possible injuries. Besides this, the landing of the foot should be flat while the body weight on the forefoot. I have been using Newton shoes and with the thick lugs, the landing tends to be solely on the forefoot and not flat. Perhaps it is time to relook at the type of shoes again. Having said this, I think most of us will know this technique of chest out and standing tall. The question is whether I can sustain this posture for the full 42km run when the fatigue set in after 7hours on the road in the ironman. I think it is a matter of reminding ourselves while we train. Maybe it will become habitual after some time? Hopefully not too long, for me.
3) The movement of the arms determine the pace of the strides. If we casually swing our arms back and forth, so will the legs swing leisurely. If we swing really fast and hard, the legs will follow suit. Compare Usain Bolt's 100m sprint. Even top marathoners have the jerking motion and that will have a bearing on the pace. Of course, as age groupers, our movement of the arms will not be as fast as the pros. But if we remember to have a sharp and faster swing, so will the cadence of the legs pick up. And all this while, when the cadence is higher, the landing of the foot will still be under the weight of the body and not ahead. Pete said that the pace is dependent on how fast the leg moved and not the stride. Although I cant seem to understand how the stride will not increase with speed.
4) One of the 1st few things that Pete brought us through was this (without shoes): jumping and landing on the forefeet, we were able to bounce very easily. However, landing on the heels will have a very dead thud that sends all the impact throughout the whole body. 2 things I learnt from this simple exercise, 1 of which Pete explained: the bouncy feeling is because the Archiles Tendon is a very strong instrument that is highly elastic and the 2nd, if we land on the heels, the whole body will become the shock absorber. Which is why the expert says that we should have some form of bounce when we run. Not the exaggerated bounce of up and down, but a more controlled one. In this way, the gliding movement horizontally will be a less concerted effort compared to the lift and push off of the feet.
5) The feet is made up of many fragments of bones, which are built to spread when the soles hit the ground. This works sort of like a shock absorber. The advise is not to tighten the shoes overly tight because it will prevent the bones from spreading and absorb the shock, which will in turn become floor pounding on the feet with no suspension. I suspect this was what happened when I ran with my K-Swiss. Maybe it wasnt the shoes after all? It was just the tight laces?
6) The feet should be on the ground for split second only. This means that the landing should be very light and quick. There should be minimal noise from the feet as we run on the tarmac. Pete looked at my posture and all was good except that there seemed to be a slight noise while running barefoot. I suspect that I was not quick in taking off after the landing? Or maybe I was braking slightly as I landed? I will continue to work on this.
7) Pete suggested running minimalistic. If all the techniques were observed, there will be no need for thickly cushioned shoes. The idea of running barefooted is for us to feel the natural way of running. And heavy cushions take away just that feel that will be important. He recommended racers. And this is not the 1st time I have heard this. The plus point is that racers are cheaper anyway. And I just bought a slightly cushioned shoes (Mizuno Wave Precision 11) after K-Swiss (with some discount, thanks to the Army). DARN!
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Tuesday I failed to train. And it got me really peeved because I know I was short of time. Reservist training is coming up and that would mean 2 weeks of nothing. I would have to be more creative to come up with ways of training as I did last year. May have to spend the weekends on the bike trainer for longer sessions, work on core muscle groups. But definitely the aerobic fitness is going to suffer. Not sure if I can sneak in some short intense runs somehow?It is the busy period now at work. For a week or two. Missed my 100km bike session today. Had to keep training session short and did Tuesday's intervals instead. 15min warm up, 2 sets of 6x400m in 1:40 with 2 min rest in between laps and 3min rest between the 2 sets. Completed all 12 laps and warmed down run for 10min. Could feel that the legs were not fully rested. I havent done my spinning session on Monday night as well to loosen up the muscles. 400m were done in 1:33, 1:44, 1:40, 1:39, 1:42, 1:36, 1:39, 1:36, 1:38, 1:39, 1:39 and 1:36. It was not overly stressful. Panting definitely but recovery was under a minute. If I had done with Andrew and the MR25 runners, I was doing 90s over 10 laps of 400m. It was a pity I would not be joining them any more. Having to run with them was stressful but I was sure I benefited over the past 3 months. Oh well, such is life.
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