Farewell to The Pond

Its been an enjoyable few months haring round The Pond with the club, but sadly the speed work sessions there have drawn to a close. It was a good summer for me there, with significant improvements in pace and pace judgement for me, and I reckon it now puts me in a good state to start on the base work over winter & build up some power & stamina in these here legs of mine.

All about the intervals tonight with 3 sets of 3 laps on 3 minutes each lap, with a slow lap, followed by a medium paced one, then topped out with a fast one, though for me it was more about seeing how the new shoes worked out.

So, for anyone that doesn't know, the concept of minimalist running is to try and mimic barefoot running as much as possible
One of the reasons for moving to a forefoot strike is that if you are landing on your heel, it can be acting as a brake, stripping some of your momentum from your stride and sending it in a jolt through your joints. 6 months ago I was very much a mid foot striker, so not getting that braking to the same extent, but being a pronator, I was putting a lot of pressure on my ITB. Like I've said before, on advice from one of the coaches I up my cadence, which naturally pushed me further towards a front foot strike, and the pressure on my ITB quickly reduced.

Getting further into a front foot strike, its like I'm starting to use gravity more to my advantage. I lean forward more at the ankles & try and keep a fairly straight body. A fast cadence keeps the legs getting picked up quickly so they are barely touching the ground sometimes, taking away from my pronation. Doing it right, its almost like being in a controlled fall. My feet feel light and the road is there for the taking. With these shoes being so light and the sole quite thin, I get much more feedback from the road, so the foot strikes feel more controlled and precise and when cornering at speed, everything feels nice and tight and exactly where I want it to be.

Again, I need to build up to it slowly. My calves are getting used to it and there is still a general weakness I haven't gotten out of my left ankle following the dislocation 3 years back, so they are tender after a run in this style, which is why I dropped 2 laps out of the 9 tonight, though I did post a 1:30 lap as part of a relay, which felt monstrously fast and was waaaaaaaaaaay faster than I could've done on my first visit to the pond.

Today's blog is brought to you by Daft Punk's Harder Better Faster Stronger. I may have to make it my theme tune :p