Running in the Cold Rain Feels Good

Even though I ran in the rain, it felt good becasue I'm starting to see some progress.

I set my alarm for 6AM this morning. I awoke to thunder and lighting outside my window. I decided to go back to sleep and ignore the alarm, since I correctly assessed the situation to be rather dangerous because the thunder sounded rather near by.

A woke up again at 9AM. This time I started to waffle, should I do the Ballet Boot Camp and count it as a cross training day or just brave the elements? Finally, around 10AM I made up my mind. Running it was! It took me about 10 minutes to get my head out of a funk and get dressed for the run. By the time I got out the door it was still raining, but the thunder and lightning had moved on.

I lost track of how many laps I did and tried not to berate myself for cheating. Yea, cheating! I decided to run the inside lane on the track as opposed to the outer lane that I usually run. After about a lap and a half, I determined that I wasn’t cheating and that psychologically it felt better to just run on the inside lane.

Unfortunately, I lost count of how many times I actually ran around the track, but that’s OK. I started around 10:20 AM and got back around 11:00 AM. 40 minutes. I can live with that.

I ran to the Indie Christian C25K, week 3 and I loved it. Running in the cool air (I believe the weather channel said it was 73 F) felt great. As per usual, I ran the last 5 minutes of my cool down, I believe I made it about 1 and a half times around the track during the five minutes plus the 3 minute run. Hmmm…that’s 8 minutes of running without a walk break. Did I do that? Wow, running in the cooler air really does make a difference! Also, it started raining harder during my last lap. The rain was dripping off my hat whenever I looked down to avoid the puddles and fiddle with my mp3 player.

The hill on the way back, turned into a shallow river on the trek back home, at least the left side was. The right side seemed less effected by the downpour. Fortunately, the small army of construction workers were no where to be seen, so it was a gawk free run.

By the time I got to my door, I wasn’t huffing and puffing up the three flights of steps like I normally do. It felt great!

Regarding form – I still need to work on my left leg, but it did cooperate with my right foot much better today. I have hope that my left foot will consistently land on the ball of the foot. It takes a lot of mental effort to focus on correct form.

Running straddling the line between the lanes has been really a blessing. It keeps me focused on my arm movements. I have a tendency to swing my arms past the mid-line. By being aware of my arm placement,  I can keep nagging neck and shoulder pain from interfering with my training schedule.

Teresa Tapp Does it Again!

Teresa Tapp is promoting T-tapp on PBS.

Check out Teresa Tapp’s new promotional video for plugging her PBS fund raising program.

I’ve done T-Tapp on and off over a decade and let me tell you, it really does work.  When I’ve done it consistently, I really had the inches melt off.

Not to long ago, I got a phone call from a friend, she was distressed about aging. My advice was, “If I were you, I’d do T-Tapp for my body and Facercise for my face.”

Do I follow my own advice, you bet I do, but not on a daily basis. I do the Facercise when I remember. Which is easy enough to do while you are  sitting down watching TV and the T-Tapp workout is only 15 minutes a day. Unfortunately, my laptop refuses to play any of my DVD’s so, I have to improvise.

Right now though, I’m focusing on running. I have resolved to do T-Tapp and ballet conditioning on my cross training days.

Today I ran to the Indie Christian C25K, Week 3 (scroll down to week 3.) I thought about staying at week 2, but decided to press on and advance to week 3. I’m glad I did. I can really feel it in my saddle bags!

The workout for Week Three is:
a 1-minute stretch a 5-minute warm up walk
Followed by 20 minutes of the following Run/Walk pairs
90-second Run
90-second Walk
3 minute Run
3 minute Walk
Followed by a 5-minute cool down walk

I estimate my walk there was about a quarter mile and then the walk back was about the same, including a hill with a 45 degree incline and 3 fights of steps.

Now, that’s 5 times around the track, a quarter mile there and back, so that’s about 1.75 miles in 40 minutes. Not bad (for me that is!)

I still need to focus on my form though. It feels like my left foot gets it, landing on the balls of the foot, but the right leg just sort of plops down on the middle of the foot. I tried to focus on it, but frankly at 6:30 in the morning it was all I could do to get out there instead of rolling over and going back to sleep.

Proper Running Form

Focus on landing on the balls of your feet. It will help absorb the shock to your legs when you land.

As promised, here is what I was able to find regarding proper running form.

Click here for Coach Joe’s and Coach Dean’s weigh in on proper running form.

Chi Running – OK, I know this is popular in some running circles, but it sounds a lot like the Pose Method by Dr. Romanov. Click here for a nice animated video.

Click here for an example of  everyday posture. She shows you what neutral hips look like and how to achieve them.

Click here for another video on proper running form. This one is put out by the renegade health guy.