Stretch?

Some interesting food for thought on stretching, or not stretching. I got this from a guy I follow on twitter.

Short strider

I joined my new Sunday morning running crew at 6:30 this morning for an hour-long loop. I'm not an early morning runner, but I definitely see the appeal. To have 7 miles under my belt before 7:30AM is huge, and the stillness of the morning could grow on me.

The story on this run, though, was tightness. No injuries or anything like that, just the realization that if I stretched I could probably be running faster and more comfortably, especially on hills. My stride shortened considerabley on the last, predominantly uphill section as the hammys tightened and IT band on the outside right knee shouted at me.

Anyone out there having good luck incorporating stretching into this running thing? How about stretching while running through longer strides or higher steps, etc? Looking for something to mix into my activities over the winter.

Still chugging along

Hi all,

A couple of updates:

Last Wednesday - 4.4 miler in roughly 37 minutes
Last Friday - 4.4 miler in roughly 37 minutes
Last Saturday - 5.5 miler in roughly 46 minutes (this one done at 6:30 AM and I just don't feel as good at running as I do in the afternoon when the body is completely warm).

Monday - 3.7 miles on the treadmill at an 8:00 minute pace, went stretching and had a slight pull on my right hamstring as I did some split stretching (my foot slipped and I went a little too far).

Yesterday - 1 hour on a stationary bike and had the HR in the 140 to 160 range the entire way. Good way to keep the conditioning going without putting any more tension on a delicate hamstring. I am hoping to get out today and the next couple with a short one on Saturday in preparation for the CCM.

Looking forward to race day and everyone looks geared up for the event due to all the blog entries.

It's Dark Out There . . .

. . . and cold.

Today was my first run in a week and a half. It was not so great, but I'll be OK.
First, I'm battling my seasonal allergy thing and actually puffed my inhaler at the one mile mark. Second, it was chilly today and I think I might need to break out the tights -- by the end of the run, my legs felt totally constricted from the cold. They weren't tired from the mileage (I did short arun to get back into it)they were sort of frozen feeling and not firing very nicely. Third, I think my week of labor tweaked my back because it tightened up dramatically near the end. I'll stretch it out tonight and hopefully be ready to roll Friday. My week of labor and no running did nothing for my running fitness, but I can shovel for hours on end now. On a positive note, I rolled out in pre-dawn darkness with the clouds over the eastern horizon just pinking -- it was beautiful. It's dark out there right now and I'm waiting for the clocks to roll back to get me some more morning light.

In reference to your post PR, it's a male team, but as I mentioned in my comment, I'm not sure people will pay that much attention to women or men. Whoever can run is welcome, and we still need three.

Big Weekend

So, we had to bail on the weekend with the Agricola family. Big little VT Runner got sick half way down, so we had to turn around and head back to VT late Friday night. A four hour drive that brought us right back home. Bummer, but we ended up salvaging the weekend with some plans-free family time which is truly a luxury. Of course the kids ended up having strep, but that's another story....

On the running front, I had my biggest weekend probably ever. I got in a 5 miler on Saturday and a whopping 21 miler on Sunday. The long run was great ("great" as in "painful but at least I did it" sense, not as in "fun") because Mrs. VT Runner piled the kids in the car and cheered me on at four different points between miles 11 and 21. I even ran with Big Little VT Runner riding his bike alongside me from miles 19 to 20. One of the biggest hurdles to doing this run was knowing that I'd be spending over 3 hours of prime weekend family time alone on the road. That the entire family rallied and joined in was huge. Without them, I couldn't have done it.

I also had an iPod on me for the second 10.5 mile loop. Mrs. VT Runner downloaded a bunch of NPR content (this american life, morning edition, etc.) because I thought I'd need a distraction. I couldn't bring myself to actually use the thing, though. My thought was that since I wouldn't be using an iPod for the marathon, I shouldn't use one now even though I wanted to listen to the segments. I'm glad I didn't, but I was intrigued by the little battle I was having with myself over giving in to the indulgence of the iPod.

One other point about the run. All last week, my back gradually tightened to the point that I was seriously worried that something was wrong. It wasn't a tweak, just a progression of pain. I thought it might impact my ability to run until Mrs. VTB suggested that I stretch. Novel idea, I know. I did the downward dog pose, and it got right at my tightness. After about a half hour of stretching the hammies, my lower back pain was gone. Now, two days after a 21 mile run I am less stiff and pained than I was all last week. It's amazing what stretching will do. I'm now doing the downward dog and a few other hammy stretches a couple of times a day, and the back pain is gone. Are we really at the age where stretching is becoming mandatory? Yikes.