Wait a minute! Teach me to run? I paid how much money to be taught something that was naturally learned shortly after being weaned off momma's milk, wrecking the crib and fleeing to hide? Teach me to run... What other basics in life are you planning on teaching? Chew? Sleep? Breath?
Having foolishly signed up for some long endurance events (and somehow making it through the lottery) and still not 100% recovered from Achilles tendon surgery, the CrossFit Endurance philosophy about workouts appealed to me since repetitive long, slow distance training runs are shelved. Therefore, my ultra-moody tendon should complain less with the prescribed short but intense workouts creating endurance via muscle stamina.
Instead of LSD (long, slow distance) runs, one day a week is short, high intensity intervals on a track while another day is devoted to longer, intense intervals also on the track. Then, another day is focused on a time trial or tempo run at distances relative to the event creating all this pain and misery. Three days a week running, that's it. Heartily mixed in the week are CrossFit workouts to add to the beautiful pile of intensity, pain and suffering.
I loathe hamstering around a track. Worse yet is being tied to a stopwatch and then usually being disappointed while logging times comparable to the speed of starfish, on land...in sand...under a scorching sun. The single track trail meandering though wilderness is my jewel. No stopwatch, no metronome, no heart rate monitor, no Garmin or other gadgetry. Just the peacefulness of being one with nature with a play list thumping in my ears. No, the tempo of the music isn't the recommended beats per minute crap, but music that makes me smile and my feet dance. Yes, I romanticize the trail, but she's really good for me and far from the track that feels like institutionalized running and avoided.
Anyhow, Valerie proceeds to teach us how to run and shows pictures of some of the greatest runners caught in action (Michael Johnson and Usain Bolt), exhibiting the exact method she was preaching.
POSE running.
I listened intently. Gravity is always pulling us down, so focus on raising one leg as efficiently as possible while falling forward. Once you reach the point of no return, the leg is brought forward to avoid doing a face plant on the ground. Now repeat, over and over and over.
The biggest expenditure to the body is raising the leg, so in order to do that economically, it's best to avoid using all the muscle mass in the thighs to raise the legs since working muscle sucks up energy. The hamstring includes stringy tendons at the back of the thigh and when contracted, will cause the knee to bend very efficiently since the elasticity of shortening the hamstring costs the body little energy. Since this "pulling" action via the hamstring is bending the knee, the quadriceps and hip flexors are not taxed by doing all the work.
Activating the hamstring it critical and can be explained by pretending your inside anklebone has a large felt tip marker on it. The goal is to concentrate pulling up the leg with the marker and scribbling a line on the inside of the other leg. With the ankle raising alongside the other leg, the hamstring is activated. The raised foot is brought up only high enough to where it goes forward while the runner is falling. There is no push off from the rear foot because the runner is falling forward. The lead foot lands neutral in front, meaning the ball of the foot lands with the heel barely kissing the ground as the body's weight continues forward over the foot to start the next step. The rear leg then is pulled up with the "marker" making its line on the opposing leg until falling forces it forward.
Traditional "stride outs" (where distance between footfalls are maximized and consume huge amounts of energy from the body) are nonexistent since cadence is crucial. High cadence with shorter strides are superior for efficiency...just ask the Roadrunner.
As Wylie Coyote strides out and tires, Roadrunner spins at an efficient high cadence and, yet again, avoids becoming supper.
For two days I was a sponge listening and absorbing everything Valerie was teaching and I concentrated while applying the concepts during drills and practicals. I had questions, Valerie had answers.
I'm still skeptical. But, I went out for the longest trail run in over 20 months and focused on skills/techniques from Valerie's tutoring. Although I did not set my watch, I returned to the trail head for possibly a personal best time for that route, and that included stopping to chat to park rangers. Best of all, my body didn't feel bad and my legs were not trashed. Maybe there is merit to the POSE style of running. But, I'll remain a skeptic for awhile...at least until my brain stops cramping during the runs because it is so focused on trying to teach the body a new skill with each and every step. Valerie says 3 - 6 weeks before the body naturally converts to POSE without conscious thought, so I'm looking at 12- 24 weeks or longer....
It's worth a try, but I admit needing an huge attitude adjustment about track work!
DISCLAIMER: CrossFit and CrossFit Endurance are trademarked and huge businesses with all kinds of legal power that I do not want to meet. I'm just a simple dude who enjoys getting lost out on the trails. This blog post is my super-condensed interpretation of the 2 day seminar and any misrepresentations are unintentional. But, opinions are mine.
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