A Passion for Running

Running Blog Family = RBF
Running Bare Foot = RBF
Running BlogFather = RBF

So, is all this coincidence, synchronicity or DESTINY?

I went to Aaron’s after work and practiced the most basic POSE drills in his living room while watching and comparing ourselves to the DVD.

These drills are HARD to master and they are the “EASY” ones! What we are learning now is essentially about developing basic balance in the POSE stance.

It will require a lot of strength and coordination development to learn this method.

My tidbit for today? One big element in learning the POSE is moving the body away from using the quads and toward using the hamstrings as the primary muscle for running. I can tell you this is entirely different from how my body is used to running. I wonder if there are any runners out there who can say that they run using mostly their hamstrings? How about you? Do you reach with your quads or lift with your hamstrings?

woa. this is way cool. well, cool for me anyway!

Spread the word, Richard is asking for forgiveness from the RBF.

Think you can find it in your heart?

In keeping with Chris’ challenge, I did a couple of different things today. First, I did a little cross-training on one of these:

MAN, that was hard work. I only rowed for 15 minutes but my hamstrings, butt, shoulders and arms killed me!

Afterward, I did some balancing on one of these:

And that was good stuff too. Good for the ankles, good for the arches, good for the core. All good stuff for running and it will complement what Aaron and I are going to do this evening – that being POSE drills.

Three new things in my belt today. Yay me!

I don’t even know where to begin. Last night I watched my new POSE DVD and read 70 pages of the 300 page book…I’m quite honestly ASTOUNDED by what Dr. Romanov’s has created.

This is a QUALITY package. The book is extremely well written and the illustrations are fantastic. The DVD has roughly 40 drills and exercises packed into it (and the book has a lot more!), along with lots of terrific video footage of Romanov and others running POSE style. These are juxtiPOSEd (hehe) with video footage of poor running form. The DVD really brings the book to life and, if that weren’t enough, comes with a pocket-size Companion Drill Book that explains all the drills found in the DVD using simple, easy to understand illustrations. The companion is meant to be taken along as a guide during practice/drill sessions.

So, what does all this mean for me? Good question! (you’re so smart)

#1 – I am going to do what I said I was going to do in an earlier post. I’m officially declaring myself BRAND NEW to the sport/pursuit of running. In fact, I am going to follow Romanov’s advice and am going to stop focusing on speed and distance entirely. I’m a “born-again runner”! My one and only focus for the next several months is going to be on learning this new method including doing all the drills and exercises needed to do it well and let me tell ya, this will be HARD work because I suck at even the most basic POSE drills! I’m giving myself a wopping SIX months (till the end of September) to learn the POSE method. If it takes less – great. If it takes more – that’s ok too. After all, new runners typically take a year or more to work up to half marathon distances right? How long did it take you to run 5k, 10 or a half marathon distance?

#2 – Because of #1, cross-training is going to be one of my best friends this next several months. Since I will not be running for fitness and endurance, I will have to do a lot more swimming, biking and other stuff or I’m gonna pack on some weight! I’m very happy the snow is gone and the temperature is warming up because that will make re-introducing the work bike commute much easier.

#3 – I’m shifting most of my focus away from ChiRunning. Specifically, I am not going to follow the technical aspects ChiRunning proposes because I do not want to mix two styles of running. That said, I will continue paying attention to the ChiRunning dude where he speaks to subject areas POSE does not spend time on – namely on the more yoga/zen-like aspects of running. I want to be clear that I am not being critical of ChiRunning because I still think it has a lot of merit. However, what I’m after is a more methodical, comprehensive and detailed approach for redefining my running form and the POSE method far exceeds ChiRunning in this regard.

#4 – Full steam ahead on my plans to do some barefoot running. I believe the words Dr. Romanov uses are “run barefoot and you’ll run using the POSE method in no time”.

#5 – Time to buy some new shoes. I really need new shoes but have been putting the purchase off. Partly because I’m a cheap S.O.B. but mostly because I wanted to look at the POSE package before making a shoe purhase. The reason I waited is because Romanov is against shoes with a lot of structure – particularly shoes with thick heel structure. He says thick soled shoes encourage heel-striking and prevent one from doing the POSE running properly. Therefore, what I am after are some training “flats”.

So, those are my goals…I’M EXCITED!

Whaddya think?

(hmmm…I just realized I wasn’t as speechless as I thought!)

Please fire me off a note if you are have been blocked by my uber-comment spam fighting system.

Here’s my email address: mark at completerunning dot com

My POSE book and DVD have arrived! My POSE book and DVD have arrived! My POSE book and DVD have arrived! My POSE book and DVD have arrived!

Yay yay yay!

Wifey just sent me an email to let me know and now I have to wait FOUR (4) hours till I can read/see them!

I work for the government…think anybody would notice if I were to sneak out early?

Oh. One more thing. I had another 8km run today and to quote Bart Simpson, “I never knew something could both blow and suck so much at the same time”. Brutal run which of course means the next one will be better.

I had an Easter filled weekend and decided to get some webmaster type stuff done today.

I recently upgraded to WordPress 1.5 which TOTALLY rocks. It has some great new features and handles SPAM very well. However, I still found I had to install a plugin or two to make it rock-solid against the SPAM demon.

Then I realized I’d have to do the same thing (install and configure plugins) for EVERY Complete Running blog. Ugh. I shuddered and thought, “there has GOT to be a better way – a way I can deal with SPAM at the domain level and which requires NO work on the part of the bloggers”.

I wanted a magic pill.

To make a long story short, I found my answer but wasn’t comfortable with the method. Then I remembered my chocolate friend Jon had some experience in this area. A couple of emails to Jon and some more reading and I had my magic pill comfortably digested. Now I’m confident I’ve won a MAJOR battle against blog SPAM. No comment or trackback SPAM in any of the roughly 16 blogs CR hosts in the last 8 hours.

The best thing is that I can now get rid of those hard to read CODE THINGS you’re used to seeing on complete running blogs. Can we all yell a collective, “yay!”?

THANK YOU Jon!

With my newfound victory in hand, I set out to upgrade a blog. Pamalamadingdong was my first guinea pig (are you next?). The upgrade went quickly and flawlessly – for the MOST part. Pam’s style template gave me some trouble and I had run out of time due to visitors arriving in the Iocchelli household.

But guess what? Miss Zoot came to the rescue and got the rest of the job done. She did a great job rescuing and even improving Pam’s template.

THANK YOU Zoot!

ahhhh…what a beautiful day it was for a run yesterday – especially beautiful after that long, unbelievably snowy week we just went through.

During the run I continued fooling around with my form. Since I STILL don’t have my POSE book and DVD, I’m left to concentrate on ChiRunning. I suppose that is OK. It really IS a great book. It’s just that I am, for various reasons, much more excited about the POSE method.

That aside, the run was a good one, and one where I felt I made progress with what the Chi dude calls bodysensing. As I played with my forward lean, and leading with knees instead of feet/toes, I could feel variations on my form which naturally felt easier and/or involved less pounding on my lanky 6′ frame. There were even one or two moments during the run when things felt TOO easy, if you can believe it. It’s hard to describe but there were a couple of moments were I felt SO balanced and where the effort it took to run was a lot easier than I’ve ever experienced. I guess the only thing about those moments were that they were fleeting. I hope eventually I am able to key in on the specifics of those moments so they become longer and longer.

I realize I’m being a bit cryptic with all this form stuff so here’s a tip I’ve read in both the ChiRunning book, and on the POSE forums: You’ve probably heard me say that leaning forward can help you run easier and faster but do you know WHERE the lean is supposed to be from? Answer: The lean is NOT from the waist. The lean is from the ankles.

Try it and let me know how it feels ok?

Happy Easter weekend everyone!

Complete Running is celebrating it’s birthday! There’s so much I’d like to say about the past year but for now I just want to say THANK YOU to all of you for your support and encouragement this past year. I think it’s safe to say both Aaron and I are honored to have had the opportunity to get to know you.

By the way…Aaron – you da’ man! Thanks for being my partner on this whacky journey! Thanks also for not killing me along the way (even though it was probably justified on more than one occasion!). I appreciate that.

As long as we’re talking milestones, I should also mention the RBF directory has now surpassed the 200 mark! Wow! Who’da thunk it huh? I wonder how many people will join our not-so-little “family” in the next year?

My blog is also going to turn a year old on April 15th. My mind is churning as it tries to figure out what to say about that. Stay tuned!

Once again, THANKS everyone!

PS Did you know Aaron and I call our logo “Competey”? Happy birthday Competey!