Jenny Hadfield over at AskCoachJenny writes on How to Transform your Running Form with One Simple Exercise. I have seen the single-leg balance mentioned many times as an assessment and balancing exercise, but Jenny adds a tweak to it that is very sensible to me and I can feel its immediate effect when I use this exercise and her tweak. Previously I have seen this as simply a balancing exercise. "Stand on one leg and hold." Jenny has you activate your glute with a simple move. I can feel it work when I use it. This is what Jenny says about the single-leg stance:
The single leg balance activates and strengthens your stabilizing muscles from your feet and ankles all the way up to your hips and improves your balance too! If you sit all day like most of us do, that deactivates your gluteal muscles which stabilize as you run stride for stride. When these muscles atrophy (decrease strength and stability) they no longer engage and support your leg and hip as your foot lands on the ground. It has a ripple effect in translating to wasted energy as your hips move side to side and increases the friction in your ITB (Iliotibial Band).
Those sound like the things that I need work on. Here are her directions for doing the single-leg stance. The fourth bullet is the key maneuver for me particularly letting the hip relax and then tightening it up again. I can feel my glutes activate when I do this. Make sure you check out her directions as she gives further advice in the comments on her page:
Stand up with your feet hip width apart.
Keep your arms out to your sides for balance.
Lift your left leg a few inches off the floor and hold for 30-60 seconds.
Engage your hip muscles to create a long, neutral line up your body. If this is confusing – try letting your hip relax out to the side and then tighten and contract it to align it under your shoulders – this is also another great exercise hip huggers.
Repeat 2-4 times on each side. You will feel all the muscles in your foot, ankle and hip fatiguing in seconds!
When this is easy progress to wearing no shoes.
When that gets easy stand barefoot on a towel, pillow or pad to further challenge the muscles and balance. If you get to SuperStar status, close your eyes (very hard).
Running is basically a single-leg balancing movement where you transition and push off between legs as you run so this type of exercise makes sense. This reminds me of another single-leg exercise that has received much press lately, the 100 Up. Back at the beginning of November, Chris McDougal of Born to Run fame wrote an article in the New York Times called The Once and Future Way to Run in which he rejuvenates and old drill as found in an late 1800s text on running. Here is a video demonstrating the 100 Up. I have done this off and on for a few weeks more as an exercise to work my creaky hip (labral tear operation last July). It certainly can't hurt and it only takes a limited amount of time to do. Both of these exercises can be added to your tool bag of simple exercises to improve your running form.
Update: The Stark Center at the University of Texas has a PDF copy of the old 100-Up Exercise book written by W.C. George in 1913. Find and download it here. They also have a related chapter on running training by Mr. George published in Training for Athletics. Find and download that here.
The 1980's was the decade of the triathlon (at least in my mind). The modern sport of triathlon had its beginnings in San Diego, California in 1974, and eventually the first Hawaii Ironman triathlon was held in 1978 with 15 participants. In 1979 a Sports Illustrated article drew some attention to this strange endurance race which was followed by ABC starting to televise the race in 1980 with Dave Scott achieving his first of six victories. I recall watching the race while at college and wondering whether a runner (my pick) or a cyclist (my roommate's pick) would be the victor. Little did we know that a new type of athlete was being born at this race; a triathlete. It wasn't until 1982 that triathlons really captured the imaginations of athletes and people around the world as Julie Moss painfully stumbled and crawled towards the finish line just at the same time that she was passed by a fresh looking Kathleen McCarthy for the win.
I watched that race on ABC Wide World of Sport and then watched it again when it was rebroadcast (due to so many people talking about the incredible finish) in complete awe. I told myself I would have to try this new sport and I became one among thousands of others that had a new goal to pursue. Triathlons suddenly started to take off! As soon as I heard about an Ironman distance triathlon taking place on Cape Cod in September 1983 I was in, even though I had no bike or swim background. I did three triathlons on Cape Cod during the summer of 1983. My first was a local sprint triathlon held on my hometown of Falmouth on Cape Cod with less than 100 track club participants taking part, the second was the United States Triathlon Series race held at Old Silver Beach in Falmouth. Julie Moss showed up to MC a workshop on triathlons the day before the race that had over 900 participants (all in one swim wave on a stormy day). The third was the Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon where I swam and biked further than I had ever done in practice to complete an Ironman distance race. I competed in triathlons throughout New England for 5 more years ending each season with my favorite, Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon.
It was exciting to participate and to be somewhat of a pioneer in such a new sport. New athletic heroes turned up, including the "big four" of triathlons. Dave Scott, Scott Tinley, Scott Molina, and Mark Allen. Both Tinley and Molina would venture to the Cape Cod Endurance Triathlon and win it in the 3rd and 4th editions. Dave Scott showed up one year to race at the Bay State Triathlon in Medford, Mass. I came out of the bike transition to find myself running directly behind the awkward stride of Dave Scott himself. I held on for about 1/4 mile before I let him go. He was a lap ahead of me anyway! Other than those appearances I had to catch the big four on televised triathlons or on the pages of new magazines like Triathlon and Triathlete. These guys were aerobic and endurance animals of a completely different nature than the runners and marathoners I was used to. They had strengths and skills that were beyond the world class runners, so that while they may have been very good at each sport individually, they became great when combining sports together.
Magazines and television shows didn't always tell you all of what made them tick. This is why it is nice to finally read a book that delves into the biggest two of these stars: Mark Allen and Dave Scott. Iron War: Dave Scott, Mark Allen, and the Greatest Race Ever Runis a book that looks at these two athletes and their physical and inner struggles as they race in the epic 1989 Hawaii Ironman Triathlon, a race where Mark Allen finally defeats the 6 time winner Dave Scott in a side by side dual to the final minutes. I enjoyed the read as I recognized the names of the triathletes and races from the 1980s when I was following everything that I could about the sport. There was a familiar feel to the book as I was revisiting past events that I began to recall and in fact since many of the the author's retelling came from the pages of magazines I have read or the televised shows that I watched it should sound familiar. The retelling of the 1989 race is augmented with stories of prior events in the lives of Dave Scott and Mark Allen and because of this the book and author have come under fire from these two men themselves. They are not happy with the book at all and together wrote a letter and have filed a lawsuit against the author and publisher.
We’re writing this because we believe that the soon‐to-be-published book
from VeloPress, entitled “Iron War,” inaccurately and inappropriately
portrays us. As an example, in the advance copy sent to the media for review,
the author stated, “In a sober, clinical sense of the term, Dave and Mark are
both somewhat psychologically unbalanced.” We have never been diagnosed as
“psychologically unbalanced” by any medical or mental health professional.
And there’s a lot more where that came from—too much more for us to simply
look the other way. Indeed, “Iron War” author Matt Fitzgerald has written an
endless stream of inaccurate and defamatory assertions about our lives, our
thoughts, our motivations and what drove us to such a high level of athletic
excellence in what he spitefully and negatively describes as “the showdown that
left one battling his inner demons to emerge victorious and one devastated on
the pavement and unable to forgive his loss.”
In respect to the author, the book, and the two athletes to whom it is about, it leaves one to question whether to read the book or not. I decided to read it. My observations is the Matt Fitzgerald is a fan of the sport, the Ironman, and these two athletes. In reading the book I got a sense of the respect he had for their achievements. As the author, I guess he took some liberties, because he quotes conversations and small details, like the songs on the radio the morning of the race or actual quoted conversations, that I am sure are not accurate, but help propel the "story" that he is trying to tell. I think that is what all authors do, as long as they remain true to the story. He also makes a case that both had some type of "psychological imbalance" (as noted above quote from the letter) that drove each man to his athletic greatness. Without coming out and actually saying it, except for one mention of the word, he hints that Dave Scott might be bipolar. He also talks about the relationship that Mark Allen had with his father. It sounds like the father was pretty much absent in Mark's life until he achieved his fame, and that Mark was on a type of "spiritual" search throughout his life that culminated with Mark looking into shamanism due to events and "visions" leading up to the race in 1989. With the recent revelations that Frank Shorter made about his abusive father, it was hard to tell from the book exactly what the extent of Mark Allen's relationship with his father was and what difficulties they shared, but it does add a bit of mystery and uncomfortableness with the remarks made in the book.
If you read the book for the excitement of the race and for the background information about triathlon's beginnings and first heroes, I think the book is a purely enjoyable read. I believe that Matt Fitzgerald was reaching for writing a book that might rival the popularity and excitement levels of Chris McDonald's "Born to Run". He, like the author in "Born to Run", even added chapters that related to the science behind the pain and the brains that make athletes achieve great things like these two men. As for the athletes being "psychologically imbalanced" I think that may apply to many if not most great endurance athletes. As for Dave Scott and Mark Allen, these are not really new definitions of their character or inner demons. I decided to take out all my old VHS tapes of the Ironman races and other triathlons from the 1980s and 1990's after reading this book. While watching my copy of the 1987 Nice Triathlon a segment mentioned Dave's "down period" in the previous winter when he gave up on competing and training due to being in a funk. It also mentioned Mark Allen's forays into spiritualism and shamanism which marked his spiritual search and while not mentioned in the book, it would certainly denote a need and search in Mark Allen to find a mentor, guide, or fatherly figure to help him bring clarity and meaning in his life in replacement of his own father. So Matt Fitzgerald is not saying anything new or revealing. He is just organizing a book around a race and the personalities of these two men to sort out their "greatness" among lesser athletes.
I found it to be a worthwhile read and it has me revisiting my days and races in the 1980s when being a triathlete was full of excitement, physicality, coupled with a spirit of adventure and testing of my own bodies strength and resources. Fans of the sport should find as much inspiration when reading the book. I am not sure how much the book will do for those who know nothing about these two athletes (can that really be so?). Mark Allen, Dave Scott, and the early triathletes should not be forgotten. These were the days when the sport was full of a kind of wonder and bravado that is missing from the modern day triathletes, who to me seem overly scientific, clinical, and spend-happy. Who cares about getting online coaches, data from meters and computers, as well as bicycles, gear, and entry fees that cost exorbitant amounts of money? Just get out there and train all that you can, have fun, and see where your body can take you. That was the spirit of the 1980s! A better book is waiting to be written. Maybe Mark Allen and Dave Scott can add some input, but I would like to know about what drove all the stars as well as the common athletes to suddenly pursue a sport with so much passion. It must be noted that "cross-training" wasn't even a word on the mouths of athletes until triathletes started and people decided to be more that one-sport athletes.
One further note. I stopped competing in triathlons in 1987. I got married in 1988 and no longer had the time to train plus my body had completely fallen apart due to back pains that I guess are related to the hip surgery that I finally had this summer due to a torn labrum. I trace all my pains and problems over the past 20+ years to my faulty cleat and bike positioning. Post surgery I feel better on the bike than I did in all five years of triathloning. In 1990 my son Andrew was born. The day after his birth I watched the Ironman broadcast of this 1989 race at the hospital and held my newborn son on my lap watching his first television show. I was hoping that my interest in the sport might rub off on him at an early age. Last year he completed his first triathlon just for fun! I guess it worked.
Long before Chris MacDougal wrote the "Born to Run" book, I was a minimalistic runner. I have always felt more comfortable in a lightweight pair of racing shoes than any trainer that I have tried. That has been true for my 35+ years of running. For quite a few years, I have been living out the philosophy of the "less shoe, the better." It seems to work for me. I always said that I like the lightweight shoes without all the doodads because they let my feet do what my feet want to do (which in reality is very strange things). So I have been running with lightweight racers (Asics HyperSpeeds) as my training shoes and Puma H Streets and K Streets as my racing and track shoes.
Despite the minimalistic shoes, my hips have remained imbalanced and unstable. However when I have tried training shoes, I have felt even worse. I have also forsaken traditional shoes and for over a year now, I have worn the Vivo Barefoot shoes at all other non-running times. They are extremely comfortable and also let my feet do "what they want to do." The problem that I have been thinking about is that even after all this minimalism, my hips are no better when running and my stability problems seem to be getting worse. A few weeks ago, I bought a more built up racing shoe, but it didn't seem to help my running and at times made it worse. It was more like running on a big sponge. I have improved my hips throught the Postural Restoration work this winter, but despite working on my hips and doing exercises all the time, once I start running things fall apart again. The previous three weeks have not been good. I get things balanced, go for a run and they fall apart for a couple of days, and if I try to run through it, things turn worse. I was back to having the problem where my whole left side was "stuck". Something was not right in my feet (I'd keep trying to mobilize the bones) and my hip. I was also back to the pressure under my kneecap that I get when things are out of alilgnment. My running was horrible as was my racing attempts. On Monday, I somehow got rid of the knee pressure and felt better alignment wise. I went up to race in Lowell Tuesday night for the 5K. I felt great despite for the 90 degree heat. When I started running though, I had no control of my legs and hips. Everything was going at wrong angles and it wasn't a fun run (results and I did win in my age-graded weight category). I went to the Gate City Striders workout the next evening in more 90 degree heat and did the 10 X 400m workout (81-86 secs). Again, my hips and alignment were throwing me all over the track and I was fighting my body to try to keep straight. Despite all the work I have been doing, I still can't run correctly! and there is nothing much left to find out there that I can try to improve things- or so I thought.
Then I saw Lori Thomson's newest video for running. I follow all her videos for runners, as she is a Postural Restoration therapist and Postural Restoration work has improved my hips (no longer am I tight at the front of the hip) and if I don't run at all my hips feel better than in years, but I am a runner and I have to find the solution that keeps me running. The new video is called "Instability of the Feet in Runners" and it took me awhile to let the video sink in because of the "shoe" issue. First off, she talks about "calcaneal instability" or heel bone instability. Now this was interesting to me, because when I got sent to a physical therapist this winter (who fortunately practiced "postural restoration") it was only because I asked my primary care doctor for a visit. I had pretty much given up on physical therapy due to previous attempts, but I wanted to ask a therapist about ankle mobility and issues with my heel not seeming to be lined up correctly. I was hoping I could just get a couple of questions answered and maybe learn a "trick" or two to fix things. I ended up getting 2 months of twice weekly Postural Restoration work with some traditional physical therapy techniques that helped my hips greatly, but with more running I seemed to be at an impasse. I was back to thinking the same question that plagued me for years, "Are my hips causing my problems or are my feet causing the problems?"
In this video, Lori says that if your heel bone is unstable and not in the correct position for running, then your pelvis may not be in the correct position for running (she does say it can be the other way around too). She also then explains a major part of the postural restoration philosophy: most people have a forwardly rotated pelvis on the left side. That is me. My left shoulder and pelvis are way in front of my right pelvis and shoulder. She also shows how this affects the way the foot apporaches and lands on the ground.This also desribes how my feet land and got me thinking that maybe this is why my stride is all over the place lately. My feet are landing at weird angles (and quite differently on both sides) and maybe as they hit the ground and try to roll, it send my legs in different directions and through different rotations.
Lori shows another exercise to learn how to shift into the left hip (my difficult move) and how to feel the bottom of the feet. This is all good stuff, but I wasn't willing to listen to the last part of the video, because this tells about how to choose a good running shoe. I thought I knew everything about shoes and minimalism was the way to go. Well, I thought it through and decided to give Lori's ideas a try. I printed out a list of PRI approved shoe options and headed over to Runner's Alley to see if they had any in stock and then to see how they might feel on my feet, but that was all. It was funny when I got there because there were a couple of other runners trying out Vibram 5 Fingers and Nike Free shoes as they were contemplating minimalism and there was I, a true minimalist believer, trying on what seemed to me to be boats!
I tried on about 5 pair of shoes. What I noticed in the brief moments in the shoes was how tight the heel counter was, how flat and solid the footboards were, and how I could get my big toe down in all of the shoes (something I have been working on pre- postural restorartion and even during with my PT). They felt good for such beastly things. I think whenever I have tried training shoes in the past, I always gravitated towards more lightweight trainers that ended up being a bit soft and spongy with little foot control. This type of shoe often made my hips worse! I wasn't sure which one to try, so I ran just a bit on the treadmill with each pair. One pair left my left hip feeling unstable, one pair was a bit too tight in the heel, and one pair had my hip feeling real good on the treadmill. This was all so unscientific, but I decided to but the pair that left my hip feeling best. I bought real training shoes for the first time in years! I ended up with a pair of Brooks Defyance 3 shoes. I wasn't planning on running that day, as my left glute medius had been sore since the track workout the night before, but I felt good in the shoes and took them out for a run. It was interesting. Yes, they were big shoes, but they felt better than other trainers I had tried in the past. My feet felt very comfortable and I was getting a smooth transition from heel to toe (and I wasn't landing heel first as I thought would automatically happen). I ran Friday with not major problems again. The only thing is I am running slower than I normally would, but this could be because I am using different muscles. This morning I woke up and the first thing I thought was that I wanted to go for a morning run (I don't do morning runs- I hate morning runs- it usually takes all day to get my body to a place where I can even think about running) so off I went for a successfull morning run. I am still running slower, but my stride and the way my hips are hinging is feeling better. This is only three days in to my experiment, and it could be that I am feeling good for other reasons or the shoes may eventually throw my body off in other directions and create additional problems, but I am very intrigued with the results so far. I love my Vivo Barefoot shoes, but something else funny has happened. I wore the Brooks to school yesterday, because I liked the way my feet walked in them. I am also wearing them today. I feel much more stable wearing these things. If this keeps up I will have to buy another pair: one for daily use and one for walking.
Does anyone know of a lost tribe of long distance running people that uses supportive running shoes to achieve thier mystical running abilities? If you do, let me know, because we may be able to turn the idea into a best-selling book. And I know that all my running friends who have laughed at my lightweiight running shoes through the years are probably getting a good chuckle from this post.
Here is a previous video where Lori explains PRI approved running shoe options.
I just got an email alert that Christopher McDougall, who wrote "Born to Run" will be in Manchester at the Barnes and Noble at 7:00 tomorrow night(Wed. Nov. 4). I don't know if I will be able to go just yet, but I am hoping that I can be there. Someone else might be interested so I am posting this short notice. Website is here.
WEDNESDAY, NOVEMBER 4TH
MANCHESTER, NH
7:00PM
Discussion, Q & A, and Signing
Barnes and Noble
1741 South Willow Street
Manchester, NH 03103
Thanks to The Exuberant Animal for finding this video that shows Christopher McDougall, who is the author of the best running book in years: Born to Run, telling about the awakening he had that was the genesis of the book. In his mind, shoes are the enemy. This short video is infomative and has some great pictures for fans of the book. Whatever you think about the idea of barefoot running, "Born to Run" is an entertaining, thought provoking, and a must read book!
Matt Metzgar recently pointed me to another article written by Christopher McDougall that can be found in this month's Men's Health magazine. It is called Everything You Know About Muscle is Wrong. It is a very good and in-depth description of the often overlooked role of fascia in the body. One of the best and only books that I have found that describe fascial stretching is Ming Chew's The Permanent Pain Cure. I wrote about the book last year here.
If you are going to write a book and title it "Born to Run" it had better be good. You are up against "The Boss" and Springsteen has that title well covered! The good news is that author Christopher McDougall is more than up to the challenge. This is one of the most well written (except for spelling "triathlon" with and an extra "a" at one point "triathalon") and engaging running books that I have ever read. It hits the mark with a bulls eye and it is a book for all types of readers. It includes serious thinking about the science of running, the marketing of running shoes (and the lesson that these shoes "hurt" runners), diet, sport, and ultramarathon racing, and reads like a detective and mystery novel as you can't wait to find out what happens next as you read.
Here is author Chris McDougall talking about why we wrote "Born to Run" with Popular Science magazine (article here).
The book revolves around a question from the author, "Why do my feet hurt?" and he eventaully ends up in the Copper Canyons of Mexico where some of the most fascinating people, the Taramuhara Indians, on the earth live. As McDougall pursues the Taramuhara, he also pursues the latest in research to find out "Why we are made to run?" and how to do it more effectively and with a smile on our faces! The answers he finds may startle you and get you thinking that, "All you know may be wrong." It seems that these mysterious "running people" of the Copper Canyon, living in a desolate, remote, and unforgiving landscape, might just have the secrets we have been looking for.
In the book we meet an interesting cast of characters. Who knew the ultramarathon world was this fascinating? A mysterious loner named Caballo Blanco (the White Horse) sets up a race between some top ultramarathoners- including one of the best, Scott Jurak, in the Tarahumara's world of the Copper Canyon. Earlier in the book we read how a few Tarahumara runners topped the ultramarathon world at the Leadville 100 mile trail race, but were not treated well by a somewhat unsavory handler. The races and their descriptions are riveting and the science embedded throughout the book, will hopefully make readers rethink what they know about the sport of running.
I have read 100's of running books throughout the years, and although I have never put together a list of my favorite running books, I am certain that this book would earn a place somewhere in my top 5. I would highly recommend it to all runners, and I have the sneaky suspicion that this book will be a popular book with readers who are not even runners. It will become a classic book for its entertaining, informative, and well written and engaging story.
There are no pictures in this book. After reading it, I wanted to know and "see" more. I suggest you check out these pages if you desire to learn more, but read the book first! Let you mind imagine what you are reading about.
Caballo Blanco's website Copper Canyon with a Man Called Horse. There are pictures, links, race results, and more about the mysterious central figure in this book.
Scott Jureks website and also his blog. Scott is a 7 time winner of the Western States 100 mile race and other ultramarathons, including Badwater. Can Scott beat the legendary Tarahumara? Read the book.
Barefoot Ted's blog entry about the book and his blog. He races barefoot and in Vibram five-finger shoes.
Wonderful pictures taken by Luis Escobar of the 2006 Copper River race (the one in the book) are located here.
An article "The Men Who Love Forever" on the Tarahumara Indians written by Chris McDougall and printed in Men's Health magazine can be read here.
is a book that looks at these two athletes and their physical and inner struggles as they race in the epic 1989 Hawaii Ironman Triathlon, a race where Mark Allen finally defeats the 6 time winner Dave Scott in a side by side dual to the final minutes. I enjoyed the read as I recognized the names of the triathletes and races from the 1980s when I was following everything that I could about the sport. There was a familiar feel to the book as I was revisiting past events that I began to recall and in fact since many of the the author's retelling came from the pages of magazines I have read or the televised shows that I watched it should sound familiar. The retelling of the 1989 race is augmented with stories of prior events in the lives of Dave Scott and Mark Allen and because of this the book and author have come under fire from these two men themselves. They are not happy with the book at all and together 
