Brightroom gets useful

A couple days after most races, that dreaded email shows up in my inbox that says "Your Race Photos Are Now Available!".

Even though the race is over, I always get a few butterflies in my stomach fueled purely by vanity as I click through to the pics.  

"God, I hope the camera really does add ten pounds". 

Basically my goal is to not look like a Yeti.

It's sometimes achieved. 

Lately though, I've been thinking there are some other thoughts to take from Brightroom.   Thoughts like "What the F is up with my form?".

There are all sort of advice that you can read about having good form.  Keep a quick cadence, drive your knees forward, try to minimize vertical motion, don't twist too much, and keep your elbows at 90 degrees.

Improving your form can help prevent injury and make you a faster runner. 
It'll make you look like these super fast looking dudes with great form:

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After looking at my race pictures online, it's pretty clear I'm doing at least 78% of it wrong.  Granted, most of these bad pictures are near the end of the race when my form breaks down.  But that doesn't mean it's not a problem.

Let's take a look at exhibit A from the Eugene marathon.

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Unless I was trying to push the person to the right out of my way or run the slowest marathon possible, I'm pretty sure it's time to stop twisting and flailing my arms around.

But that's not the only problem:

TRYING OUT FOR THE BALLET??? source

You know that part about having a short but fast stride and minimizing vertical motion?  Guess I missed the memo on that one too.

So I've decided it's time to do something about it.  I'm not sure I'm going to get much faster without trying to iron out some kinks anyways.

When I run, I've been focusing on keeping a short and quick stride.  This has added benefits of helping my right knee that's been sore for a while.  One of these days, I'll start doing high knee and butt kick drills too, but only after my neighbors agree not to have me committed when they see me doing drills outside their door.

I've also been doing some very minor strength training.  Really minor like pushups and situps before bed.  I've also made a deal with myself that if I go to the gym, I have to pick up a free weight, even if it's for 30 seconds.

I'm not 100% sure this will make me a better runner, but it can't hurt, right?

And if it does hurt, I can go back to my Batman meets Chubby Checker style of running. 

Have you ever tried to improve your form?  With any decent results? 

So Much Cooler When You Work Harder?

Today, I'm running a Ragnar Ultra Relay with 5 of my best internet friends, and 12 more of my internet friends on the other So Much Cooler Online team.

Let's just say I don't have the exact science packing methodology that some of my friends on the team do.  My process is "dump in pile and deal with it later".

 

I'm sorry, y'all...planning is just not my thing.

In the spirit of "So Much Cooler Online", our 12 man team is dressed up as nerds.  The Ultra Team I'm on with Sarah, Sarah, Chiara, Pam, and Nicole isn't dressing up.  But I got a new computer (well, a "new to me" computer) and it runs on Linux. 
So I don't need a damn costume, I'd like to proudly say that I've got that nerd stuff covered!

If you want more details on our relay, check out some of my teammates' blogs! 

Main Post: Talent Versus Effort

Long distance running, like most things, is a weird animal.  Sometimes people are amazingly fast from the get-go.  I remember one of my high school teammates was running sub 5 minute 1600m races her Freshman year by her second track season.  While I have no doubt she was a hard worker, there's no doubt in my mind that her great genetics played a part in her performances. 

And some people keep making steady progress, like my high school friend Boriana (who I hope doesn't mind me writing about her, is that creepy?), who was always a talented runner, but has made enormous strides as an adult running sub-40 10ks and the like.   Her hard work has definitely paid off.
I see this progress a lot in the blogging world as well, especially among marathon running bloggers who slowly but surely subtract a few minutes almost every time they run a marathon.

(I would put Desi Davila into this category.  Even though she was a standout in high school, she wasn't a buzz generator.  But gradually, she's become someone who is important on the international marathon scene. Pretty cool.)

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And then there are people who improve, but at a very slow rate.  People who put in the miles every day, do the workouts, but will likely never be front of the pack runners.  These are the people that I tend to have the most respect for.  It's easy to be dedicated when you're PRing and getting cheers for being fast.  When people are yelling at you that you're winning the race.  Not so easy when you're giving it your all and still not seeing the improvement or results you want.   I'd say that every body responds differently to training as well.  For me, I'm still figuring things out, but I know that when training starts mentally stressing me out, my physical performance suffers.

I think something that often gets lost in the blogging world, is that while hard work pays off, we forget to give credit to our genetics.   I know that I can run a sub 4 marathon on pretty much zero training, and it's not because I'm more mentally strong than someone who runs a 5 hour marathon.  And it doesn't mean I care less than someone who can easily run a 3:15.

Granted to get to a certain point, you have to have a huge level of dedication.  I don't know any woman who can break 18 in the 5k, or 3:00 in a marathon without really trying.  Without putting in a high amount of miles, people will never get to a very high level of performance.  I assume this is because runners on the national stage have it all:  The genetics to run fast, and the drive to run even faster. 

What kind of runner do you think you are?  Do you feel like you are naturally fast?  Improving through a lot of work?  A total slacker? 


Ok...see you on the flip side of this relay =).