running geekiness...or...MY what a big watch you have!
I've been running with my trusty bike Garmin Edge 500 GPS. I just hold it in my hand while I run...I've dropped it a couple of times and this seems like a recipe for disaster - so I've been looking for a watch style GPS. When I saw this Swaggle deal - I jumped on it. I figured if it didn't work out I could always sell it on ebay for the same price I bought it.
I received it in the mail today. It's ginormous!! Sometimes I wish I was a normal sized person - I think life would be even easier.
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| my - what a big watch I have - it's almost the same size as my fist! |
Last week I decided to go to StridePros for a formal gait analysis. I figured since I was new to the running thing I should make sure my running technique was good to ward off any possible injury and not incorporate any bad habits. I did have my running form advice from Phil (TLC) and that had helped improve my speed but I thought having a professional check out my form would be a good thing.
A nice gentleman by the name of Curt Chesney did the analysis. He watched me run and video taped from the side and back. The good news was he said in general my form was good. My arms were in the right place and not angled out to the side. My head was up. I don't have any pronation. (i run in neutral shoes) I don't have any hip drop and I'm fairly efficient. But the bad news is I was a shuffler. That kinda bummed me out because I didn't *feel* like I was dragging my feet. And I was heel striking. Not badly heel striking but enough that is was inefficient.
Back View - nothing really bad with my form here.
Side View - BEFORE - i'm a shuffler. You see where my heels only come up to the 1st horizontal line in the chart behind me. (i love me some data)
He just gave me a couple of suggestions for leaning forward a bit more and to really use my glutes in the backside of my stride. Those suggestions helped a ton! You can see my stride is lengthened and my heels are coming up much higher. My left side is stronger than my right side (probably from speedskating) but running like this seemed fairly comfortable.
Side view - AFTER - much better.
the next time I ran - I knocked a whopping 18 seconds off my minute per mile pace. I'm such a NERD!
Comments
you crack me up, woman. lets go put our strides to pace, hot stuff, and crank out some bliss miles together!!!!
miss u a ton, crackpot.
mwah!!!
j
also, check out the garmin 610. not that you need another fancy watch but it's MUCH more svelte. i also have to wear my polar on the inside of my wrist to avoid getting chaffing. my only problem is if i'm riding in tri position i keep hitting the buttons on the watch face. doh.
I was running 20 seconds per mile faster after I incorporated his suggestions - with the same effort level. I'll all about running faster using less effort. ;)
I'll check out the garmin and the polar. Today I ran holding my Garmin Edge in my hand but it's just a matter a time before I drop it and step on it so I definitely need something i can wear on my wrist.
The Timex Ironman is going on ebay tomorrow. I can't make it work for me and I have a big bruise on my wrist bone from it.