Puncture!!!

A puncture last night put paid to my thoughts of a 10 mile cycle. However I used the situation to force my hand. With no bike for getting in and out from work I'd either have to pay £6 a day in taxi fares until I replace the inner on my bike, or find another way to get to and from work. The temptation to be back running was now so great that this was all I needed to tip the balance.

So this morning I laced up my H streets and ran the 1.64 miles from my house to the factory gates. Concentrating on maintaining a good pose technique I focused on pulling my ankle up quickly with relaxed lower legs, and quads. A quick cadence, although I'm not sure what sort of rate I'm getting at present, and a good lean from the ankles.

I'll be honest, I've no idea how close I was to running with good pose technique, but I'm convinced that there must be varying shades of grey in between running poorly and running well. Pose is after all not the only "correct" way to run.

The proof is in the pudding as they say, so I strapped myself into my garmin 301 to keep an eye on myself. At first I felt awkward and slow, but the further I went the more I was able to correct what I felt were errors and once I got from the shade of the trees and out where the gps could get a signal it became apparent that I was fairly motoring on, although it felt relaxed and steady. At times I was in the low 6 minute miles range. I kept good focus on my form and did the distance in 11:12:. Not bad for my first decent attempt at a run using this technique. I'm going to stick with the drills, but I don't see any harm in doing some runs in the meantime. I'm confident now that I can be ready for the half marathons I'd like to do in August and September, and what seemed like a shut door on the Loch Ness marathon, has creaked open a little.

Postives from the run were my speed at what seemed quite a relaxed pace, and the fact that I have had no flaring up of the hip problem I had been getting. Considering that was in flat shoes with zero cushioning I'm very happy. A 10k in my Nike Air Pegasus a few weeks back left me in agony, but I feel I could easily have gone further today at that pace with no problem. I'll have to run back home tonight after work as well and I'm looking forward to that. I may see if I can increase my pace a little with a bit more lean. Falling is the new running. (",)

Today's training:

• 1.64 miles run to work
• 1.64 miles run back home
• TI Lesson 2 drill session (1 hour)

Another weekend by

I'm starting to feel a bit better about pose running. It's still frustrating not being able to get out and do some miles and I actually feel like I couldn't manage much distance now anyway. However I've stuck to the drills and they seem to be coming along nicely. On Friday I started with some more balance (pose stance) and then change of support. I'm still not sure of pony at all. Then I tried a few 100m runs just to get moving. All of this was barefoot at the park. After this I got out the stretch cordz and did some more drills before swinging the cords over my shoulder and running with tension in them. That was interesting. Suddenly you feel how your legs should be moving and you have to go with a high cadence and low range of motion. I was still barefoot and yet was able to run at speed on grass with no pain as my heel wasn't landing.

I look forward to some more drills now, but the temptation to just go out for a run is very strong. I got my letter from Loch Ness with race info and it really brought home that I'm now missing out on vital training if I want to race. I can't help feeling that I could just start building up some mileage with as close to pose technique as I can manage. Surely with the knowledge of how to lift my legs and land under my centre of gravity I can now build the relevant muscles with some distance training and hopefully get quickly up to high mileages? I'll need to see if my temptation fades soon.

I had hoped to do some more swimming drills over the weekend, but only managed a few. It's not helpful to attempt training on the first Saturday of the school holidays, especially when all the kids have been given free pool access for the next 6 weeks. Hopefully it's quieter on Tuesday when I go back. I have a drill plan to follow when I go this time, and plan on doing at least 3 or 4 of these sessions before I move on to the next lesson.

I'll need to get back out on the bike tonight for my cardio/aerobic workout, so...

Today's Training:

• 10 miles cycle
• Pose drills