Running Fast and Free

As I make may way through two books on running I'm becoming aware of a tension that would seem to be approaching the properly dialectical.  I have a self-imposed rule that I can read up to three books at once, as long as there is no more than one memoir, one book of technique, and one work of fiction being read (by me) simultaneously.  This allows me to relax and enjoy thinking about running in a laid-back, worry-free, way with the memoir; and then to rapidly switch to something more practical when I want to push myself a little bit, and actually get outside to follow up on the training plans.  Fiction is always allowed, and it doesn't have to be a work of fiction about running per se.  But sometimes it is (see my last post about Shriver's book The Motion of the Body Through Space).



With that said, I'm doing a double-read right now, moving between Askwith's Running Free and Goater and Melvin's The Art of Running Faster.  (I'm also currently sidelined with shin splints, and am therefore switching, as I do when injured, to a reading 'mode' where I read more as I run less).  I've established a kind of back and forth rhythm of reading these two books, dipping into Askwith for a chapter on slow running, for example, and then reading about how to run faster with the Goater & Melvin.  There's clearly a tension here, but what's interesting is that Askwith's chapter on slow running ends with a meditation on running fast, and how we can tend to do so naturally when we aren't really thinking about it, and are focused on something else.



Of course, Askwith is 'running naked', because he runs without a watch, and therefore his sense of speed is very much relative.  But senses of speed always are. And this point comes out very strongly in the Goater/Melvin book.  They note how natural techniques for running faster need to be if they are to become successful drivers of more efficient, smart, and supple (fast) running. One cannot overthink one's stride, the footstrike, or the arms, lest one begins to overstride, or unnaturally alter one's gait; these things will result in injury.  Both books are at pains to demonstrate how their approaches and techniques will lead to less injury, properly applied.

As I make my way through these books, and as I continue with a very rigorous strengthening/rehab routine to re-balance my legs and ease dull throbbing in my shins, I will continue to think through how I want to gradually get back up to speed. I know that it will involve a variety of surfaces, paces, and workouts, including both speed intervals (i.e. fartlek) and hills, and that the majority of the miles will be easy/moderate.  The lesson I've learned is that it's a thrill to run fast (and that fast is relative), but not when one runs smack into a wall of injury.  That is the antithesis of the free runner. To run free is to run free of injury, and it is, with Askwith, to run the most number of miles possible with a sense of joy and well-being, summer or winter, and whatever the weather.

THE MOTION OF THE BODY THROUGH SPACE

The thing about Lionel Shriver is, I guess, that she's self-deprecating.  She is obviously, also, a contrarian, and that is the quality that comes through most strongly in this book. Shriver takes a contrary view on almost every conceivable aspect and item of received wisdom emanating from the fitness industry.  And this automatically counts as self-deprecation because of Shriver's own personal investment in the values that industry promotes.  We know that this is the case from various interviews Shriver has given over the years, most notably in the New Yorker.

Let's be clear (if I wasn't above): this book is a relentless attack on both the idea and practice of 'pushing yourself to your limits'. The whole idea of limits is critically tested through a series of limit cases devoted, seemingly, to exercise, but who are revealed to be, instead, devoted to self-harm. The freaks Shriver describes are suicidally hell-bent on perfecting their bodies and attaining personal best times that they acquire, along the way a set of life-threatening injuries ranging from: blown knees, heart attacks, suppurating and infectious blisters, kidney failure, fatal head traumas, deep lacerations, internal bleeding/bruises; and much more, all in the context of the ravages of old age that both the main character Serafina Terpsichore and her husband (Remington) are undergoing.

Shriver is trying to take down a few notches the likes of, for example, Alex Hutchinson, whose book Endure: Mind, Body, and the Curiously Elastic Limits of Human Performance Remington is observed reading in bed, and it's funny because the husband is so very far from being an accomplished athlete that he comes to seem like a straw-man, set up to be so very easily knocked down, especially in comparison to the company he keeps: a set of hardcore (and all very much younger and more fit) triathletes.  Their goal: the MettleMan, a brilliantly conceived triathlon 'event' the approach of which structures so much of the tension that is built up so skillfully in the course of this novel's events.

Another straw-person is the young buff personal trainer who latches onto Remington during his first (circa 8 hour) marathon. Her name is Bambi Buffer, and she is of course a dissembling shill of a person, so seemingly representative of much of what is branded as 'good for you' by various representatives of the fitness industry today.  Bambi is the classic 'other woman' but Shriver, with extremely impressive skill, navigates the cliches and pitfalls such a character might represent, with brilliant and darkly funny aplomb (to borrow a turn of phrase Adam Roberts applied to Joe Abercrombie's book A Little Hatred.  Indeed, The Motion of the Body Through Space might quite easily, at times, feel like a good fit into the grimdark fantasy genre).

Underneath the take-down-y language and critical structure of this novel; it is more fundamentally about a marriage, and a very admirable one (a good one!) at that.  Serafina and Remington are enamoured of one another, despite their troublesome children, and various late-mid-life mishaps.  It is one of the latter (Remington's early firing from a company to which he has devoted his life and life's work), that has led to the current crises of fitness and bodily-limits thinking that underly the book's philosophical core.

Unsurprisingly, there is a lot of reactionary material being spewed by Remington and his wife, who at times too thinly seem to resemble Shriver's real-life personae.  There is a massive wedge of anti-'PC' libertarian-inflected political ideology that is quite unbelievable.  Remington's new boss, who usurps his own perceived entitlement to a management position, is a high-born Nigerian woman with a whole-profile of stereotypically progressive agendas that becomes increasingly absurd as it is conveyed through an almost play-like set of recorded dialogues Remington plays back from a workplace tribunal he underwent immediately prior to his firing.  This woman, his new boss, allegedly re-named a street in Albany, New York, 'Robert Mugabe' drive.  Which is kind of funny, but also a bit insulting if we are expected to believe this or that this kind of cardboard character actually exists.

Does this book have a happy ending?  The main character, at the end of the final chapter, has a heart attack and does not finish his race.  His wife, with a fresh knee operation that is trashed through the tribulations of her finding her lost husband, has to undergo the operations again, and is permanently crippled in the process.  But the afterward is a glorious tribute to the wonders and pleasure of old age in the company of a spouse truly and deeply loved and enjoyed, hour by hour, day by day.  It came off a bit hokey, if I'm being honest, but that was probably also part of the satire.

I took the critique of the fitness aspect very seriously, and I am certain it will have a positive impact on my own practices, if not quite anywhere near the extent that Hutchinson's book Endure will, then perhaps in a more subtle way.  The Motion of the Body Through Space is well worth reading.

[re-posted from Place-Memes.blogspot.com]

Goals and the Meaning of Running (Shin Splints)

I have been following Matt Fitzgerald's training plans for some time now, and successfully attained a half marathon PB (Wokingham) following his level 2 plan.  I stepped up to level 3 for my Windsor Half Marathon training (20 weeks), which includes optional double-run days 3-4 times per week. These runs happen at recovery pace, and help 'bulk up' the miles after the relatively short weekly hill and interval sessions have occurred. The extra runs are a bit counter-intuitive to Fitzgerald's overall approach which is that it is quality rather than quantity of running that matters in training for races; and that you can actually train better by running less (see also his 80/20 method).



Following Brain Training requires calculating your recovery, base, marathon, HM, 5k, 3k, and 1 miles paces. Various paced runs are sprinkled throughout the week, with most of the mileage occurring at 'base pace'. I tend to run my base pace a bit fast.  Sunday's long runs are also at base pace, but for me it is essential to do at least some trail running every week, so I do a long trail run on Sundays, and this usually includes a lot of elevation, and some intense, often fast, downhill sections.

The long and the short of it is that all of the double-run days on hard road surfaces, combined with the hard downhill running, has resulted in my latest injury. I have acquired 'shin splints'; or more precisely 'shin splint', because it really only hurts on the right side.

On the one hand, I'm proud of myself for not ever repeating an injury. In the past 4 years (the total amount of time I've been running) I've successfully overcome Illiotibial Band Syndrome (ITBS), Runner's Knee (patellofemoral pain), and some minor foot & calf pains.  I did this in large part by following the advice of a physiotherapist, both in person, and by following advice as written in books.  Paul Hobrough told me (at a book launch in Bloomsbury) that I need to do single leg squats and Tensor Fascia Latae stretches at a bare minimum, in order to address my ITBS. Following his advice, I managed to make my way around the course of my first marathon in Southampton in 2018 (still with some pain, I'll admit, but I'd only started the stretches a couple of weeks before the race).

Following Hobrough's book "Running Free of Inujuries" I added in a host other stretches to my daily routine. This, in addition to taking out a gym membership in an attempt to make myself injury-proof.  In my over-confidence and over a year of being injury-free, I was starting to think I had attained my goal. Last Tuesday, my hubris was exposed, when I ended my second run of the day in pain.  Waking up Wednesday morning, my right leg felt weak, partly collapsing under my weight, due to pain, when I got out of bed.

After a day of denial, depression, and self-pity, I decided to take action, and I acquired a copy of Hobrough's new book, "The Runner's Expert Guide to Stretching", and started my way through it. It contains activities, questions, and measurements for acquiring key information about your fitness, goals, and state of injury, utilising both qualitative and quantitative information to tailor the subsequent workout sessions to your particular situation.



So, by now I've self-diagnosed using the extensive section from Noakes "Lore of Running" to find the 'hop test', as well as Hobrough's advice from his first book, as to what a shin splint feels like.  It's a lot different from what I had imagined. You can feel the pain on the inside front part of the shin, but there's (for me) a much deeper seated pain inside the calf muscles that is really only touched by the foam roller.  You also really feel it hard going up stairs.

Now, I'm dealing with the actual problem, rather than my reaction to it: I'm taking specific action my doing Tibialis Posterior and Shin stretches; Soleus pushes and Toe Raises; Calf Stretches and Hip Abductions (clams); and a boat-load of continued Hip Adductors and Single Leg Squats.  I've also for the first time measured my Soleus flexibility and Single Leg Squat depth; checked my Bridge Lift alignment and Hamstring Length; and checked my form with Overhead Squats and Wall Slides.

It turns out that my right (injured) leg is my strongest, most flexible, and has the best glute activation. Perhaps that means I'm favouring it, and thus overusing it relative to my left (non-dominant) leg. This 'finding' is counter-intuitive and, thus, is possibly correct.  There is certainly some imbalance that I'm hoping a stripped-back approach to rehab and recovery might continue to expose and fix.

Finally, Hobrough, in his inimitably honest and straightforward approach, informs the reader that he is not in the habit of telling runners they can't run.  The reason they go to him is to find a way to continue to run, and to do so is his job.  He understands the psychology, and he is very good at his job.  You have to answer three questions (page 88):

-What are the three things you are unable to do as a result of your issue/pain/injury?
-What are your three goals once the injury is resolved?
-What is it going to mean to you to achieve these goals?

My answers are:

-I want to run pain free; I want to run in the forest and on trails; I want to run faster on roads
-My goals are to get back to more consistent and regular running; to run pain-free; and to get a PB HM time by September 2020 (despite the Windsor Half being cancelled this year)

-What will it mean to me to attain these goals?

It will mean that I will be in my 'happy place' by being able to run, pain-free, on trails and in the forest; and by being able to run to the best of my ability, meaning fast downhills, and fast on the roads.

My plan is, towards beginning to attain these goals, to start with 5 x 3 minutes of running this coming Tuesday (i.e. after a full week break from my last day of running). I will gradually increase up to 5 x 6 minutes running over the course of the week, and I will cut out long Sunday runs for now.

I have also just ordered a new set of trail running shoes, and really look forward to trying them out at the appropriate of my recovery, sometime later in June or early July.