Observation Biomechanical and Upper Body Stress

Another great run in the park with the running group. Today it was hard work. We ran 15 second strides in the hills, to get to the steps to Amir’s Garden, which we proceeded to run in segments. After which we got to a long dirt road where we ran quite fast from pole to pole, uphill. Then after some brief walking, did another 15 second sprint uphill. Then jogged downhill. I left the Garmin in the car as it had run out of battery, no doubt the result of fiddling with it to see if I could get it to upload.

(No luck as of yet. No word from Garmin. But neither device is working from the wife’s laptop, either, so I’m quite sure it’s a Garmin problem, website specific.)

After a fair amount of hill running (almost all of it uphill), one of the runners pointed out that my right foot is pointing out about 30 degrees and that my stride was less efficient than it could be. She noted that this could also lead to back pain. That there is gold — as I do in fact experience lower back pain on the right side, from time to time. The idea that she nailed the cause of it is a minor revelation. And as I was jogging down the hill, coach’s wife hollers “tuck in that right foot!” Not something I ever would have figured out running on my own.

Did I say it was hard? As my legs were feeling good, I tried to put in a solid effort today, but started to fade around the telephone pole section. I’d guess the run was about 3 miles. I’d love to see the route on a map, especially the elevation. The surprise today was soreness, fairly early on, in the triceps.  Near the elbow. Perhaps this is more tendon than muscle. Upper body stress. Love it. I feel a lovely nap coming on.

Some observations, hearsay about the running group.

1. Nobody is training for a race.
2. They accommodate different paces with different routes, including jogging strollers, septuagenarians, and dog walkers.
3. Coach’s wife, H., 77, hikes up scrabbly trails and is not far behind while we run the intervals.
4. She is a top 5k runner in her age group.
5. Coach ran a 2:36 marathon in his day, that’s 5:57 min/mile pace.
6. At the end of my first run, the woman I was running with just shot off down the hill. When I caught up to her she was dry heaving.
7. Some grouping of them is there every day, 6:30 a.m. on weekdays, 7:00 a.m. on weekends.
8. One runner is from Ghana.