Most swimmers make decent runners, and many runners learn to swim reasonably well, but it’s hard to be truly great at both sports. Instead, swimmers and runners both tend to pick up cycling or yoga as their second-best discipline when they take up triathlon as master’s athletes. But the difficulty of transitioning from one ostensibly simple aerobic activity to another can be maddening for folks who’re used to being considered good at whatever it is that they try to do.
Personally, I enjoy running. I’ve never been better than mediocre. I was good enough for the Army, and maybe I could even have made my high school’s varsity cross country team back in the day. That is absolutely as far as my abilities were ever gonna carry me, though. In road races now, I am usually somewhere near the median finisher. About half the field finishes ahead of me, both overall and in my particular age group. That still puts me significantly ahead of your average non-running schlub, but it hardly qualifies as “good”. It’s much closer to “acceptable”.
Does this look like the face of a guy who runs comfortably? |
The issue is not :15 lost on a two-mile run twenty-five years ago, but rather that at age forty-four, I’m at the point where running doesn’t come as easy as it used to. Thus, I would like very much to increase my running efficiency. That starts with understanding what’s going wrong and why.
This video explains the potential problem as succinctly as I’ve ever seen.
Granted, it’s a lot easier to describe what you’re doing wrong than it is to fix your own mechanics. I work on my mechanics all the time in the pool, but I’d hardly say they’re “good,” despite nearly two-and-a-half decades swimming. We all have our issues, and imperfect practice most certainly creates imperfect execution. Whatever my bad habits, they’re ingrained by now.
Regardless, I haven't been running at all well of late, and I can't help hoping that if I can find some time to have someone video me on a treadmill, maybe I'll be able to fix some of whatever’s going on with my stride. All else aside, it feels ugly.
I’ll keep you posted.
I’ll keep you posted.
No comments:
Post a Comment