WOD
Teams of 2.
4 Rounds each for time:
400 meter run,
500 meter row.
36 minute time cap.
One person does a full round while the other rests.
Tuesday Night Musings with Coach Alecio.
1. Posture; 2. Fall; and 3. Pull.
People all too often relate performance or outcome to skill or ability – but they are very different. In class, I will hear people say “blank” or “so and so” is a good runner because of how fast they may have run a mile or 400 meters in a Wod. And yes, the time might be fast but that doesn’t necessarily mean they are a good runner or that they run well. The same goes for lifting. Have you ever seen a person lift a lot of weight with bad form? Of course – we all have. Would we say that person is a good lifter if they deadlifted 400lbs but it looked like their spine was going to fall out of their butt? Probably not. I know I would say that was a lot of weight but it looked like your spine was going to come out of your butt. Wait … what was I talking about…??
Oh yes – running. To run well we need 3 major components: 1. posture; 2. fall; and 3. pull.
1. Posture. Think butt and gut turned on, shoulders back and down, head neutral, and eyes forward. A straight line from ankles to head. Not necessarily tight like you would for a Deadlift but active. This is one of the first things that goes when we get tired. Many runners start to overextend in the lower back, shoulders slump forward and head and eyes drop to the ground. So when running and wanting to work on your posture run proud and tall!! Once posture is in check we can focus on falling.
2. Fall. If we have a straight line from our ankles to head, we then want to make sure we are falling when we run. When we fall we should have a slight lean forward and that lean should be from the ankles. Not sure what that feels like? Stand tall with your feet together. Squeeze your butt and gut and lean forward and eventually you will fall and have to take a step forward or fall flat on your face. That is the idea. This illustration show the angles of the lean or fall that we are looking for.
Ok, now that we have our posture and fall taken care of we want to look at our foot work.
3. The Pull. A good runner is constantly falling forward and pulling their foot off of the ground. This is one of the more technical aspects of running and as such the reason why we practice the pulling drills before we run. This key skill separates a lot of good runners from great ones!!
So next time you are out on a run remember: 1. posture; 2. fall; and 3. pull.
Thanks for reading!
Sincerely,
Coach Alecio
