My Collection of Running Biomechanical Observations:
• An average miler has a two yard stride, he takes 880 steps in his race. Save an ounce from his shoes and you save him 880 ounces—fifty-five pounds of hard work. Bowerman and the Men of Oregon. Kenny Moore 2006 P 124
• Mihaly Igloi (USA-California) Style- The Hungarian scorned running slowly and was contemptuous of easy days. His athletes ran intervals on the track, in spikes, twice a day, every day of their lives. And the workouts lasted two or three hours. Diametric to Lydiard’s.
• Arthur Lydiard- LSD (long slow distance) with 100 mile weeks for months followed by speed workouts. Includes rugged runs as long as 20 milers.
• Bill Rodgers: Leg-length inequality. “Run whenever you feel like it. If you want to run, just take off and go. I do that all the time. I’m uncomfortable when I walk. I have a very awkward kind of walk, so I don’t feel very good doing it. One of my legs is an inch longer than the other; a podiatrist told me that. So I’d rather run. The truth is, I have walking.” Bill Rodgers. The Complete Book of Running. James F. Fixx. 1977. p 224
• Dr. George Sheehan’s immortal definition of a runner… “a small-boned loner, built for flight and fantasy.” Bowerman and the Men of Oregon. Kenny Moore 2006 P 407
• Mary Decker: Missed the 1976 Olympics with the pain-locked shins of compartment syndrome. Surgery in 1977 had freed her calf muscles from their constraining fascia, and she returned to blissful running. Bowerman and the Men of Oregon. Kenny Moore 2006 P 386
• Sebastian Cole (Great Britain): 800 (1:42.60), mile (3:49.0), and 1500 (3:32.1); “I’ve had occasional pain that goes from my back down my leg.” Sciatica; BOWERMAN AND THE MEN OF OREGON. Kenny Moore 2006 P 355
• MAX VO2:
o Steve Prefontaine 84.4 milligrams per kilogram of body weight/min
o Max HR Steve Prefontaine 210 beats/min; 77% Slowtwitch fibers
o More important for races 1,500 – 5,000 meters; the longer races require more lactate threshold.
o World Class Male 5,000 meter: 75-85 ml/kg/min
o World Class Male Marathoners: 70-75 ml/kg/min
• Steve Prefontaine and Sciatica: Excessive racing schedule began to gnaw at where Prefontaine was weakest, his lower back. In the 5000 against Harald Norpoth in the United States vs. West Germany vs. Sweden meet. He led most of the way. “But when I wanted to bear down and step up the pace,” he said later, “I couldn’t. I wasn’t tired, but my back would tighten up and I couldn’t go any faster.” Norpoth zipped around right where he always did (with 200 to go) and won, 13:20.6 to 13:23.8. Prefontaine heed his sciatica and went home.
o Steve Prefontaine 84.4 milligrams per kilogram of body weight/min
o Max HR Steve Prefontaine 210 beats/min; 77% Slowtwitch fibers
• Frank Shorter: 10,000 in US vs. Russia Meet of 1970 Frank was so gripped by the crowd’s urging that he tried too hard to hold record pace. He would have destroyed Billy Mills’s American standard of 27:17, but got a side stitch in the last mile and had to ease. He won in 28:22.8. Bowerman and the Men of Oregon. Kenny Moore 2006. p.248
• When feeling tension in muscles especially at the half marathon and marathon distance shortening stride helps.
• Knee is a hinge joint. Pain behind the knee can be indicative of overstriding. It’s designed to support body weight in the act of moving forward with foot directly underneath.
o Always try to maintain some bend in the knee when running.
o Very little knee lift for long distance runners on the flats.
• Arms: Lower arm—small range of motion alongside shorts; Upper arm—hardly move
• LBP: indicative of too much forward lean/tightening butt too much.
• Runner’s Knee/Chondromalacia Patella/Patellofemoral Syndrome: imbalance of quads, weak vastus medialis; correct by doing knee extensions with thigh externally rotated.
• Sports Massage: Bill Rodgers has gotten a weekly massage since 1980 and credits this habit with allowing him to train and race hard for nearly three decades with only one serious injury.
• Minimize injuries by:
o Shoes
o Soft running surfaces—concrete hardest, next is blacktop.
o Avoid running downhill
o Find trails.
• Water Running: Mary Slaney had to do water running for six weeks following a mishap at the 1984 Olympic trials. After days after returning to land, she broke the world 2000 meter record.
• “Running is like breathing. It usually goes just fine without thinking about it all the time. It works smoothly when its done unconsciously. The way you look while running doesn’t matter either. This isn’t gymnastics or figure skating. Stylish running doesn’t matter much either. If it did, the name Emil Zatopek and Bob Hayes would be unknown in our sport. Zatopek thrashed his arms and grimaced like a crazed street fighter. Hays was so pigeon-toed that he almost stepped on his own feet when he sprinted. Yet these two were giants among Olympians. Their “faults” were no more than innocent personal quirks. – Jim Henderson
