By the time I reached this drill I had already done:
Knee Skips
Step Ups
Squat Jumps
Fast Step Ups
Skaters
Side Jumps ————>
All at 3×30 second reps with 30 second rest in between reps and drills. I followed side jumps with:
Frog Hops
Fast Turn Overs ————->
Bulgarian Squats
Planks
I did the first 3 with the same program as above and the planks are done 1 minute standard, diamond and preacher and then 30 second for each side plank with 1 minute rest in between plank sets. It was a great workout and one that had me fighting to continue after the side jumps. It felt good to push again at this level and I’m starting to really notice how my conditioning has improved with gradual and conscious steps towards higher fitness levels.
Even though I was beat after the above circuit I proceeded to do 10 strides barefoot. I did these as cool down and as feeling runs. I was searching for a smooth ride and soft touch. All in all, this was a great training session on Thursday and I’m stoked to be doing what I love!
Note:
Don’t ever stop doing what you love, if you fall, get back up, dust yourself off and get back on the horse. The only failure in life is the failure to continue the fight towards achieving your dream.
Lift the knee, keep the arm carriage tight and close to the body
Life is dynamic! As runners, we forget sometimes to stop and smell the roses. Here I’ll introduce you to one of the most widely used running drills and touch base with the heart of the matter.
One of the most basic and best ways to improve running performance, no matter if you are a sprinter or distance runner, is to warm up properly with dynamic drills that will not only prepare your body for the following exertions, but also develop proper running form and methods for a competitive edge. In this post, I’ll briefly and concisely cover one of my favorites and the staple of my warm up routine.
Apropos, all of life is interactive, interrelated and interdependent, so one cannot fully separate one part from another. This being said, with physical exercise comes mental, emotional and spiritual one layer overlapping the other seamlessly blending with each other all throughout our life.
In the beginning there was…
Running track since the age of 10, I’ve been exposed to many different types of drills and exercises that help warm up the body and condition your system for high level exertion. But, doing dynamic drills with your 8 and 4 year old around really takes the dynamic to a new level. LOL It’s so easy to get caught up with wanting to finish the task one forgets to connect with life that is happening all around them. For a father, this is especially true in respect to his kids and wife.
In the video, I show you the basic movements of the A and B skip, a staple of track/running warm ups everyone should add to their routine. The most important is, for the A skip, to lift your knee high and keeping your arm carriage (your arm swinging motion back and forth) tight and close to your body in a relaxed manner rocking back and forth bringing your fist up to your chin and down to your pocket – think chin, pocket. This is done with a light and easy skip forward. The B skip is similar adding a kick out as the knee lifts to its highest position.
This is just the face value of what you see. The world isn’t what it appears to be. What am I thinking as I do these drills? How am I interacting with my children? Am I rushing to finish to get to my run and hit a new PR or am I living in the moment embracing all that life has to offer me? I can tell you, and you might be able to notice, that in this video my face is a bit scrunched. And honestly speaking, I was a bit frustrated with my boys at the time. And you know what, my boys had nothing to do with it! It was my fixation on finishing! Finishing what? All roads lead to nowhere as the final act of life is death.
I have my moments where I listen with every fiber of my being and in this sense get in touch with such a poignant feeling that I am in a state of utter peace. This is what I call unconditional love in action. Being fully engaged in the moment and connecting with the unseen forces that our mind isn’t able to comprehend primarily because of its computational nature. The mind can and will only work with data it understands and this means it works with known areas. The unknown aspects pertain to the feeling side of life and can only be perceived from being wide awake in life. These moments are fleeting as its a lifestyle and once again the goal mentality creeps back in.
Goal mentality. I do believe its perfectly fine to have a goal, something to work towards, as life would get rather boring if we just moved through day by day with no hopes, dreams or aspirations. However, my qualm, and here I am speaking from personal experience, is the mental expectation that something should be a certain way and when those expectations aren’t met a person feels hard-done-by and misses the gem of learning involved in the experience.
Start where you are at
Your life starts now!
All of us, can do nothing other than start where we are at. This means, at this very moment you are exactly where you need to be in life. Sometimes this fact is hard to deal with considering the challenges we are facing. But life never gives us challenges that one cannot handle. I’ve heard this for a very long time and have used it to spur me past very hard battles. Recently, the shit really hit the fan and I felt hopeless for sometime with even the power inherent within this phrase not doing it for me. I asked my wife what she felt this saying means to her. And she said that if life gave us a challenge we could not handle then, effectively, this means our death. That’s it then! So, if we are still alive then we do have what it takes and will find a way if only we break free from any expectations. Breaking free from expectations boils down to not holding life to any idea that is contrary to our fate. As hard as it is to understand, each of us has a unique expressive purpose that needs to be unfurled through the process of our life. I will cover more of this subject matter in future posts as it is an area many people find difficult primarily due to our social conditioning.
Improvement
So how can we practically improve our running form? Isn’t this the gist of my post? Yes it is! 😉 And the method is learning to feel ones way forward. This is easy if we release all of our expectations and goals detaching from any hold on life and enjoying the ride. By feeling the wind as we move through space and time, feeling our legs hit the ground, focusing our attention on each movement as we perform them, one will begin to get a manner of control of their life simply by being alive. It is so simple yet very powerful. In my experience, one swings back and forth between being fully in the moment to being caught up in goal orientation, but the more I pull myself back towards myself I feel a greater sense of peace and success, and, in the end, this is all that matters.
barefoot. I did these as cool down and as feeling runs. I was searching for a smooth ride and soft touch. All in all, this was a great training session on Thursday and I’m stoked to be doing what I love!
