Over the summer I was appointed to the Governor McAuliffe's Joint Advisory Board of Economists (JABE). We had our fall meeting October 15th in Richmond. What we discussed in the meeting is confidential, but I can share non-confidential items. JABE meets each October. In this meeting, each member of the Board presents their take on the current/future US/Virginia economy. The comments are discussed and used to set the state budget. Pretty big stuff. This year we met in the Patrick Henry Building in downtown Richmond. Once we were settled we were told that the Governor was going to give a press conference mid-day and that we would break our meeting to hear it. His comments can be found here. Governor McAuliffe joined us after the press conference for a few minutes. After he departed we resumed our closed session meeting until around 1:00 pm.
I left Richmond for Wilmington in a downpour, but made it safely to the River City by dinner. Thursday morning I attended my first Without Limits track practice since June. Not only did I attend, but I was able to do the scheduled workout, albeit at a pace appropriate for getting back into the swing of things. We were given progressive mile repeats on the track starting at 7:00/mile and cutting down 5-10 seconds per mile each repeat. Most people did five, but I was told to only do three. Our paces for the first two were 6:52, 6:45. Coach Tom told me that I could push the third one, but not much faster then the fastest pace of my progressive run the week before (6:20s). He of course added "Don't try to impress me yet"... a Tom Clifford regular. I ran perfectly even splits for a 6:10 without totally gassing myself. Success! After the workout we did strength training with weights and resistance bands.
During this post-surgery phase Coach Tom wants me to work on my form. There are three major issues that I am going to address.
1) I lean back, sit in a bucket. I need to run tall and keep my hips tucked in. Currently my drive phase is being minimized. If I run tall and over my hips I will drive forward and not apply the brakes with each step.
2) My right arm flies out to the side. I need to keep both arms tucked in. I am wasting a lot of energy and not prompting my knees to lift with my arm swing.
3) My torso rotates too much. I am expending a lot of energy twisting up top. I need to keep my upper body "quiet". Doing so will also promote the forward drive that I am hoping to accomplish in fixing problems 1 and 2.
Coach Tom showed me a slow motion video of the Boston 2013 elite woman at mile 24. Their from, especially Shalane Flanagan's, is on point. You can see the video with Flanagan here and a great article on running form analysis here.
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| Perfect form...at mile 24! |
The rest of my Fall Break will be spent working on a research project (draft due at the end of the month), catching up with friends and family, and getting in miles in the pool and road.
A summary of my training since the last post is below:
Week #5
Four runs including a 20:00 run Wednesday with the last 10:00 progressive (I got down to the 620s thanks to the help of RVE teammates Steve and Ed), a total of two hours and fifteen minutes of running for the week; 23,050 yards including huge personal bests in the timed 1000 (15:55 vs. 16:58 from three weeks before) and 500 (7:29 vs. 7:54 from three weeks ago).
Week #6 (current)
On pace for five runs including the mile repeats on Thursday and an hour on Sunday for a total of three hours of running for the week; 23,150 yards in the pool including a break through on repeat 100s Tuesday (main set: 10 x 100 on 1:50 to be under 1:30, I went 1:26; 5 x 100 on 1:50 to be under 1:25, I went 1:18, 1:19, 1:19, 1:20, 1:21). For experienced swimmers this looks slow, but for me it was HUGE!! I hoping for some PRs in my swim meet next weekend.
Keep setting your goals high,
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