{"id":5993,"date":"2016-06-29T16:04:02","date_gmt":"2016-06-29T22:04:02","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/?p=5993"},"modified":"2016-06-29T16:06:37","modified_gmt":"2016-06-29T22:06:37","slug":"podium-dreamin-and-fixing-my-running-form","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/adjustedreality.com\/blog\/2016\/06\/29\/podium-dreamin-and-fixing-my-running-form\/","title":{"rendered":"Podium Dreamin’ and Fixing My Running Form"},"content":{"rendered":"

If you take a look at me, especially in wet spandex, in high resolution, at some particularly unflattering angles, I’m not exactly the person you would size up and think about being on the podium.\u00a0 That’s for skinny, fit people with 8% bodyfat wearing extra small tri kits, right?<\/p>\n

\"Pfluger05\"<\/p>\n

Which, let’s face it, I am not.<\/em><\/p>\n

Well, I’ve proved that<\/a> theory<\/a> wrong<\/a> a few times with some podium action, but it’s the exception and definitely not the rule.\u00a0 And because I keep improving just a little bit at the short, local stuff each year, it’s starting to be in my grasp to be fighting for the top few spots in my AG if things go really well.\u00a0 It’s another avenue for motivation during a race besides just hitting HR\/pace\/power numbers, which is fun.<\/p>\n

\"Pfluger03\"<\/p>\n

I didn’t know it then, but 15 of the other 21 pink caps were behind me.<\/em><\/p>\n

Size is barely a limiter at all in the swim.\u00a0 Frankly, most triathletes that enter the local sprint tri not great swimmers.\u00a0 Because I have pretty good form and practice swimming (both open water and speedwork in the pool) a few times a week, I usually come out pretty close to the front of the pack for my age group.<\/p>\n

Cycling, I’ve clawed my way up the power to watt ratio with lots of specific work on how to hurt myself and like it over 1, 2, 5, 20+ minutes.\u00a0 It’s changed from my worst sport to generally the one I place the highest, even with my old, entry level road bike.\u00a0 This year, once I get the hang of my new Death Star, I have a feeling that I’ll be hanging on with the top ladies in my age group for said reasonably local-ish, smaller (and flatter) races.<\/p>\n

\"Pfluger07\"<\/p>\n

Thumbs up for doing all the passing and not much of the falling back.<\/em><\/p>\n

My transitions could use a little work sometimes, but I rarely get hit by gravity anymore.\u00a0 As the season goes on, I get more efficient, and I believe I’ve pared down to only things I really need.\u00a0 I could do the shoes on the bike trick and go without socks, but I’m not quite there yet.<\/p>\n

The run is where it all falls apart.\u00a0 I’m generally hanging on in a good spot after the bike, if things went well.\u00a0 I was fourth last race.\u00a0 If I had a good run, I could have tried to hunt down third place and voila! Podium!\u00a0 However, the ladies that are swimming and biking like me run 1-2 minutes faster per mile than I do.\u00a0 What happened instead – I was in fourth, I got passed once putting me in fifth, and I’m actually really surprised that I finished in fifth because my run was only ninth best.\u00a0 I just beat sixth, seventh, and eighth by enough on the swim, bike, and transitions, they ran out of room to catch me.<\/p>\n

\"Pfluger15\"<\/p>\n

Horns up because I earned my freezy pop!<\/em><\/p>\n

There are two paths to get my 5 seconds of fame at an awards ceremony.<\/p>\n

    \n
  1. Get so good at the swim and the bike that I’m coming off in first place, and hope I don’t get caught by more than 2 people in my age group on the run.<\/li>\n
  2. Try to improve my run so I could possibly, potentially, maybe actually run someone down off the bike instead of getting passed passed passed passed passed all the time.<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n

    While the first would be really cool in and of itself, I think that I need to find the missing link for the second and it’s not the obvious things.\u00a0 I’ve thrown volume at it, I’ve trained fast miles off the bike consistently, I’ve trained in the heat, there’s just something that’s not clicking on with my run in races.\u00a0 So it’s time to do some things that I haven’t done before in pursuit of a better run leg.<\/p>\n

    First…nail down a nutrition plan AND FOLLOW IT.<\/strong>\u00a0 I am NOTORIOUSLY horrible at this.\u00a0 I went into the run at Pflugerville on ~40 calories in the hatch (from the half bottle of Scratch I sucked down on the bike).\u00a0 I forgot how to eat on the bike and I am SO lucky I put an emergency gel in my handheld (who needs a gel on the run for 3 miles?\u00a0 …that would be me).\u00a0 The ONLY reason I did so well before that is I had remembered to eat some highly caffeinated chews about 1 hour before the race, and they were OBVIOUSLY wearing off the first half mile of the run.<\/p>\n

    Here are things I’m going to do:<\/p>\n