Week – In Depth Equipment Review: Shoes, Clothes, Hydration

1. Sign up for weekly news and information email list on the home page (you only need to do it once): This will be our primary way to contact you. Some spam blocking programs will put this email in your junk mail folder. Please check your junk mail folder if you do not receive emails from us.

2. Click on the link below and PRINT OUT your weekly Training Schedule:

Sole Runners Week 3 Full Training Schedule.pdf

3. Use the Training Schedule to take notes on how you felt that day. It will give you a guide as to how things are going; what’s working and what’s not.

4. Click on the link below and PRINT OUT and READ your weekly Study Guide:

Sole Runners Week 3 Study Guide.pdf

5. Get a notebook and keep your weekly training schedules and study guides in the notebook.

6. Join the Sole Runners community and start commenting. You can post stories, reports, ask questions and make friends.

Week 3 Article – by Coach Steve Mackel

Metronomes

The single tool that has improved my running the most is the metronome. That’s right a metronome, that thing that ticked-tocked on top of your piano, helping you keep in time or the rhythm. If you been to any of the Sole Runners’ Saturday training sessions, you have heard our beeping metronomes as we run by.

Why does a metronome make such a tremendous difference? Because the body craves rhythm and the metronome provides that steady rhythm. The book, ChiRunning® recommends a cadence of 170-180 footfalls per minute.  That’s 85-90 if you the two-count beat or 57-60 if you use the triplet beat.  No matter how you count it, today, that’s probably pretty fast for most of you.

You may ask, why can’t I run with an ipod? You can, but each song has a difference cadence.  So instead of running at a steady beat, you run at one cadence for 3-4 minutes and then a different cadence for the next 3-4 minutes — not the steady rhythm that the body wants.

The first benefit of running with a metronome is the shortening up your stride length. If you want to become a good ChiRunner you have to learn to run with short, quick, soft strides. They will lengthen out the back eventually, but let that come to you. Keep’em short in the early weeks. In fact, the best practice is to run with someone slower than you. If you have to slow down but still keep the cadence quick you learn how pick up your heels with loose ankles and then quickly set them down mid-foot.

I prefer the shorter, quicker, softer strides now. You’ll hear me say frequently the mathematical formula for speed is, Stride Length (SL) x Cadence (C) = Speed (S), but in ChiRunning® we recognize that math does not mean form. Danny Dreyer has his own formula for speed.  He says “Speed is a by-product of Form and Distance training.” Once you understand Danny’s formula you can incorporate the mathematical formula, and as your stride lengthens out the back, the faster you go.

I can’t go on without reminding you about lean. Speed comes from lean at the ankles, too. You’ll hear me say, “the body and mind always takes the path of least resistance.” Or sometimes “the body and mind go where they know.” So, once you learn to pick up your cadence, using a metronome, your body will start to adapt to that cadence.  As you practice, it will be easier for you to maintain the faster cadence it for longer periods of time and so you will be going faster.

If you have your own metronome you can work at different cadences. I ran almost exclusively at 87 during my first year ChiRunning®. Now I practice at different cadences within a range. I am adapting to all of them. I like to think I have a toolbox with different tools in so I pick the right cadence that day or in a situation. I have them all available on difference terrains or just to break things up and it has paid off big time in races and training.

So, if you want to go faster, over time, learn to run with a metronome but as a ChiRunner always go to back Danny’s formula for speed, Speed is a by-product of Form and Distance training. Slow down and work on your from with the metronome and let speed come to you.

I have metronomes for sale. The cost is $35 and you can get one right away.  You can look on-line to find them. The only one I recommend is the Seiko DM-50. You can also find them at ChiRunning.com for a little less, but you have to pay shipping. If you do order one from ChiRunning.com, please use the instructor drop down menu and highlight my name.

Train Focused!