A Change of Pace

As the title suggests, this post is about change(s) ... apparently, I've changed the frequency of my posting, despite repeated attempts to the contrary. It seems that 10 days have gone by now since the last post - I started off trying to post daily so that I wouldn't end up posting "opus-length" entries. Oh well ... I'll try not to overdo it for today.

Yesterday afternoon, I paid a visit to Frontrunner's to look at some new shoes. I have been a die-hard Adidas runner for the last couple of years, and have happily purchased at least 5 or 6 pairs of the same shoe - the Adistar Cushion. As shoe companies do, every year they launch a new line, and if you're lucky, they won't mess with your particular fav footwear. Alas, my lucky streak has come to an unfortunate end - Adidas has re-worked the Adistar, and based on yesterday afternoon's test ride, it appears that I'm going to have to find a new shoe. Adidas has, in their infinite wisdom, split the heel portion of the sole into 2 parts, giving the shoe a much different feel on the street, IMHO. I would love to post a link to the shoe, but the best I can give you is the Adidas Home Page and wish you luck - my best efforts to find information about the shoe resulted in some decent photographs, complete with German text! Good luck!

One good thing that came out of my visit to the store was that I had a chance to sit down and chat with Jim Finlayson about the shoes, and more importantly, about training methods. I have always tended to train at a pace closely resembling my marathon race pace(4'30"- 4'45" per km), relying heavily on the excuse that I couldn't run much slower without altering the mechanics of my gait. Jim patiently explained that I could run slower without changing my mechanics by maintaining the cadence of my run while shortening the stride length. This is an entirely new concept for yours truly. I tried it today, and was quite stunned with the results. I ran for just over an hour, averaging a positively slothful pace of 5'30"! The bonus?? A mere 138 bpm average heart rate - easily the lowest (by about 10 bpm) average HR I've posted for any workout I've done since (at least) the beginning of this year, and the lowest ever for a running workout longer than an hour in length. The theory is that training at a low(er) average HR helps the body to become more aerobically efficient at that lower heart rate, resulting, over time, in increased aerobic capacity, and the ability to run faster while staying in the aerobic "zone". Given that running a marathon is supposed to be an aerobic event, it would only make sense to try to become as efficient as possible at aerobic running! I know this sounds like a truism, but when I reviewed my training records leading up to the 2006 Royal Victoria Marathon, I found that I spent approximately 68% of all my training time above 90% of my maximum heart rate. In other words, I spent two thirds of the time running anaerobically (muscles working without oxygen) while training for an aerobic event! No the wonder that I didn't fare so well in that race! If you like, go check out the results <-- take particular note of the difference between the 1/2 way split and my finish time. Over the next few weeks, I plan on continuing to put Jim's good advice to use. If only I could find a new pair of shoes...