I need brain training for my endurance training
Oh yeah, just after starting the walk/jog thing, I developed a weird lump on the back of my achilles tendon. At first I thought it was maybe just irritation from crappy shoes, but then I got some better ones and it still kept coming and going, along with residual tendon pain. We eventually figured out that it was an odd-looking form of tendonitis, but not why. Nor could we figure out why I can speed-walk for literally hours, but break me into a jog for more than a minute and I start heaving uncontrollably. Thought at first it might be heat, or humidity, or dehydration, or not being used to core impact, but the difference was so sudden and vast it was just plain weird.
Today we think we figured out the culprit: I've inadvertently trained myself to not be able to endurance run.
Basically, my exercise experience in the past has been martial arts, and sprinting. These both have something in common: when you need to move fast, you have to get up on the balls of your feet. When you need to brace/stop/otherwise make sure you DO NOT MOVE, you drop your heels. This is trained into you until it's complete subconscious instinct.
2 + 2 = D'OH!
So yeah, today Fox noticed that apparently my body's instinctive reaction to my conscious brain saying "OK, jog" is to take the leg/foot position and stride length of sprinting and slow it down to about 1/5 speed. As you can imagine, this is inefficient as hell and drains your energy like whoa, awkward & straining to the muscles and tendons, and treats your internal organs like you're riding a trotting pony on top of a washing machine during spin cycle. No wonder I've been horfing.
But now that we know the problem, Fox and I can both work on making sure that I actually land on my heels and take long running strides instead of angled sprint-bites. Hopefully this will appease both the tendon and my stomach in the near future.
Today we think we figured out the culprit: I've inadvertently trained myself to not be able to endurance run.
Basically, my exercise experience in the past has been martial arts, and sprinting. These both have something in common: when you need to move fast, you have to get up on the balls of your feet. When you need to brace/stop/otherwise make sure you DO NOT MOVE, you drop your heels. This is trained into you until it's complete subconscious instinct.
2 + 2 = D'OH!
So yeah, today Fox noticed that apparently my body's instinctive reaction to my conscious brain saying "OK, jog" is to take the leg/foot position and stride length of sprinting and slow it down to about 1/5 speed. As you can imagine, this is inefficient as hell and drains your energy like whoa, awkward & straining to the muscles and tendons, and treats your internal organs like you're riding a trotting pony on top of a washing machine during spin cycle. No wonder I've been horfing.
But now that we know the problem, Fox and I can both work on making sure that I actually land on my heels and take long running strides instead of angled sprint-bites. Hopefully this will appease both the tendon and my stomach in the near future.