Jim Croce - You Don't Mess Around With Jim

I love my backyard!

5-4-12  5 Miles today, yeah!!!  I have been so scared to start running, afraid of getting hurt again.  Today I ran 5 miles, no pain.  The biggest discomfort I had was the heat.  I had to work and didn't get out to run until noon.  It was 85 degrees and sunny at that point.  I was only running 5 miles so I didn't take my hydration belt.  Mistake.  Five miles for me is one hour.  One hour in 85 degree sunny weather, means you ought to be taking a drink of water.  I was feeling pretty dehydrated by the time I finished.   Losing my spunk, so to speak.  But the good news is NO SHIN PAIN!

Top right image looks like
 how I strike my foot.

I went to the physical therapist this morning.  She videoed me running on the treadmill.  Here is what I learned.   First, I cross over my feet when I land.  The right foot crosses over a lot more than the left.  She said that it is pretty hard to change that and she doesn't think that is causing the shin problems.  Second, I strike totally on my heel when I land.  So what does that mean?   Well.. think about taking baby steps, you are walking or running pretty much flat footed.  Then, think about taking really long steps, as you reach your foot way out in front of you, your heel is the first thing to touch the ground.  That is what is meant by 'heel strike'.  Now, put your leg out in front of you and flex your foot backwards so that your toes are pointing towards your knee.  Feel how tight your shin muscle is.  When you run with a long stride, you strike more on your heel and your shin takes the brunt of the impact.  There you have it!  While looking at the video of me running (thankfully she targeted just below the butt, mostly legs) she could count how many steps I take per minute of running.  I am running with a cadence of 156 beats per minute.  Ideal is upwards of 180 beats per minute.  Net message is, shorter strides mean more steps per minute which means less of a strike on the heel, more of a flat footed strike, taking the impact off of the shin.  WOW, that is so counter intuitive to me.  I am a short person.  I have always been convinced that I am a slow runner because I have to work harder, take more steps to achieve the same distance as a taller person.  I always thought that I should be taking longer strides to gain more distance, thereby making me more equal with a tall person that naturally moves more distance per stride due to their longer legs.  Now I am all messed up!

Anyway, I worked with her on the treadmill running at the same pace but with more steps per minute.  She has an app on her phone that I used to keep time, called a metronome.  I asked her if that was similar to the metronome that is used on a piano to keep time.  She had no clue what that was.  But actually if you look for a metronome app on you iPhone, most of them will have a picture of the triangular metronome that you use with a piano.  (she must not have ever had piano lessons)  Anyway, it just click click clicks away and you step in time to that.  She told me there are play lists you can get that have the same cadence, will have to check that out.

I used to love Jim Croce and then had sort of forgotten about him for years.  Then, when Natalie was about 7 and Emma was about 5, Chris asked me to come to Hawaii and help him while Melissa went to France with her parents and sisters.  I jumped at the opportunity.  I got the girls off to school each day and then went to the beach, not a bad job for a week.  Chris played Jim Croce while I was there and so it always reminds me of my brother.  This song is just a classic Croce song.  (only second to Big Bad Leroy Brown)

Uptown got it's hustlers
The Bowery got it's bums
42nd Street got Big Jim Walker
He's a pool-shootin' son of a gun
Yeah, he big and dumb as a man can come
But he stronger than a country Ox
And when the bad folks all get together at night
You know they all call big Jim "Boss", just because
And they say

You don't tug on Superman's cape
You don't spit into the wind
You don't pull the mask off that old Lone Ranger
And you don't mess around with Jim

Well outta south Alabama came a country boy
He say I'm lookin' for a man named Jim
I am a pool-shootin' boy
My name is Willie McCoy
But down home they call me Slim
Yeah I'm lookin' for the king of 42nd Street
He drivin' a drop top Cadillac