B & E at the HS track

On Friday last week, I met my new Tri Coach at the N. Kingstown H.S. track for the first run workout. We met around 5:30pm, which was about 1 min after the track coach locks the gates to the Track and Field. I ran up to the Coach right as he was locking the gate and begged him to let me in. He non-chalantly pointed to a whole in the fence and told me we could wiggle through it...greeeaattt!! So after Coach and I shimmied through the fence, he explained the workout. I ran a mile to warm up at a low HR...but I was so excited and nervous that I couldn't keep it below 165 BPM. So after the mile warmup, he explained that I'd run another 8 laps at a 155 (+-5 beats) HR...he'd record each lap's time and I was in charge of keeping my HR at the predetermined zone. That proved to be harder than expected as I had to run 11 min. miles to keep it around 158. So after 3 miles ran and a few laps recorded on his camcorder he gave me the prognosis. I didn't bounce much (which is good), but I leaned forward too much. He also told me my run cadence was a little too slow. He said I needed to maintain a 90 RPM cadence cause it was more efficient and so it'd match a 90 RPM cadence coming off a bike ride (like in Triathlon).

The biggest nuget of advice he gave me was this...he told me to 'tuck my hips forward' and 'raise my chest' or as he called it, learning to 'run tall'. So I tried it on my next run (Tues for 8 miles). It helped open my gate, opened my lungs, and made me less tired...but it made my hips ache (I think I was using new muscles). I'll keep at it and hopefully become a better runner over the next year.