Phil Campbell's Sprint 8

There are so many days when I go out and run and realize that although my heart and lungs would like to speed on ahead much faster than my little sprints I enjoy, that the overall constitution of my feet and legs aren't quite ready for that burst of speed that I'd really like to take.

Running well, at least in my world, is to run like a child. When children run and play, they don't run solidly at a low to middle speed for hours with padded shoes. Our daughter and her friends run as fast as they can for short bursts with as little on their feet as they can get away with. When they stop running, they are thoroughly present, playing, imagining, looking and listening. Then they sprint again. I remember doing things like that as a kid.

Recently I received an interesting mailing from Mercola.com about a conditioning program called Peak 8 or Sprint 8 created by Phil Campbell. It's all about working the anaerobic muscles of the heart, as well as setting up the body to burn fat during rest. It encourages production of human growth hormone (or as Campbell describes it, "fitness hormone"). All of these happy things especially support middle-aged folks, like me and many people I know. When we reach the middle of our lives, our growth hormone production slows and it's harder to maintain fitness levels. According to Dr. Mercola this slow-down has a lot to do with increasingly sedentary lifestyles, and is completely avoidable.

As a barefoot runner who is always working on form and avoiding too-much-too-soon injuries, the Sprint 8 sounds like a nice way to work in between runs so that when it's time to put my feet down on the pavement, it's easier to maintain form without feeling the need to run too fast and hard - at least until my constitution is ready to run with that intensity...that's something I look forward to!

It's surprisingly simple. A person sets themselves up to sprint as fast as they can for eight 30-second periods, each followed by 90 seconds of rest. Campbell suggests a stationary recumbent bicycle. Now, if only I can get over my dislike of pedaling in place...

Here is a page about the program as well as two very informative videos.

Judith Aston's Bicycle Dance

Here she is...the lady who came up with the Aston technique, using ground reaction force to dance on a stationary bicycle! 

She does have her shoes on, but she's got a sense of the earth, even balancing with one hand on the handlebar and one foot on the pedal. 

Thoughts on flat feet

On the bus to the studio...

The tibialis posterior has been on my mind these days, although that could be said to be an irony, considering the distance between those two parts. I mentioned before that I struggled with flat feet much of my life. Whenever I restart running after a long break I inevitably strain the tissues around the posterior arch and up deep in the calf. After berating myself for not taking my own advice, I slow down for a while to strengthen that line.  The tibialis posterior supports the posterior arch. It extends deeply up the back of the lower leg, through a notch at the calcaneus, opening into a sort of supportive hammock for the arch. It makes connections up the deep line that includes leg adductors and inner unit. When it goes on strike, so does the core. Spotting a person with weak tib posteriors is easy. Look for ankle pronation, and slack inner leg line, possibly with nocked knees. The big giveaway is the inability to access the core when standing, especially in a person who can find it when seated, kneeling or lying down.

The bus ride to the new Body Gallery is almost done. Over and out...

Hills, shmils!

Another Sausalito run. This time I went up farther.


Same view as before...
Here it is again.

Here it is again, but a little higher up.

And a little higher!

I got almost all the way to the top, when my alarm went off to say that it was time to go back and get ready to go pick up our daughter at school. It was actually getting foggy up there. Here's a cool house I saw.

Here's a cute little street I found as I descended. That big flowering vine is all jasmine. It smelled amazing. Honestly, I'll put up with all kinds of hilly terrain if it means I get to smell jasmine on the way down. :) 

Sausalito Studio and a hilly run

For the last two weeks I've spent my Tuesdays taking clients at a tiny, beautiful studio in downtown Sausalito. It's a gorgeous situation. I spend my morning rushing my child and the rest of our carpool to school, packing lunches and stuffing my work supplies and whatever she needs for school into the car. Then I get to the studio a short drive away. I park up one of the twisty streets and walk down. As I walk I can feel my breath starting to return.

There's no sign, just a quiet stairway decked with flowers. 

Go up those stairs and you'll see a lovely rooftop porch with flowers and a nice place to sit and read or sip tea. 

There are other quiet businesses on the second floor as well. Turn right and there's an unmarked screen door that is always locked. I've so far asked my clients to call or text me so that I can let them in. Beyond that door is another one, this time brown and also unmarked.

Here it is... Cute, huh? -->

 Afterwards I took a run...I forgot one major detail, though. Sausalito is basically a series of steep hills and I'm on my second week of training from a three month break. I took it slow and let myself rest when necessary. I spent as short of a time as I could on Bridgeway with its constant crowds. I turned off towards the Bay and ran for a while along the path there and the parking lots. Not too pleasant, though. Too much construction, and did I mention that the way by the Bay is entirely made up of parking lots?

I turned off and started to go up for a while. Here I am, nearly at the top of one hill...whew.

Here's my foot and a nice view. <grin>

This is, believe it or not, about half way down the hill from the last image.

Pilates Developments

I forgot to mention that not only am I back at The Body Gallery, but I'm also teaching for most of the day on Tuesdays up in Sausalito at a sweet little private studio on Princess Street.

The Body Gallery will also be moving to 47 Kearny Street in November. More on that as it happens...

Returning to Running

I'm back. It feels good, but boy, what a rude awakening it is when you're able to pretty easily run for an hour or so barefoot or minimally shod and then stop running for three months, then the first time back I started to feel that telltale foot-slap after about 10 minutes or so. By foot-slap, I mean when my shock absorbers seem to fail and my feet slap down onto the ground - not a great thing to do when you're barefoot on concrete!

I've been taking it slow and gentle, resting whenever necessary and keeping it short. I actually started the week before I went to the doctor's, (yeah, I know-but I was tired of chewing the furniture,) so i've run about three times since then. My first run was about 5 minutes. For my last run I cut myself off at 30 minutes, still focusing on form and footfall, barely challenging my lungs. It's a bit frustrating, but I'll be much better off later. At least on that last run I felt a little more elastic. 

All in all, though, it's not as bad as I thought it would be. It took me about a year to get the conditioning in my legs and feet just to BE barefoot, then to walk and run. That didn't actually go away. I'm still able to run without pain, but I can sense that the strength in my legs is just not what it was. My center is stronger now that the umbilical hernia is repaired, even after only 3 months, so in some ways running is actually easier. 

Here's a picture from September 26th, pausing on one of those crosswalk inclines to get a little SFMTA-sourced reflexology. :) I love those things.