Thursday thoughts: ZOOMA, More ZOOMA & New Shoes

  1. ZOOMA logo_capecod                              ZOOMA Cape Cod will once again be held in September in Falmouth — I love the Cape in the fall and am very psyched to be a race ambassador again. So grab your BRFs and join me for a great girls’ getaway race weekend. Use code CCAMB2 to save 10% off the registration fee for the half marathon or the 10K. My friend E and I had a great time last year – can’t wait to go back!
  2. And speaking of ZOOMA, I’m happy to announce that for the next 4 months (between now and the Cape race), I’ll be working as their Social Media Coordinator! I love ZOOMA’s mission to inspire women to lead happy, healthy and active lifestyles and I’m very happy to be part of this great team!
  3. Newtons These lovelies showed up at my door recently. The great folks at Newton Running contacted me a couple of weeks ago to invite me to attend one of their Natural Form Running Clinics being held during Marathon Weekend.  I  was invited to attend one of their clinics last year as well – you can read about it HERE. While I couldn’t work my schedule out to go this time around, I was sent this pair of Distance Neutral Performance Trainers to try out! I may take them out on the track today – full review to come.

 If you’re in the Boston area on Friday or Saturday, head to the Charles River at the corner of Memorial Drive and Massachusetts Ave and look for the green Newton Running tent. Clinics begin at 8 a.m

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Natural Form Running Clinic Notes

Last Friday, I attended a Natural Form Running Clinic hosted by Newton Running.

I met up with the Newton guys, was given a pair of Newton Light Weight Universal Trainers to put on and after quick introductions, we were off on a quick run over to the Boston Commons for our clinic. Led by Michael, we went through proper posture (head up, core engaged, “athletic positioning” of flexed ankle and flexed knee, arms at a 90-degree angle), the benefits of midfoot/forefoot strike (cushion and energy return) and quick cadence (ideally 180 steps per minute). We did a couple of exercises to get a feel for a quicker cadence and to work on the forward lean, leaning from your ankles (visualize leading with your sternum).

Then we were off for a run around the Commons. Since there were only two of us in the clinic, Michael was able to watch each of us closely and provide lots of feedback. We covered uphill, down hill and flat surfaces so we could feel the difference in the lean and learning to “flow forward with gravity.” Using his iPad, Michael then video taped each of us and then show us the areas we need to work on. For me, increasing my cadence will help to take better advantage of the elastic recoil in my lower leg muscles; also need to lean forward just a bit more to make sure I’m not sinking back on the heal when I land. I was happy to hear that overall my form looked good and I was definitely moving in the right direction! Michael then took us through a couple of post-run exercises to help re-enforce proper foot placement/landing and the mechanics of the leg rotation. He emphasized the benefit of doing these exercises at the end of every run to help build muscle memory.

When I got the invitation to attend the clinic, I went, in part, to see how their approach might differ from Chi Running. I actually found them to be very similar, though I did think with in this clinic there was a greater emphasis on the bio-mechanics of developing the proper foot strike. This may be in part due to their claim that Newtons are the only shoe on the market that will help you develop proper midfoot strike so they have more of a focus here. Also, given that I’d been through a Chi Running clinic and had a better understanding of the overall approach, I could now geek out on the details a bit more. (Quick aside: Running in the Newtons definitely felt different and piqued my interest regarding the role they could play in helping my form, but honestly that $175 price tag puts them out of my range for now).

Overall I thought it was a great clinic – the crew from Newton were a lot of fun and I definitely picked up some new tips to incorporate into my running! Thanks again to Newton for inviting me!

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Thursday Thoughts plus a Winner

My brain is a bit mush right now….so if you continue reading, just remember you were warned!

Playing race director has me ready to pull my hair out! Managing the logistics isn’t too bad, but securing donors and sponsors…well let’s just say I’d rather walk over hot coals than ask people for money. I am grateful for the team I have assembled to work with me on this event otherwise I’d be WAY over the ledge by now.

Running with my boys last weekend was so much fun and the best part was they really enjoyed it and have talked about going again. Hopefully we get some a little running in while they’re home on April vacation week next week.

Hills are hard….that’s all.

I was invited by Newton Running to attend one of their Natural Form Running Clinics taking place in Boston as part of the pre-marathon events. They’ve teamed with my favorite local running store Marathon Sports to host these sessions to help runners learn how natural form running can improve speed, efficiency and, hopefully, reduce chances of injury. I’m interested to see how this approach differs from Chi Running – so tomorrow morning I will be up bright and early running along the Charles River and soaking in some knowledge from the Newton experts!

Giveaway Winners!

Thanks to Random.org the two winners of the ProFoot Insoles are:

Christy from The Buhrs and Dai from Lazy Punch

Please email me at runningwithattitude (at) yahoo.com so I can get you hooked up with ProFoot.

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