Twin Cities Runners Help me Find a Running Store Please (Read 1200 times)

Lauren: I was just thinking actually.... One way to strengthen your legs could be doing some easy hill exercises like bounding and springing. Afterall, Arthur Lydiard used to always said; "(in order to be a good runer) You've got to be bouncy and springy like a ballet dancer..." So you've already got a distinct advantage! Go to a golf course or a nice grassy park and find some nice easy gradual hill of about 30~50m. If you can handle wearing some minimalist shoes like some racing flats; I think Mizuno got some good racing flats; NB, if your feet are more or less straight, has some very good racing flats; adidas' adiZero series are pretty good; Nike's Katana Racers are good; and, of course, my favorites right now are ASICS' HyperSpeed (besides their Japanese flats! ;o)). This is because, especially over the uneven grassy area, if you wear shoes that's too thick, the sole is not going to take away twistings and turning. Once again, the closer you are to the ground, the more stable you will be. This is particularly true when you run around uneven cross country terrains. Anyways, after good 15-minutes warm-up, go over the hill with a bouncy exeggerated technique. Go up high with good back-leg extension and good flexing with your ankle (this is where your being a ballet dancer would come handy). Don't run "sitting in a bucket". Go up high, high, high, bounce, bounce, bounce...taking short steps (a foot or two in length) with a slow forward momentum... The slower your forward momentum is, the more resistance you'd feel in your legs and you'll get a better result. Don't overdo it at first. Just 10~15 minutes TOTAL would be good enough. Total, I mean, bound up the hill; jog around till your legs recover; maybe you want to stride down fast; or maybe you just want to go down easy... But going up and down like this on a soft terrain would work your legs, particularly your ankles and shin/calves to the extreme flexion and extention...and strengthen your lower legs and feet in a very natural way. Okay, I didn't mean to promote my webiste but you can watch the actual demonstration at: http://www.lydiardfoundation.org/training/hilltrainingdvd.html

Lauren We have some similiar struggles. I used to have strong feet from kickboxing, and now have to do the towel pulls. If I don't I can feel it. I also struggle with posterior tibial tendonities. Nobby, It's cold, but you can tell me it's "Crisp and Refreshing" all you want. Will you run the Irish for a Day race? You almost got me convinced to buy a pair of those Japanese shoes. I tried the Brooks Radius but felt they didn't have enough cushioning; my knees hurt. Thoughts? I think I only slighly over-pronate and is not the real cause of my strain. After I toe off my foot is wabbly and it wiggles my ankle. I am running with more focus on this now, keeping my foot stable, and it's a significant change. The tightness I'd feel occassionally in the middle of the inside of my lower leg stopped. Doc says I should do balance exercises, I am now. Any other ideas to improve my wabbly feet? Does the hill bounding help that too?

Bugs: Did I say "crisp and refreshing"? If I did, my mistake. It was FLIPPING cold! I haven't decided whether to run St. Paddy's or not. I'm heading for Japan for a clinic tour the following Friday and I kind of want to run back-to-back 2-hour runs (yeah, another crazy idea...) with my runner that weekend. I will not necessarily make a connection for not enough cushioning=knee pain. In fact, sometime too much cushioning may cause some problems. For one, you may think you have plenty of cushioning and may feel okay to land hard on your heel...??? Do you? I'm a firm believer that the landing shock should be aleviated with your running form; not with your shoes. In other words, if you miss out to teach yourself how to run feather-light, you may never be satisfied with 3-inch-EVA or whatever the material might be. I'm not quite sure what you're talking about in terms of "wabbly" and "wiggly" (piggly?) feel in your ankle but I think you've got the right idea that, if your ankle and/or lower leg muscles are weak, that might cause some problems. I believe hill bounding/springing exercises would help particularly done on soft surface. Wear spikeless spike shoes (XC shoes) if you can; this would stretch your Achilles even further. Once again, if you wear shoes with thick rigid mid sole over such a soft terrain, you'll have all the problems in the world because they just don't "conform" the unevenness of the surface. You should be able to pick up your shoes and twist around and bend it up and down easily particularly the ones you would wear doing these exercises on soft uneven ground. I've been studying some sprinting exercises from Japan. One of the basic exercises is to stand on your one foot and lift the other knee up and down. I could see the guy's ankle going side to side, trying to hold the balance. A simple exercise like this, I believe, could go a long way. You can stand on a grassy field on one foot and do this knee lift for, say, 15~20 times each leg. Do this twice or three sets; that can be testing. What this also teaches you is the feeling of "pushing the ground" (with the other leg). I think, by looking at slower runners, far too many people are more concerned with bringing the leg forward. Consequently they set out to run "sitting in a bucket". You should learn to get the center of gravity slightly forward and push the ground back. Incidentally, if you wear shoes with very thick heel; natural tendency is that (because of the high heel effect), your upper body will lean backward from the center of gravity to compensate the heel lift. In fact we have a special shoe with very low heel to teach this correct posture (sorry, not available in the US!).

Nobby! Yes it's stinkin cold. By wabbly I meant; I toe off, my knee goes to the outside a little, my foot goes in towards my standing calf, and then my foot lands on my mid-foot, foot actually lands straight from what I can tell. So now I am trying to keep my foot and ankle stable in-between toe off and landing. I suspect I am "sitting in the bucket". (Had to google that to understand.) Really could use someone who knows their ducks to tell me what I'm doing. For fun, I tried running just a little barefoot on TM. I see what you mean about stretching achillis and keeping feet stable by being closer to the ground. I went to the store today. All the shoes are built up in the heel. I compared the Asics DS Trainer that I had from 3 years ago and it is a good 1/4" or more thicker in the heel. AKTrail Thank You! I will try those. Since I know my ankles just went through injury, I suspect they are very weak and need to be strengthened. I used to do the FIRM aerobics for XTing on a slanted exercise step box. You bound up the step with one foot, step to the side with the other, and seems similiar to hill bounding without the impact. Maybe this would be good alternative until their is a green grassy hill available.

Hi all I am Lisa, in Minnesota as well. It's nice to see who else is in the same state.

I ran a 5k around Harriet yesterday. It already is that nice out, 31 at 9:00am today.

Nobby, Crap, I did not make it to Marathon Sports again due to broken furnace and needing to keep the wood fireplace going. Thank you for your kindness. My foot does not hit my calf. My shoes hit each other on the side of shoes sometimes. I thought maybe my perional tibia tendonites was partially caused by having a floppy foot after toe off. After toe off it seems to flop sometimes to the left, a little to the right. Maybe it is nothing out of ordinary. Maybe just weak ankles. Doc suggested going to Mankato Sports Instituite to have my form critiqued, but I think I'll give it some more time. I only did the barefoot running once, just to get a feel for the difference in the calf and achillis. Hope you had good runs this weekend. It's a bit windy.

I finally got to Marathon Sports. It is a nice small store. They said exactly what I knew, slight overpronator, and should be in a stability shoe. I warmed up the CC there (not that it ever gets to rest anyway.). Nobby, running around the lake in that area was completely lovely, much nicer than anything in Mankato.

Bugs: Enjoying running in the slush? ;o) A nice small store!? They had expanded!!! ;o) It has been so hectic and I completely forgotten about St. Paddy's Race! My trip to Boulder got cancelled but I'm heading for Japan in 2 days. I took my daughter to the Stepping Stone theatre Sunday off Grand Avenue and saw a bunch of people running and thought about you! A bit late but never late than never, right? ;o) We are starting Beginning Women's Running Class first Wednesday in April. We'll be getting together one Saturday morning at Marathon Sports and jog around the lake; then Marathon Sports will provide a mini equipment clinic with coffee and bagles. They're nice guys. Wanna join us? It's going to be on 4/12 @ 9AM.