There is definitely much to be said for more all-around fitness, not just running.  Though at this point I'd settle for just running ...

Ok, stretching update:  it's much easier for me to hold a 3-minute stretch if I remember to grab my phone beforehand so that I can play solitaire and distract my brain.

 

 

first 2 minutes are ok - it's the 3rd where I want to scream.

wed & thurs done.....later tonight for day 3

 

Also, I did find a hip flexor stretch that I can actually do, though I'm not convinced that I'm stretching my hip flexors exactly. 

Did you see this thread?

LTH linked an article not too long ago which was against stretching. Or rather, anti-static stretching. Dynamic stretching was ok, according to the article. It was in RW that he posted his link, I don't remember seeing it here, but maybe he did.

This one?  Linky

(I do dynamic warm up before running, but static stretching after...)

Link

 

I don't know if it's the one, I didn't click on the link (but please don't tell Brad that ). Brad had a theory that seemed sort of logical about being very flexible goes against being an efficient runner. I wish he explained it here. I can't remember now. I'll look for the thread in RW and link it here.

There is certainly a reason to not be too flexible - and that stretching for the sake of stretching without reason can also be problematic, but when inflexibility alters running gait, then I think it's warranted.  But like anything, I'm sure there are conflicting ideas out there!

All I know is that I went the first three years of running without stretching much at all and I have yet to make it through a whole season uninjured.  Can't hurt to try something else lol

 

I don't know if it's the one, I didn't click on the link (but please don't tell Brad that ). Brad had a theory that seemed sort of logical about being very flexible goes against being an efficient runner. I wish he explained it here. I can't remember now. I'll look for the thread in RW and link it here.

But there's a tremendous difference between being very flexible (which doesn't help, really) and being so tight that you lack the necessary mobility to run efficiently.  The clinic dude says (for example) that if you can do a hamstring stretch and get to 70 degrees, that's plenty.  Unless you're doing steeplechase or hurdles, you don't need any more.  But I have about 30 degrees, which is not enough freedom of movement not to cause me to compensate in weird ways which eventually cause me pain.  And that's just the hamstrings!

Plus, in all honesty, if I'm weighing LTH's advice against a guy running a running diagnostic center at a major university, seeing hundreds of runners per year, giving seminars and writing papers in peer-reviewed journals, I am not going with LTH.  He's a smart guy and a good runner, but he's also an experiment of one, and he doesn't run for a living.  Fixing runners is Jay Dicharry's life work.