In my youth I used to be a sprinter. I had a wonderful easy running style and whether on a track or on a muddy field in rugby boots, I was always very light on my feet.
I have long lamented the fact that the wheels have come off. 30 years older, a shopping list of injuries later and 3 stone heavier, the days of 11 second 100m times are nothing more than a distant memory of late.
The frustrating thing is I still have speed, but whenever I put it down my left leg falls to bits and I'm off my feet for weeks (if not months) at a time. Achilles damage, ankle instability from ankle ligament damage, calcified tendons, etc have all led me to compensate how I run for a few years now.
I was reminded of this after reading the books Born to Run and Born to Run 2. That running you should feel light and easy, not clunky and pain-ridden. I used to love running around as a kid. Racing people, playing Tag ('It' if you're in the UK), and it used to be so much fun.
These days it has been little more than a leaden-legged sped-up trudge. A fact that came crashing home in a couple of shit heavy runs (despite having a recovery week last week). I needed to change something, and I needed to get some of that youthful bounce back in my stride.
I was lamenting how heavy footed I've been feeling the last couple of weeks, and have just started to do something about it.
I was looking over my cadence for my long runs and it has been in the 150's (even 140's at time). Far too much ground contact and too little flight time. I've now started targeting high 170s-180 steps per minute for my easy jogging a couple of times a week. And I can feel exactly where the problem is.
During these last few days I also tried hopping with stiff legs... and the minute I did it on my problem leg (the left one) my achilles and ankle had nothing. It was almost impossible to bounce on that single leg. Problem: No strength or elasticity on that side... and it hurt... a lot. The issue has become crystal clear I could only get 2 straight leg hops on my left leg, before it refused any more. My heel barked at me, my achilles said nope, and my ankle decided it didn't want to play any more. No strength, no elasticity.
But a couple of days later I managed 4. Today I managed 8 and something has started to shift. The ankle started to feel just a tiny bit more flexible. The Achilles, while still sore, has just started to feel a little stronger and more elastic. In just a few days. Maybe I'm onto something.
I've now focused on a daily couple of minutes of bouncing, a few hops, one legged squats and have a slanted wobble strength board on order to build the strength in and around the ankle joint. My body is starting to respond.
All of which is designed to build back some of the bounce I had decades ago in order to get lighter on my feet once more.
When adding in the increased cadence I need to get the bounce as well. This has a problem though of presently raising my heart rate above the zone 2 area I'm training in. So it's a couple of minutes of bouncy quick jogging followed by 60 seconds of walking as my system is playing catch up and figuring out where it needs energy from. I'm hoping this will calm down a little over the coming weeks and can get back into a constant zone 2 groove while also being much lighter on my feet. Adapting to this will take time and a bucket load more strength training.
Strength takes time, and hoping that muscle memory (though from long ago) starts to kick in and build back what I need quicker than I would otherwise. But light and easy on my feet is the ambition here. I'm sure that time with contact on the ground is the issue with recurring injury issues, as well as the lack of deep functional strength in the left lower leg, and it feels like I'm onto something.
Time to work on that bounce...
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