Road fear, Sprockets & the Danish national trail ultrarunning team

I guess I have a lot of ground to cover if I am going to talk about all that! Let's see how succinct I can be...

1. Road Fear

I am afraid of racing on the road (as opposed to trails) because I always get injured, get a return of my SI joint dysfunction/piriformis tightness. Rather than looking at my painful experience at BT half marathon as a set-back, I am looking at it as a sign. I need to learn to run correctly. My body can not handle running so many fast miles on pavement with my default running form.

I land- bang, bang, bang on my heals. The shock is absorbed by my hips. The fact that I was wearing hard Vibram shoes at BT did not make this any better.

I thus once again am on the lookout for new running shoes. My coach says Books PureConnect are perfect for pose running on asphalt.

PureConnect forced into uncomfortable yoga position

Pose running looks like this. He is acutally not going to fall. But since he looks like he is, he is doing it right.

Watch the video here (seriously do it): http://vorespuls.dk/artikel/loeb-saadan-loeber-pose-running-0. I love this video, partly because it is so clear that it was filmed in Denmark. Not just the buildings, trees and gray sky give it away, but: would a guy in the US get away with filming something that looked like this? It reminds me of




If that video is not working, here is the link (enjoy): http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QHZR9SA5pOg

I had learnt the pose running form and then stopped practising. I just kind of got lazy after Fyr til Fyr. When learning to run correctly, you need to consciously think of your form all the time- and it is easy to forget and get lazy. It's about actively lifting your feet and feeling as though you are going to fall forward.

Well, now I am back at it and it is my #1 priority to run with a non-injurious running style, regardless of the time (though of course -whether you call it pose or chi - it is faster because you use the momentum of falling to move you ahead - or as purists would say, you don't put the brakes on yourself every time you land). And this means I will be signing up for some road races as an incentive to keep practising!

Want to know if your SI joint is subluxed? Try the Høeg squat test:


Are you knees at the same height? If not, you probably have SI joint problems. (this was the test I used to know I needed to go to the chiropractor). This is a very common problem for pregnant runners, by the way, and chiropractors have above a 90% success rate in pregnant women for fixing SI joint subluxation with just 2 treatments.

To help fix it for less money, you can loosen up your piriformis by having someone do this:


I have SR do this to me though I extend the knee. I find that more effective. I just couldn't find a picture of that, but you can also see Natti doing it to me in the video from two blog posts earlier)

2. This July in Wales, the IAU (International Association of Ultrarunners) is holding

the world championships in ultra trail running. I learned of this when I was listed as one of the women who should be sent to represent Denmark. A few hours of extreme bliss ensued until 1. someone pointed out that I wasn't a Danish citizen 2. Denmark decided not to send anyone anyway. 

Close but no cigar. I LOVE Wales. Or at least the idea of it. Have you see the movie Submarine?

Submarine- a love story in Whales. Nailed me quietly to the spot.

In just two weeks, SR and I will be doing the Mallorca ½ Ironman. I can hardly wait for this bike route! Oh my. Green, gorgeous moutains and the ocean

I am trying to get over the silliness: this is a Spanish island yet the default map is in German. I am thinking the number of German tourists has something to do with this.

Every once in a while IndieFeed Podcast has a really good song.