On running forms

“If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”   I get a selective amnesia in recalling things learned from workshops and seminars so what usually stick in my head are a few catchy remarks I find relevant to my personal situation.  Call me egotistic, and just who isn’t anyway.  Hahaha.   From the Running Aid 3 clinic at ROX about three weeks ago, it’s one of those lines a doctor-speaker repeatedly uttered that stuck to my head:  “If it’s not broken, don’t fix it.”    And he’d often say it while critiquing, rather politely, on people’s running forms.

 

My running form is far from perfect;  in fact, it probably is so bad that my friends comment on it even without my asking. 

>  The ‘Hippy Form’:   Defined as ‘running with catchy but unintended hip sways that can be potently distracting, enough to slow down possible opponents’   (at least that’s how my friends put it)

   Look, I am not at all happy about it :  highlight on UNINTENDED.   Am not even aware that’s how I run!  Bwisit!  Ayoko kaya ng ganyan!   So, yep, I’ve been trying so hard to be consciously controlling the hip sways.  But during races, I couldn’t care less about my form as I have enough worries to attend to -  and on top of it is how to stay running and keep myself from walking.

 >  The ‘Weird Right Foot Stride’ :  And again, they all agree my right leg moves weirdly.  First, Maricel (my althlete friend who’s a staple winner in races)  commented on this when she saw me running in ULTRA.  She said, “alam mo, okey yung kaliwa mo diretso ang landing nya sa ground, pero yung KANAN, parang lumiliko, basta hindi diretso ang bagsak… dapat diretso lang…”    Surprised at the comment, I just said, “Ahhh… Talaga?…”  That’s when I first became aware of it.  

Then in Clark, when my officemates saw me run, they said there’s some “arte” effect in my running and that my right leg does the “arte” thing -  that it’s too “pa-girl”.    I, being aware of it already, told them it’s a defect I need to solve.  And one of them replies, ” Ah talaga?!  Akala ko ganun talaga dapat, ‘kala ko technique yun!”   NGEKS!  It’s not a technique okay – it’s a DEFECT.  Ahahaha!   During my birthday run-and-eat celeb, the MPG runners verified it.  My right foot is weird.  FINE THEN, it is.  Now you guys tell me how to fix it.  Hmp.

Then again, I wonder if I’m broken – if my running form is – and if I needed the ‘fixing’.  The thing is, I’ve been running regularly and I feel strong, I’ve trained for and successfully finished my first two 10K races injury-free (now I’m not really sure if people should be injured in running just 10K distances, hehehehe!), and I don’t feel weird pains after doing long runs (or are my runs isn’t really ‘long’ in the first place?… owww).

Anyway, I think I need ‘fixing’ because I’m darn SLOW (!) I couldn’t even do a sub-75 minutes for 10K runs.  Gee, I have such bad time record in races I shouldn’t even be writing about it.  Sheesh.

Running shoes and High-heeled shoes.

I just discovered today one of my strange quirks as a newbie runner.

I am a very feminine runner. 

After coming from a practice run and parking my running shoes, I would decide to wear a high-heeled shoes to work.  I would feel a strange assertion of my femininity after sweating it out on the street trying to mimic the strength of a man’s legs while armed with that boyish running shoes.   

Today, I had my first ever weekday morning run in UP (on weekdays, I usually run late nights).  Now, I am wearing high-heeled sandals to work.  The tito and tita in the boarding house could not help but air their side-comments, seeing me already tall but still wearing tall shoes.  Tito said, “Alam mo malaki din ang kita sa pagmo-model, subukan mo nga…”  And Tita seconded, “Oo nga, yung mga ganyan kapayat, di ba dapat model?”

I didn’t react anymore.  I don’t know how to reply to that.  ;D  Sige na nga, model na lang ng high-heeled running shoes?  Wahahahaha!