Saturday, May 18, 2013

Perfecting Your Form

This was my last week of track practice before NWAACCS,
and that means one thing - tapering.

I don't know how other runners feel about tapering, 
but I feel like a caged animal.
And a little lazy. 

Low volume, high intensity. 
This is the "peaking" process in a nutshell. 

We run lower mileage and stay clear of the weight room, allowing our muscles to be fully recovered and full of glycogen so that we can have the best race of our season during championships. 

So track practice as of late hasn't been crazy difficult like normal. Instead, we have turned our attention to sharpening our speed, gaining a winning mentality, and focusing on little details - like form. 

Since I first began running competitively, 
my coaches have been telling me that I am a "hopper". 

Meaning that, if you watch me run,
 I tend to exert just as much energy vertically as I do horizontally. 

Like I literally have "a hop in my step". 

The problem is, you want to go forward - not up - when you are running fast. It is inefficient. And so my form can sometimes hold me back. 

To combat this, my current coach has been working with me on my form A LOT. On leg turn-over. On moving my legs forward instead up upward. 

Luckily, I have started to see improvement. 
And, though my form is far from perfect, it is getting better. 

Sometimes even the smallest details make a HUGE difference. 

Spiritually, it is easy to just try to "run the race" without focusing on little things like our spiritual form.

 But the Bible clearly says that we need to "strip off every weight that slows us down" (Hebrews 12:1) 
- And that means that paying attention to our spiritual form may be a good idea. 
And we don't have to work on our form all alone!

Jesus is our "coach", and he empowers us will the ability to "be perfect, as [our] heavenly Father is perfect".  Matthew 5:48


Tomorrow morning I leave for my track championships. All of the hard work, practice, and attention to form that I have put in this season will come down to just three races.It is time to perform. 
And that's a lot of pressure. 

I only have one chance. 
And we only have one life. 

1 Corinthians 9:24 says "Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one gets the prize? Run in such a way as to get the prize."

I want to run to win. 


No comments:

Post a Comment