Uptight and outta sight ain't so good for runners.

Pre-run stretching or meditation?
(Courtesy Tobyotter @ Flickr)

This past Monday was a long day with little to do but imbibe liquids and watch the hands of the clock move inexorably slow, obviously an excellent time to look over The Wharton's Stretch Book and figure out what gives. Though the text waxes motivational, getting all excited about doing stretching has pretty much been a 'not gonna happen' thing for me - so I'd typically forego or shortchange any stretching ritual I actually decided to try. Ergo: the problems I've been having with my legs since I took up running again.


After getting the reader pumped up and after asking for a 21-day commitment, the book covers the need to perform a self-evaluation, a sort of personal flexibility inventory, if you will - after which you'll know where the trouble spots are and where you can defer work. Depending on your sport(s) of choice, this stretching inventory could assess your flexibility through as many as 59 different routines - routines that isolate different muscles or muscle groups. The timelapserunner was relieved to read that marathon runners should focus primarily on but 30 of these! My goodness.

OK. So, we got out the full length mirror and the movable clock face that the book recommends you use during the range of motion evaluation. You might be asking yourself, "Why are these items necessary?" To determine range of motion, silly. Let's say that the resting position for a routine has your leg at 9 o'clock by the clock face, and requires you to move that leg upward as far as you can lift it without bending your knee. Say you reach a position midway between 10 and 11 o'clock, according to the clock face or estimated using the mirror to observer the position if necessary. We'll call it 10:30 (AM or PM doesn't matter). The charts and tables in the text indicate whether that's a poor range of motion (coded red), average range of motion (coded yellow), or elite range of motion (coded green). Guess what. You'd rather not be in the poor, or red range.

After marching through all 30 of these routines, looking at the clock, the mirror, and staring at the ceiling from time to time as well, the timelapserunner compiled the self-evaluation scores outlined in the extensive table below, giving up on the last seven or so routines in Zone 5, those which have to do with the feet. I just couldn't make sense of these, or I got tired of the activity - not sure which.

Though additional explanation might be in order, the bottom line is this: all the routines that focused on extension of the hamstrings and calf muscles (i.e., the gastrocnemius) gave range-of-motion results in the red range, indicating tight muscles in these areas. Duh! This should have come as no surprise. These muscles are chief actors in the running process and shorten with increasing running work. The more that the timelapserunner runs and fails to do proper stretching, the shorter these muscles become and the more limited their range of motion. Oh, and the more likely to experience injury in one of these areas.

Now we have the assessment. Next comes the plan of attack: a) we'll only work on the 14 areas in the red at this time, b) we'll review the videos for those 14 routines and make sure we understand how to do those routines properly, and finally, c) we'll start doing those 14 routines every morning before heading out for the daily workout.

We promise to do this for (at least) 21 days straight, beginning tomorrow, Thursday, July 28th.

TODAY'S WORKOUT: Three glorious miles of walking around the neighborhood. Average time: 16:01 per mile. No significant issues, other than the usual.

A final note: All the tests on Tuesday went well. This is good. Thank you, God.