Medium-long run. 8:35 am, 18-27°F, 39-21% humidity, wind 3 ESE, sunny. My training plan said 11 miles today and 13 miles tomorrow, but I switched them because I have more time today than I do tomorrow on account of the holiday. This was just an ordinary run. I tried to keep the pace fairly easy but not too slow. There was some snow in spots from yesterday's storm, but it wasn't too bad. I ran my home-work loop, which is hilly, and then the better part of my normal 6-mile loop the opposite direction from how I usually run it. AP: 9:17. Splits: 9:55, 9:36, 9:31, 9:31, 9:37, 9:25, 9:06, 9:07, 8:55, 9:08, 9:01, 8:59, 8:49, 0.12 @ 8:55. OK, boys and girls, this weeks proprioceptive cue is Navel to Spine. Here is the description from Brain training for Runners by Matt Fitzgerald: "Concentrate on pulling your belly button inward toward your spine while running. Using this cue will activate the deep abdominal muscles that serve as important stabilizers of the pelvis and lower spine during running. In runners who do not properly contract the deep abdominals during running, the pelvis tilts forward excessively as the thigh pulls backward during the thrust phase. When the deep abs are kept tight, most of the force generated by the buttocks and hamstrings is transferred to the ground, hence into forward movement. But when the deep abs are not kept tight, some of the force generated by the buttocks and hamstrings is wasted in stretching the deep abs, causing the pelvis to tip forward, and consequently never reaches the ground." He warms that this proprioceptive cue requires a lot of concentration to sustain throughout a run. I can't say that I focused on it for the entire run, but I tried to bring my thoughts back to it whenever they wandered.
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