The other day I did the 'knee to wall test' and confirmed what I was already pretty sure of--I have tight ankles. The test is measuring your ability to bend your knee beyond your big toe without your heel leaving the ground. It's relevant to running although I'm not entirely sure how. I think it has something to do with where your landing and how efficiently you can transfer energy into your next stride. Something like that.
For about a week now I've been working on it and I've seen a big improvement! At that start my left knee could only get about 3 inches past my toe and my right knee was even worse--like 2.5 inches. Now I'm probably close to 4 inches with both knees. Standards vary but it seems like normal range of motion is somewhere between 5 and 6 inches.
I had the thought today that I've learned and applied more about running mechanics in the past year than I have in the previous 20 years of running. It's finding stuff like this that keeps running fun and interesting for me. I can't exactly explain it but my stride has felt smoother lately. Similar to when I started strengthening my hips.
I remember when running every day for 70 minutes was a new exciting experience and now after about 10 years--more or less--of that, the things that really motivate me are very basic mechanical changes. When they're effective they really make running feel new. You think you know your body and what it can do and then you change something and suddenly there's a lot more potential to be uncovered. So that's exciting.
In the same vein I'm really looking forward to acquiring some serious SPEED and EXPLOSIVE power after the 10 miler. Big day in a week! Should be fun. Hoping the weather is above 50 and not rainy. Fingers crossed.
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