I think the vibrams/landing on the balls of your heels idea is probably wrong. The main way one keeps their knees good while running is by having the hamstrings contracted a bit at the moment of landing. This keeps the knee joint in its tracking. Similar to how leg extensions are potentially bad for the knee joints because the lack of weight bearing can get the knee joint out of its tracking, but this can be remedied by simply contracting the hamstrings a bit while doing this exercise.

Furthermore, if one lands on their heels while keeping the muscles on the front side of the lower leg contracted, there is some cushioning also. Remember what the skeletal structure of the foot actually looks like. By landing on either the heel or the foot, but not right in the middle, there is some cushioning effect as long as the opposing muscle is working.

With landing on the ball of the foot though, it's a bit harder to have the hamstring contracted at landing, and there's just this bit of a braking motion which is hard on the knees as opposed to naturally rolling from the foot's heel to the foot's ball.

Yet, vibrams are so popular these days. So what do I know? Oh well.

...

Bill Toomey, the 1968 Olympic Decathlon Champion from the United States, made video tapes of 100 champion runners in Montreal in 1976 in order to evaluate their technique. It is common-sense to assume that the best athletes in the world (those who consistently place highly in major championships) share common technical traits. All of the athletes filmed by Toomey used the same basic technique - the same technique I use, and teach to my athletes. The athletes filmed by Toomey all landed on the forefoot. None of the 100 landed heel-first!

http://www.scribd.com/doc/18228/Gordon-Piries-Running-Fast-and-Injury-Free-ultimate-edition-240307
Not much actually.

Quarters: 1:35, 1:26, 1:27, 1:28, 1:34, 1:40, 1:36, 1:38. Average of 1:33.
:(
But bad pacing. Also a couple days of insomnia on Friday and Saturday night that I'm still feeling from some heavy upper body lifting related to yard work. Either have to lift heavy every day, or when I occasionally have to I get insomnia. I'm guessing the increased blood pressure causes issues perhaps with my bicuspid aortic valve. Not an issue with legs because they're getting plenty of increased blood pressure daily from at least walking...??

Then half miles: 1:51, 1:58. Very tired today.

Still an improvement of a second, and the pacing was really bad. And I had insomnia. And I had to go five days between because of work.

Quarters (still just every 5 minutes): 1:32, 1:26, 1:32, 1:32, 1:35, 1:38, 1:38, 1:38
Average of 1:34.
And then half a mile in 3:50.

Nice improvement but probably shouldn't do quarters on consecutive runs. Mentally not so fun... Knees slowly getting better, think the extra muscle from running faster is helping. Also running faster I think may be just easier on the knees as one must be smoother.

Ran quarters today at the track.
1:36, 1:34, 1:29, 1:30, 1:36, 1:44, 1:42, 1:43.
Didn't feel too hard... Thought about doing a bit more but that was enough for Bannister... Will attempt to alternate this with doing at least four miles, in half mile or mile intervals... I think.

Last quarters I did 6 at an average of 1:38. This one was 8 at an average of 1:36.75 But I felt like I was really taking it kind of easy at the end. Also was a heavy wind.

I think I like string quartets best generally. Definitely better than full orchestras, although concertos can be really nice. But then the best thing I ever saw was just 5 cellos/bass violins, as violins usually get a bit skreetchy after a while.

Trying to do a really good virtual string quartet piece would either require a ton of CPU power and/or a lot of time. Furthermore I'm getting close enough to decent to just play my own stuff, so I cut this clunky virtual piece very short. And also it feels a bit overly random. But I want to listen to it off and on for a year and see if I still feel that way.... That's the curiousity which fueled this production.

140. String quartet no. 1 (virtual)

Simplistic experiment I thought about during a boring crossing of the everglades while listening to Miami university's college radio station. (Decent music.) Just four tracks, two generally repeating 4 times offset by the other two repeating four times. Synth1 with SIR reverb.

Ran quarters at the track. Times were 1:48, 1:37, 1:32, 1:31, 1:37 and 1:44. Then did two laps in 3:58.

I noticed on the quarters my knees felt really good. Thought at first it was the more forgiving track surface. But then on the half mile while running slower I felt it very slightly in my knees. In retrospect with the faster running I was using the muscles in the front of my legs to keep the balls up and let my heel strike first but then have a controlled roll onto the balls. With the slower running I quit doing this and had a far less controlled, less smooth kind of landing that felt like breaking, landed more flat footed instead of rolling from my heels to the balls.

Basically when running faster I simply had to use a better form. Which did take a bit of energy. With the slower running it's like I relax too much perhaps and get a bit floppy. Maybe. In the past my fastest running was even worse on my knees but back then perhaps I just didn't even have the muscles to manage a smooth run. Anyway, hope to run more and more quarters in the future.

My favorite two classical works.
Miserere by Arvo Part. The first part anyway. The best part IMO.


And the first part of Gorecki's Third Symphony:

Vacation
Mostly for memories sake I guess. That's what makes it not a silly waste of money. But most good memories perhaps have to be warped in order to be good. Thus really remembering it well isn't necessarily a good thing. So in reality how good was it?

Decent. But somewhat because of a fake nostalgia from having gone to Florida 30 years previous.

On drive down stopped at two places. Got an interesting musical instrument. A finger piano.
Stayed night in Savannah. Blah.
Then got to clearwater. Clearwater had a lot of shells on the beach. J and I enjoyed sea shell hunting Tuesday evening. Wednesday morning I went for a run on the beach barefoot. More calf stretch than usual left my calves toasted and walking like an old man for days.

Wednesday went to the Dali musuem. The best art was an exhibit at the end by high schoolers. Of Dali the best thing was a pictures of him with his ridiculous handlebar mustache looking surprised. Dali was a part of the surrealist group that propped/fluffed each other up and basically talked a load of incomprehensible bullshit. Other people who wanted to sound like they were in the know went along with it. Basically an emperor's new clothes thing. It happens the worst in painting. It's the most anti-egalitarian, meritless type of art. Dali was at least far better tha Warhol. At least Dali could paint a bit.

Then to the big cat rescue. This was J's thing. Women seem to like big cats. I was fascinated by the bintarang (not a cat).

Then to Sanibel island Wednesday night. Thursday morning went sea shell "hunting". Sanibel has the most of just about anyplace in the US. There were too many really. Finding a few neat shells is fun. Going somewhere where you could literally take a shovel and multiple trashbags is just too much.

Then Thursday around noonish, onwards, across the middle of Florida, through the everglades. I'm afraid without stopping as I wanted to get to Coral Castle in time. Coral Castle was a disappointment. Way overhyped. Very dishonest. Ed did nothing that was really that special. It was depressing. More so the city it was located in. The best thing was the little lively lizards. Also my calves were so so sore.

Then down to Key West. Just barely found a hotel room Thursday night. Wandered about the main touristy street Friday and also went out on a glass bottom boat to see the coral reef. J got really sunburned on her arms in less than 2 hours of sun. Also saw Hemingway's house. And a few other places. Ate a couple of meals while listening to live music. Listened to a good 80's cover band Friday night while drinking a bunch of margaritas.

Drank every night and made love about once a day for the whole trip.

Left to come home Saturday morning. 16 hours from home a rock cracked the windshield and we watched the crack slowly grow all the way home. At home Paddington was nowhere to be found. J was sure she was gone forever and bawled and bawled and put up signs, etc. And then she came home. So all's well.

In the future just want to go to one single place and instead of trying to frantically see everything, just relax. But this was OK. I listened to a Sonic Youth remake of a Carpenter song occasionally and would sing it to J when she got stressed about a few things (finding a room in Key West, the cracked windshiled...)

The Perfect Mile by Neal Bascomb
About Bannister, Santee and Landy vying to be the first to run a sub four minute mile. Has me feeling a little burned out on running as it's excessive. I don't want to start thinking like these fellows. Just want to run a bit faster. Last Monday ran a 5k in 25:35. Then ran on the beach on Wednesday. But this meant a greater calf stretch which left my calves so sore. This next Monday they're still sore. Knees have felt pretty good. Not perfect.

The Wise Man's Fear: The Kingkiller Chronicle: Day Two by Patrick Rothfuss
Much better than book one because now the hero has multiple aces up his sleeve. Almost descends into too much stress/negativity. The unusual idea of telling it as the hero is now a bitter, nihilistic inn keeper stops it from getting too negative in a way but then also does the opposite...

So he's got aces.

There is mystery. There's not so much endless tedious explanation of how magic works. There's plenty of mystery with the Chandrian and also how he ends up an inn keeper, etc.

Plenty of injustice. His family slaugheted. Great racism against his people. Plenty of injustice against him personally. Almost too much.

Decadence. Here the book is weakest. The setting is a little light. But not by much. Really good book.