Yes, you know those huge boxes that sit on top of pianos?
Similar idea, but I have this kind that is a little easier to run with:
Okay, so let me break this down… Steve Mackel who is in the Pasadena Triathlon Club, is also a running coach and has a few things going on…
http://www.TriThisCoaching.com
http://www.MarathonTraining.TV
All very good websites with TONS of information. I especially like the MarathonTraining.TV site because Steve puts up videos.
Back to the metronome. So Steve posted that he would be doing a free clinic at A Snails Pace in Pasadena. A Snails Pace is a great running store that I got my last pair of sneakers at. I liked the experience because I walked in and said all I wanted was a neutral shoe on sale and they didn’t even blink twice. The guy didn’t up sell me on a new pair of sneakers and I ended up with some sweet Nike Livestrong sneakers that I really like.
Back to the metronome. I arrive at a Snails Pace and see Steve, he is chatting it up with someone so I just wandered around. Then Amy came in, she is in PTC, so I started to chat with her a bit. Eventually, Steve came by and said hi and then we got started. I bought the metronome you see above from him. It is a standard Seiko Metronome that musicians use in the orchestra pit. Even though metronomes are becoming popular with runners, they have yet to actually create one for runners. I guess it is because the one above works just fine. Here is Steve addressing everyone who showed up for the free workshop:
Steve is the one in the yellow cap. So the idea of the metronome is to keep your running cadence high. Your cadence is how many times your feet hit the ground in a minute. Cyclists use this idea a lot and I try to keep about a 90 cadence on the bike. The metronome essentially gets you to keep you legs at a certain cadence by beeping at you when your foot should hit the ground. Did that make sense? This is a lot harder to explain in a blog….
Metronome beeps = you step
Yes? No?
Well, if I don’t make any sense then go to Steve’s website and maybe he can explain it better than I can. Or, if you are in the area I encourage you to go to Steve’s FREE metronome workshop.
A couple things Steve also touched on is that the metronome is there to keep us on track because our feet are not used to hitting the ground that fast. When we listen to music on our runs we tend to zone out, which if you are training, might not be a good thing because you need to “train focused” (that’s Steve’s motto).
Like I said…Steve is much better at this than me. So I will say this, I will be training with it from now on and I will give you a full report once I do a long run with it.
Once he was done explaining the metronome and its purpose we went out and started to run with it. Here is everyone running back and forth in front of the Pasadena Convention Center:
At first it felt a little weird, turning my feet over so fast. But as I did it more, it actually started to feel better than how I usually run. So I am really excited about training with the metronome because I am hoping it helps with my overall running.
Tonight George and I are going to beat this heat and head to Steve’s other gig as a spinning instructor at a gym in Pasadena. He does a spinning class then runners yoga right after. Costs $10 and is right down the street and I rather do that then head over to the Rose Bowl and sweat my tail off in the heat. I much rather sweat my tail off in an air conditioned room!
I hope you are all having a good week, halfway there!
