Mel On...No Excuses

Today I did my first gait analysis and VO2 Max test...

The gait analysis was simple.  I got on a dreadmill and walked barefoot for a few minutes and then jogged/ran a few minutes wearing shoes.  They recorded my movements from behind (oh, dear Lord) and the side.  Then they have a little checklist they go over as they slow-play and "analyze" your video.

It looks like I have a slight in-toeing going on with my left foot, a medial heel whip, an insufficient swing phase knee flexion angle, excessive lateral pelvic drop and mild lateral trunk flexion.  All that fancy talk just means that my quads are tight, I need to focus on landing under the center of my body as I run, and I tend to twist my arms in front of me rather than keeping them straight, and I need to stretch more and do more core strengthening (DON'T TELL AMANDA!).

The lady doing my analysis also told me that if I stretched out my quads more and focused on keeping my arms straight I would become "more efficient" running.  She showed me some moves on the foam roller and OMG it was AMAZING!  I definitely gotta get me one of those!

The VO2 Max test is supposed to be "the best indicator of an athlete's ( - ha, athlete's! - ) cardiovascular fitness and aerobic endurance."  It was pretty easy at first...but then it got intense!  Again, it was just running on the dreadmill but attached to a heart rate monitor and oxygen mask.  I felt like I was training for NASA or something...

Then every few minutes you increase your speed until you reach the max and then you increase your grade.  As I hit the inclines it got hard to focus because of that silly mask.  I felt like I was being suffocated.  Not cool.  BUT, I came out of that bad boy with an "Excellent."  You heard that right my friends....I scored and excellent on a fitness test. Woot. Woot!

It also earned me a spot on the Top Performer board!

Now that I know my body is somewhat capable of handling this I gotta focus.  FOCUS!

  NO EXCUSES MEL!