#runzi

[runzi-3d]

This was a commission for Vincentwuff over on twitter! This is Bjorn and he’s super cute!

(If you reblog this please leave my description and please don’t just repost, Thank you!)

[runzi-3d]

This was for a friend on twitter who you can find here: Click me!

I really liked this but her face got a little wonky on me :/

(If you reblog this please leave my description and please don’t just repost, Thank you!)

[runzi-3d]

I drew a fox to practice with my tablet a bit more! Sorry about the watermark I made it a bit more annoying on this than usual!

(If you reblog this please leave my description and please don’t just repost, Thank you!)

[runzi-3d]

Hello! I’m Runzi! I’ve been on tumblr for a long time but I wanted to make a separate blog to post my artwork! I love drawing animals and tend to lean towards “anime” styled artwork. This is my “fursona” as the furries call it or what I use in art to represent myself (since I don’t really like drawing myself). I use her for everything and I’ve drawn her since I was 10 or 12 years old (I’m 22). (If you reblog this please leave my description and please don’t just repost, Thank you!)

[trailflow]

Running Cadence 

I recently got quite a few questions and observations about the running cadences i post with my morning runs.

Cadence, what is it? 

It is nothing else than the amount of steps taken per minute. In the above picture you see various cadences from my recent runs. Yes, the longer my runs, the slower my cadence. It seems to be natural, although the difference is still a bit too big for my liking (these runs are at 6am, so the big battle is getting out of bed ... and cadence is really just an afterthought at that time :o)). 

What is it good for? 

Well, here’s the thing. Whilst reading Born to Run from C. McDougall i came upon the following (p 205) : the coach Ken Mierke once clipped a small electronic metronome to his new athlete’s shirt. This new athlete was nobody else than Alan Melvin, a world class Masters triathlete in his 60′s. “What’s this for?” asked Melvin. “Set it to 180 beats a minute then run to the beat” was the answer. Now triathlete’s are very open to anything new and are generally willing to experiment with anything (legal) that will make them faster. So Melvin just did that. 

After 5 months Melvin came back for more testing and (copied straight from the book) “ran 4 one-mile repeats, and every lap of the track was faster than his previous 400m best” !!!

read that again ... 

Do you start getting an idea what cadence could mean for your running? I certainly did after rereading this passage. 

How to go about it (the app)? 

Things are pretty easy now. I personally use the Runzi app. It’s a full featured running tracker with a metronome. I downloaded it and set the metronome to silent. I went out and recorded my run. The result was pretty neat: i had apparently a cadence of 160-ish (a bit lower on long runs), which is typical for recreational runners. But wait a minute, i was logging 100+km a week so recreational was not exactly the word that i would have used to describe myself. The question was: could i get an improvement from changing my cadence? I decided to try! 

Changing your cadence? 

The way to go about changing your cadence is basically determining your “natural cadence” (there is always some variety according to speed: the faster you go the higher the cadence, but it usually stay in a 10 steps/minute range). 

Once you have your natural cadence, say 160, put the metronome at 163 and go out for a run at “exactly the same speed” but try to follow the metronome’s rhythm. 

You will feel all awkward and funny. But after some time you will automatically adapt to the rhythm and start running in sync with the metronome. Do this for a good week (maybe two if it still feels hard), and then increase the metronome to 166 and repeat. 

Until one day you reach a cadence of 180. This might take a couple of months. Take your time. Your body needs to adapt to this as changing the cadence changes a lot in your biomechanics. 

Does it help? 

Unfortunately i can not give you a race result to prove what i am about to say. 

But changing my cadence definitely made me adapt my running form: 

my strides are shorter (thus promoting midfoot/forefoot landing) 

my back is straighter, 

i carry my arms lower, 

i have less of a speed loss over time and 

I feel less tired after running the same distances/times as before. 

Very nice, but am i quicker though? 

I would say i am. Look at the recordings above: i recently did a 5k in 19min at 184 cadence just after waking up. Something i would not have been able to do one year ago.

I am still collecting data, and hope to be able to run them through R soon (R is a statistical program that is extremely fun! I swear it is). So i hope to be able to back up my claims here with some nice graphs soon.  

Should you try it? 

The question really is: do you want to improve? If yes, try it out. 

I would recommend you start this with some exercises like running/sprinting in place (3 repeats of 20s before/after each run), rope jumping (5min) or downhill sprints (after setting your baseline cadence) for a couple of weeks. 

I am no doctor though, try it out, but don’t be a fool. 

What helped me a lot is cycling. I increased my cycling cadence and really focused on lifting my legs on the way up. So by not resting your feet on your pedals! Try it, it’s deadly exhausting at the start. But your running will improve so much (studies have been done about this, but since ChuckieV deleted his blog i can’t find the reference anymore). 

Use your brain when you train! 

[runzi333]

I want it to be a thing!

I accidentally said "shitloaf" instead of ... whatever it was I was trying to say but I like how it fit and I want it to be a thing you call people and things you dislike.

[runzi333]

Hi everyone! So I said I would post more fursuit pictures of my Runzi suit so here you go! :D

The first two pictures were taken by Doniago find him here! The others were taken by my BF and by me (the two webcam pics).

The suit and character belong to me (Runzi333 on FA/DA/twitter aka Jodi M) The lovely Runzi head was made by the amazing omgpineapplesfursuits (They can also be found on FA and their website!) Please keep the source info here if you re-post! Thank you!

[omgpineapplesfursuits]

A fursuit head for Runzi! 

Furaffinity | Weasyl 

OMGPineapples.net

OMG Pineapples is opening April 30th for new commissions! You can get a quote for your own OMG Pineapples suit here!