Sprinting Update - August 20 11

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 The track and field spikes arrived in the mail on Thursday and I had an opportunity to give them a whirl. The fit was good, they are still quite light for a mid distance shoe and are definitely a minimalist style of footware.


  Back to the softball diamond where I opted to test sprint them on the groomed and soft(er) surface of the infield opposed to the hard packed adjacent trail. From the backstop to the edge of the grass behind second base the distance was about 40 metres. After some stretches and drills I did some warmup sprints.Then came the test. Three sprints in my regular runners and three in the new shoes(without spikes added). I was definitely faster in the track spikes averaging about an eight millisecond improvement over c.40 metres.

  Since some softball league players were arriving and probably curious what the heck I was doing I vacated the diamond to the trail and did three 70 metre sprints on the harder surface.Best time was 11:60 but I felt every stride.The minimalist shoe is light and fast but unforgiving. Sprinting with good form is essential and now a work in progress. Crafting my workout on the forgiving ground of the infield might be advisable while learning the basics of sprinting. Next test will be to insert the spikes and see how that feels and performs.

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