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Does Ruiyong's 'incredible' workouts at high altitude in Iten suggest anything that he is anywhere close to running a 2:18 marathon in London at the end of April?

This second post is dedicated to presenting all of us with some esoteric knowledge regarding marathon training, something I have been very e...

Wednesday 22 June 2016

A new beginning or beginning of the end?

Ruiyong ends Rio bid(article from redsports)

Chanced upon this piece of news while having breakfast, and we couldn't have been happier for Soh Ruiyong for deciding to renounce his Rio olympic bid! This is a new beginning. At this blog, we totally believe so. Really for once, we have absolutely nothing disparaging to comment, criticize or analyze, because for the first time in 5 months since we started this blog, Ruiyong has chosen to do the right thing. Maybe he didn't do it as consciously or willfully as we would have liked, seeing that he took a good 6 months to come to equilibrium, by introspection, with the notion that he would never make the Rio olympics in any way, and instead a turn of events such as the insidious physical pain and emotional emptiness('lack of fun and joy') he felt in training had forced his hand to preemptive action. There seems to be a total lack of sincerity on his part, in believing that he absolutely with 99 percent, doesn't have what it takes in any way to make the Rio olympic games, injured or healthy. And we are not proud of that, to make it clear to everybody.

Still, an outcome is an outcome, no matter how it was brought to bear. Good for him, finally, to have to be forced, against his will/belief, to drop the 2016 Gold Coast Airport marathon and hence the bid for Rio. We will take this any time and day, seeing how great already our impoverished need of solid demonstrations of moral and ethical examples in an increasingly ethically and morally corrupt world! And such need perhaps arising from an inner calling to edify and be edified! Does that make sense to you guys? If it doesn't, it is completely fine and you may treat these as random utterances....


Before we come to a close, we just wanted to tackle a couple possible misunderstandings people might have with respect to the certain quotes in the interview that Ruiyong made:

“Over a month, he(Chris Wetstine, a popular albeit controversial physiotherapist) adjusted the structure of my foot – popping a cuboid back into place here, adjusting a toe there, and so forth. A painful process, but my left foot is finally moving a lot more like it should be.”

&

"All I've achieved in running so far has been on a less-than-fully-functional left foot. Perhaps this injury was a blessing in disguise - realizing and fixing this biomechanical fault can unlock the potential to even better performances in the future."


We would like to now bring the full extend of our knowledge and experience to bear one final time in 2016 on these 2 quotes of Ruiyong's, and forever leave him to his devices thereafter, and forever stop interfering with him through well-meaning feedbacks. We don't want to seem as ANTI-SRY for too much longer, in exchange for really only having been PRO-SRY the whole time! We find that an extremely poor trade-off, so to speak...

To do that, we will use an example of Paula Radcliff's. Details(including images) of which can be googled, but just off of the back of our minds, Paula had surgery of her seemingly savagely distorted big toe, by virtue of a totally grotesque and perhaps even visually offensive bunion, something nobody supposedly ordained with distance running nuance will associate with a runner as legendary and outlying as Paula, in women's sports! But that was what it was---the unsightly bunion that was to supposedly be directly related to biomechanical flaws and/or inhibitions to the running motion was also simultaneously directly related to the stuff of running performance legends! She did indeed, with this supposedly great biomechanical hindrance, went on to record the 3 fastest and clean times in women's marathoning!?! Paula had also one of the, if not the most efficient(energy conserving) running biomechanics ever, although her head-bobbing seem to suggest otherwise. Analysis done by a couple of scientists and experts around the world on this matter seem to explicitly suggest that Paula's head-bob is and has been the only exception to the rule of efficient and energy conserving distance running, because unique to the biomechanical demands of Paula, the head bob provided much needed forward propulsion and raise the ratio of energy output for the same amount of energy input. Nobody could head bob like Paula and raise their energy output ratios, because every single one of them will invariably produce resistance to the forward motion and that lowers rather than increases ratios! Does that make sense? By corollary, if there ever was a distance runner who could do the most outrageous mechanical or non mechanical oddity, and have it propel them forwards more or otherwise increase their ratios more, then that is energy efficient UNIQUELY FOR THEM! To be even clearer, let's say somebody could sing songs throughout their marathon races and have the produced sound energy contributed positively to their forward propulsion, then singing is efficient uniquely for them! But we all know this isn't the realm of the possible for us, because 1) we are not this special person who can seem to convert sound energy in the direction of his motion 2) we have tried to speak/talk during a race for a couple moments, much less sing, and found it really energy sapping or inefficient! 

But you get the point, everybody is unique, and as long as certain conditions or laws---in this case the laws of physics and/or biomechanical efficiency, are met, or beyond met, then seemingly inefficient motions are physically---biomechanically sound!

Question:What happened to Paula after invasive intervention in the form of removing/reshaping the bunion to make it look less unsightly and more conforming to the norms of normally shaped human big toes? And also supposedly make her 'more biomechanically aligned/efficient'?

Answer:She never reach the heights she once conquered! She also started running marathon and half marathon times significantly slower, assuming age effects(she wasn't that old for a marathoner at the time of surgery) are negligible and desire, commitment and motivation are most nearly the same as before the surgery.

Why?

Because distance running performances might be way much more than the sum of the changes one makes to one's biomechanics invasively! Direct proportional relationships do not necessarily exist between adjustments in this and your performance(read speed and endurance) in sport! There might even be an inverse proportional relationship! Also, there might not even be any clear causation or correlation between invasively tweaking one's biomechanics and significantly better running performances, which Soh Ruiyong is obviously looking. Sports scientists are on the fence with regards to invasive methods to 'improve biomechanical effficiency' at about the highest levels of distance sport. They tended to say " you are wonderfully made athlete already, change as much as you ethically can through the normal and natural process of training/plyometrics, and take no further action beyond that!"

Let me give an example out of the myriads in my mind, and let this be justified for the lack of better ones I can think of at the moment:

A young girl was a burnt victim with 2nd and 3rd degree facial burns. She had looked like a hideous monster in the mirror. Invasive plastic surgery would in this case cause or correlate with a higher degree of self-confidence she originally had with her original face(status quo) and cause her to be able to assimilate as easily as she was once able to do so with her colleagues at the workplace, before the burns. This girl was self-confident in her appearance and certified beautiful---by herself! Invasive surgery aims to retrieve back what was already there, and therefore fully justified!

Another young girl with pleasant looking facial features(at least from the point of view of her mum and dad), feels like a hideous monster upon comparison with Victoria's Secret Angels!! Invasive plastic surgery would almost always not necessarily cause or even correlate with a higher degree of self-confidence and/or cause her to be able to assimilate easily with her colleagues at the workplace or otherwise, because the lack of self-confidence and lack of assimilation are symptomatic of greater issues of character, values, and principles(ethics and morals) than of personal tragedy!! There probably wasn't a problem with her face/beauty, but a problem with how she thinks about her face/beauty. Invasive surgery doesn't aim to retrieve back any confidence that was already pre-existing before, it is now used in an attempt to create confidence out of nothingness(read zero!)! BUT HOW CAN ANYTHING IN THE HUMAN WORLD BE CREATED/RETRIEVED OUT OF NOTHING? Does that make any sense? You create or retrieve a picture from a printer or photocopier, a picture that already existed as a saved JPEG file in your computer! You do not create or retrieve a picture out of nothing! Therefore surgery isn't justified at all! Again does that make sense? I hope it does.........

Therefore unless your feet is badly mangled in a car accident, where biomechanical surgery would obviously provide temporary or permanent relief to your walking/running motion, do not ever tamper with your natural biomechanics through surgery! Do not try to create something out of nothing, because there is nothing wrong with your natural feet. Do not try to think something is wrong about nothing!!!

Let's see how this can be applied to Soh Ruiyong:

Soh Ruiyong has ran one of the faster, if not the fastest times in a couple of distance events in the history of Singaporean distance performances, with supposedly 'poorer' biomechanics than all other Singaporean distance legends past! Or is that really the case?! Might this view be more symptomatic of a lack of faith/belief in the very mechanical body that has brought him to such great heights, and could it be resolved with simply just waiting out the time by resting for a couple of months for his plantar injuries to heal, as it almost always does with time? And that there was no real need to get any physiotherapist to 'pop cuboids' and 'adjust toes' over a month?! Does his lack of patience with achieving success in the form of qualifying for an olympics cause him to seek help he doesn't really need, and could be perhaps counter-intuitive for possibly forever changing biomechanical motor patterns and movements that he has grown up with as a boy and represented him with so much distance success? Would he suffer the same fate as Paula Radcliff, who also upon physio recommendation had went for invasive adjustment(surgery) on her bunion in the hope that she becomes more biomechanically aligned and produce more motion in the forward direction of her running?

Our answers to all these seemingly profound questions---that he and his team at Blackdot and TRE perhaps in their ignorance probably have never considered in great depth, are an EMPHATIC YES! For the short-termed satisfaction or pleasure of continued distance training and going to the Rio olympics by wildcard selection, Soh Ruiyong might have inevitably exchanged out his long term running benefits or future that can simply be collected effortlessly by simply waiting out the weeks and months, with zero run training, for his plantar to heal completely and then start undertaking foundational traininng slowly but surely?!! This is what appears to be the case, and we have analyzed for all of us this conclusion. We are terrified of the consequences of his supposedly newfound biomechanical technique, because we have no idea what future it holds, and we don't want to know because it is terrifying to suggest to ourselves the end of his career.


Moreover, and for the uninitiated, remember that distance running performances are normally more than simply the mathematical sum or changes to your biomechanics. This mean 1) there are other so much more important factors affecting your distance running performances than biomechanical efficiency, like perhaps fuel efficiency if you are a marathoner 2) Changing your biomechanics invasively, rather than through natural drills and training, for supposedly a 'better' performance will almost always introduce EVEN MORE BIOMECHANICAL PROBLEMS/INEFFICIENCIES!

Let me explain point 2 using Paula's example:

One would normally and logically think that straightening out the big toe and removing/reshaping/repairing the bunion would result in better(read more efficient energy transfer) pronation of the feet with regards to the weight and size of Paula's physical body, which would in turn result in more optimal stride length and turnover again with regards to Paula's unique physical body. Simple equation: More geometrically advantageous shaped big toe would lead to more straight line forward propulsion and higher efficiencies. Proponents of this equation, including SRY himself, do not take into account that changing the geometry of your bones or feet only changes the physical structure, rather than the nerve impulses and its electrical wiring around your feet! Changing the former without changing the latter(which sadly cannot be changed much enough to be noteworthy in distance running performances beyond your former childhood years) will only confuse the body's motor nerve impulses even more and introduce more biomechanical errors, or at the very least the errors that were already originally present remain present despite the surgical changes or otherwise, and despite there being no more structural pain as well. I repeat----biomechanical errors can still exist as per normal despite the removal of the pain through surgical/physio correction---and this is apparently due to motor nerve impulse confusion! Because part or in fact all of what controls biomechanical movements and patterns are motor nerve impulses.


Proponents of this equation also do not understand that in changing the physical structure of the feet of an adult, nerve impulses would have to adapt to this new change in a way they can never do previously like in the former childhood years where the bulk of the development of a child's motor-neuron movement patterns and behaviors take place. This means, for an adult who had undergone invasive changes to the physical structure of their feet, nerve impulse adaptations will take place in such a way that running would never feel the same again. The same feet will ironically not feel the same familiarity of power and strength that was best developed in childhood NATURALLY WITH THE NATURAL FEET STRUCTURE! At worst, it is running with feet that isn't yours, because your electrical nerve wirings could never be completely initiated/compatible with the new physical structure and therefore new way of propelling yourself forward!


Far from 'unlocking his potential', in the words of SRY, we are sad to say that we overwhelmingly believe otherwise, and have justified our arguments as best as we could above :(


We apologize that the tenor of this post had gotten more and more depressive or apocalyptic as it went on, and the new beginning we had prematurely envisioned for SRY as a result of his 'good' decision to end his Rio bid might be concurrently and ironically, after analysis, the Sign of the End.

We want to tell Soh Ruiyong one thing explicitly: Your 'less than fully functional' is perfect in its imperfect!!! Get that! All you needed to do was rest a couple months of no running, like Mok did when he had his turn of plantar, and everything would have been fine, your biomechanics will have continued to serve you well for many more marathons. But you chose not to.......


In our next post, we will have a post-blog party and give out credits to all our whistleblowers, as well as say goodbye to our main character Soh Ruiyong after all of 5 months.

Stay tuned!














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