WOW! Thats all I can say as I headed out of my room and in about 100m I was on a boardwalk along the ocean in sunny San Diego. I am here for a biomechanics conference lead by one of the functional movement gurus, Gary Gray.

Some times environmental tools provide you a level of feedback that you normally wouldn't receive. The last km was all beach to the resort so I thought I would take off my shoes to run.  If there has been one thing determined so far in breaking down my run over the last 4 weeks its that my left glute needs a real kick in the ass. We have been doing a hip extension drill in the gym where I push a medicine ball away through hip extension focusing on doing all the driving with the glute. It seems to go ok but its one of the drills that you are not always sure if you are doing it well as its so easy to cheat or compensate because thats what I have obviously been doing for many years now. Well I hit the real soft sand, normally a good time to walk it in as I only remember soft deep sand like this is usually just an exercise in frusteration when trying to run. But not this time, I started to focus on all the cues from the MB drill and it was like snow shoes in the winter. I never buried myself deep into the sand and my forward momemtum never seem to stall, it actually felt as good as running in the hard packed sand I was on earlier. Those of you that golf will be able to relate, it was that one shot, or short stretch of run where all the cues worked at the same time. Even if it is short lived at least there was reassurance that the skills being i have benn practicing in part do come together for an improved more efficient end result.  Tommorrow, maybe 2 km.