ThinkRunning

One Sunday  morning recently was a real breakthrough for Chris and for me because I learned a little more about how to get across to someone what I mean when trying to help them with their technique and Chris improved before my eyes. As we were running I kept getting Chris to look at how I was running and attempt to emulate it which he found quite useful. At one point Chris asked me to look at his form and I noticed everything seemed good but a little off somehow then it dawned on me; Chris’ cadence was too low (foot strikes per minute). We stopped running and I tried to show Chris what I meant by the magic 180 steps per minute as an ideal. I explained that although he should bear this in mind he shouldn’t dwell on it too much as it should be the result of getting everything else right rather than an aim in itself.  What I realised was that the low cadence was slowing everything else down thus Chris was landing ahead too much and striding out a little in an effort to keep up with me. When I showed him how to check his alignment and get a feeling for the always being on the edge of  a fall he began very quickly to get it. Within a few minutes his cadence had improved, he wasn’t landing ahead too much and everything was looking much smoother. We reached a hill and I showed Chris how to let the hill take you,  remain upright and just make sure you pick the feet up with enough effort to get them off the ground. This was when Chris had a major Aha! moment as he was saying it felt quite weird how he was doing fast little steps yet covering LOTS of ground fast. We were running at about 5 minute miling or faster at one point. Basically though I have recently found alignment to be the one aspect of running that is hardest to crack and also the most important because without good alignment you cannot fall, if you cannot fall you cannot pull in time and without that you cannot land close enough to under the hips.  Thus you end up trying to compensate by muscling which wastes energy, slows you down further and can lead to injury not least because you hit the ground harder and spend too much time on it.

Efficiency Curious?

I know some people I speak to online are finding the topic of running efficiently increasingly interesting and this pleases me greatly. I’m so sorry for people who have had a hard time with injuries that seemingly just will not go away. I was in a similar situation a while back and all the experts told me that I just wasn’t built for running and that I should find something else to do because running was obviously bad for me. Of course I didn’t take that advice, instead I decided to try and work out for myself why I was getting these injuries. To cut a long story short, it was my running technique that was at fault. Biomechanically I’m not that significantly different to anyone else. I was running by powering myself forwards with my calves and thighs, bending at the waist with the effort and landing on my heels with feet stretched straight out in front of me. Then when I heard that running on your forefoot was the way to go I consciously tried to change it and made things worse. I made things worse because I was still doing nothing to reduce the impact forces of me hitting the ground – I was still striding out in front of me. However, I was landing sort of on my forefoot; unfortunately I later discovered that it was what experts term an active land where I was pointing my feet to the ground and landing with all my lower legs and feet tensed up bracing for impact. This in itself caused me even more problems and I didn’t really learn what on earth I was doing wrong until I had my first Pose Method of Running ‘lesson’. After this I understood that a forefoot landing is only good if it happens passively, that is if it happens as a result of you getting everything else right such as body alignment, knee bend, swing leg recovery and landing as near to under your centre of gravity (COG) as possible. All that is achieved by essentially doing two things: lean into the run from your ankles by pushing your hips forward similar to Michael Jackson’s crotch thrust. As you move forwards and feel your body weight go over the ball of your foot, pull the foot off the ground quickly but with minimal effort – just enough to get it off the ground. This is the ‘secret’ in that the whole running action (controlled by your subconscious) is started by the pulling of the foot from the ground. Pull the foot just as your body weight goes over the ball of foot, any earlier and you will not be able to pull it, any later and you will not be able to recover your leg from behind you quick enough, thus either will slow you down and ruin your form potentially leaving you at risk of injury.

A friend of mine Dr. Mark Hainsworth once summed up what he called five markers of efficient running, I have taken the liberty of listing them below for people who may be interested.

The Five Characteristics of Efficient Running…

• Increase cadence to 90 per leg
• Land under your cog with a bent knee to release plyometric energy
• Land with a rearward moving foot and relaxed ankle
• Do not push off but lean forward into the run
• Limit arm movement, bend the elbows and do not reach too far forward.