When natural running form doesn’t matter
Let us get this clear…(the small print)
Last week I had posted a blog post that talked about taking some time to clean up my form by moving to more ‘natural’ and ‘forefoot’ mechanics. I gave some examples of how this had a positive influence on my running.
It was not my intent, but I feel I may have added to the current overblown natural running hysteria. This week I’m going to try to clean that up, but will probably just make it worse!
I did not mean to imply that I was ‘converted’ to natural running, that I had some grand epiphany that changed my life and rocked my world. I did not mean to give any impressionable beginner runners the false idea that all they have to do it clean up their form and they can lickity-split run qualifying Boston Marathons.
Here is where you need to pay attention.
I did not convert my mechanics. I tuned them.
This was not some epiphany that changed my life. This was another in an incremental series of adjustments. We all should be continually learning and trying to get better.
I have been running for over 35 years and have put many, many miles on these legs in many different situations. If my form was awful or dangerous I would not be talking to you about tuning it today because I would have exited the sport with an irreparable injury years ago.
It aint about the shoes.
Ironically enough the shoes we started running with in the 1970’s were foam wedges with no heel control or stabilization engineering. The Nike Waffle Trainer of 1978 was very much the same shoe as a modern day ‘minimalist’ in construction.
What was right with my form to begin with? I have always had a high mileage neutral foot strike. That means I’m hitting the ground with a straight foot with not too much roll in or out. (pronate – supponate)
It is true that in the 70’s and 80’ some of us we were trained as kids to over-stride and heel strike. Many of our easy runs and long runs would be back on our heels and taking long strides. However, it is important to note that when we raced we moved forward on our foot strike and ran in a clean form that these days would be called ‘natural’.
I have always believed that speed forces good mechanics. If you want to hone your form and find efficient mechanics, speed work will force the issue. You can’t run fast with bad form for long.
As a case in point, I started training for and running marathons in my 30’s. I have a photo of me finishing the 1998 Boston Marathon above my desk in my home office. I averaged 7:08 min/miles that year. I was wrecked and suffered in the last 2-3 miles. Even with that suffering, my form is perfect in the photo – I’m landing on my forefoot with my foot underneath me and snapping the heel up behind. This is, I believe, the result of months of tempo and speed work, mostly 1600’s at the track.
What adjustments did I make and how did I make them?
This time around I really wasn’t focused on changing my form radically. I was actually focused on being more efficient. Two things I hadn’t tinkered with were Heart Rate and Form. Curiosity and lifelong learning leads me to look for these things as opportunities.
I got a coach (www.prsfit.com) to help me with heart rate training because I was curious to see if it could help me and if I could learn something.
I quickly discovered that I could not run in heart rate zone 2. (HR-zone-2 is a low heart rate – before you start breathing hard). It was just incredibly uncomfortable for me to run that slow. I also realized that when I had to run this slow, uncomfortable, Zone-2 pace my form was crappy. I was heel striking, slouching and over-striding. Without the speed to keep me honest my form was bad.
Coach had me running at least one heart rate zone 2 workout per week of an hour or more. I figured I was out there being uncomfortable anyhow I might as well work on my form. As I practiced running slowly with good forefoot form I found that I got faster (at the zone-2 effort level).
I looked for ways to work better form into my hard workouts. As I began to use the good form all the time I learned to run with my hips more forward and use my core strength to climb hills. I learned to focus on the form and the cadence (faster cadence instead of stretching the stride-length which leads to over-striding) and this allowed me to maintain pace and effort.
This is important to repeat: I gained nothing on my top-end speed. I did not set any new speed records but I had another tool in my tool box. I could then use this tool in hard workouts and long races.
The lesson here is that if you want to tune your form to be more efficient it will take a few months and you will have to start at the low end. Add one or more longish zone-2 form runs to your training plan for a couple race cycles. This allows you to focus on form without having to worry about pace or effort.
What is important to realize.
If you have horrible form, if you pronate, if you supponate, if you run pigeon-toed or knock-kneed you are going to have to deal with all of that and simply landing on your forefoot isn’t going to rock your world. If you’ve got horrible form, work with a coach to get it right before you do anything else because adding miles onto poor form causes injury.
If you’ve already got decent form you’ll get more benefit from doing quality miles than from messing with your form.
Here are my success factors for racing well at the marathon distance.
- High-quality mileage consistently as part of a good plan over many months.
- Tempo, speed and long with at least 50 miles per week.
- Experience.
- 30+ marathons under my belt I’ve made all the mistakes at least twice and know what to do.
- Attitude.
- I treat training and racing as a gift, an adventure and a lifestyle.
Somewhere, way down on this list, probably around #14 is going to be tinkering with my form.
Hope this helps to clear things up. I think good form is extremely important for enjoyment and longevity in our sport but it is no panacea and certainly doesn’t immediately lead to speed, success and happiness. Life is a journey. Running is an adventure. Form is one of the tools we learn on this journey, not a destination.
My form and I will see you out there.
Chris,
Great stuff, Chris. It’s really helpful to read through your process. Kudos for being willing to try a new approach!