4 more good reasons to work on your form

4 more good reasons to work on your form

Other cool things I’ve discovered by cleaning up my form.

This winter during my ½ marathon and marathon campaigns I made a conscious effort to clean up my form.  I focused on not heel striking, landing on the midfoot with a slight forward lean and my feet underneath me.  I worked on removing the extra movement from my torso and keeping everything nice and tight.

I pushed my hips forward, brought my chin up, brought my shoulders square, my chest up and my elbows back and high.

In order to make this transition I had to make a number of adjustments.  I also had to get new shoes that were more forefoot focused.  I had to strengthen my calf muscles and release my hips.  I had to work my core in ways that I have never before.  I learned to speed up my cadence and use my core to drive the legs and not vice versa.

I did not see radical improvements in speed.  I did manage to injure my calf.  All in all I can truthfully report that it is a more efficient and less destructive way of running.

I also discovered some great application of these new skills.

The first place this new form became obviously important was at the Boston Marathon.  When things started to get tough in the late miles I was able to fall back into this compact form, increase my cadence and run off my core.  This is so important at Boston where the race pounces on you at the 18 mile mark.  If you run with your legs you are done, you are walking.

I was able to keep moving and fairly well maintain race pace even though my legs were cooked.  By running off the strength in my core, the legs didn’t need that big, strong effort.  The legs become placeholders.  Your core and cadence drives the pace.

The second place I have discovered this form to be eminently useful is in transition.  I rode 3 hours on my road bike Saturday and transitioned into a short run.  Any of you who have experienced the transition of coming off a hard ride into a run know that all the blood is in the wrong muscles and nothing works until your legs warm up to the run.

What I found was, again, I didn’t need my ‘running legs’ to be 100% functional.  I could just use the compact form and leg turnover to get moving right away while my legs were remembering what they were supposed to do.  I think this is why so many triathletes convert to a forefoot form.

The third thing I like about this form is that it allows me time to warm up.  I’m old.  My legs complain for a good 10 minutes before they take to a run.  I can use the compact form to take the stress off my legs and relax into my core until I get warmed up.  It helps.  I have the confidence now that I can start running no matter what shape my legs are in.

I just don’t have the youthful arrogance of power to just throw myself into a run until the suffering eases.  This definitely helps me ease into it.

My final test is going to be the ultra-distances.  I have a sneaking suspicion that this form will come in handy at the 40 mile mark when I’m out of fuel and all hope is lost, at least I hope it does.

I do not yet have the perfect form and suspect I never will, but the changes I have made and the adaptations that have come are definitely positive in many ways.  Before you go off and just work harder, take 6-8 months and get coached on your form.  See if it helps you.