Finishing up on form

What else do we need to know?

Over the last few episodes we talked about good running form and why it’s important. By now you’re convinced and have been working on or at least thinking about your running form.  In this piece I’m going to talk through some of the related situations and supporting activities.

First let’s talk about uphill form.

You may have noticed in your own practice or in races that inexperienced runners alter their form significantly when they are confronted with an uphill.  You will see them lean into the hill, maybe hunch over, shorten their stride length and really slow down.  They are essentially battling the hill.

That is bad form.  If you do this, you not only slow down, but you waste energy.

A lot of this is mental.  You will see this in races.  People look up, see the hill and automatically drop into this ‘hill-battling’ form, even before they get to the hill.  The trick is to break this habit.  Instead of mentally and physically switching to the ‘bad’ form, you look up, see the hill and switch to a good hill form.

If you can mentally make the switch to believing that you are good at hills and love hills you will pass people who fear the hills.

Uphill form is essentially just good form.  Some coaches will add in hill work to teach good form.  It’s quite hard to land on your heels when you’re running up a hill.  The hill forces you onto your forefoot.

As you approach the hill straighten up your posture, push those hips forward and keep your center of gravity under you.  If it’s a steep hill you may need to lean forward, but if you are pushing your hips that lean will come from the ankles and the foot strike.  Pushing your hips forward engages your core and your core pulls you up the hill.

The only bit of nuance is that you will lift your knees a bit higher as you’re on the hill.  You may find it helps to pump your hands a bit too.  Imagine strings connecting those knees to those hands.  As you pull up the hand it pulls up the knee.

What about running Down hill?

The key with downhill form is to not fight the hill.  The hill is an opportunity to use gravity as free speed.  You want to fall with the hill and land as lightly as you can.  You don’t’ want to brake.  You don’t want to jam your feet into the ground and take all your weight in your quads.  You wan to kep you feet moving fast and light so that you minimize the braking and the impact.

To do this you need to find the sweet spot of a faster cadence and maybe a little bit longer stride length.  When you get it right you should feel like you’re flying.  You can spread your hands out a bit for balance.  Pull your elbows back to shift your center of gravity without heel striking.

Same good posture – hips forward, landing on your forefoot.  Fast, light cadence.  Let go and fly.

Exercise for form

One of the things that really helps maintain good form, especially at the end of long races is core strength.  All those abdominal exercise and planks and yoga are great for helping you form and posture.  This is especially true for hill strength.

Your coach or any experienced runner can share with you some core routines that you can do 2-3 times a week.  You will feel the difference.  It doesn’t take a lot of time and effort, it just takes consistency.

Flexibility helps as well.  There are a few hip-opener routines that help release your hips so you can get that smooth stride.

Drills for form

I’m not going to reinvent the wheel here.  I would recommend just searching YouTube for Running Form Drills and you will find some great tutorials.

If you want to get an idea of the lean-from-the-ankles, forefoot form try the following.  Stand about 12 inches from a wall.  Straighten up your posture so you are standing straight, hips forward, head up, shoulders straight.  Hold your hands up high by your chest.  Slowly lean forward at the ankle until you just start to fall forward and catch yourself with your hands.  This is the posture you are trying to get to.

Another simple way to learn your body is to practice barefoot in the grass. This takes the shoes out of the equation and gives you the natural proprioception of your feet.

As mentioned before you can download music that has the appropriate beat to mark your cadence.  This won’t necessarily help your form but it will get your cadence correct.

I have always been a big fan of speedwork to help improve running form.  It’s hard to go fast with bad form.  You don’t have to start with 1600’s.  You can throw little 20 or 30 stride pickups into your runs and focus these on form.

As also mentioned before, one of the best ways to learn form is to have someone who knows good form watch you.  Many coaches will do an initial form evaluation for free.

The last time I had my coach look at my form he saw some things I could do better.  Specifically I was rotating my hands too much.  Your hands should go back and forth in line with the elbows not swing around the body or side to side.

Finally, there is no silver bullet here.  Everyone has their own unique idiosyncrasies when it comes to form.  If you’ve never looked at it or thought about it, chances are you will see big benefits.  It’s something you can practice for your whole life.

Form practice is part of the runners journey.