Form Series Chapter 3

This is the third part in a series I’m doing on running form.

Today we will look at how to use form to your advantage in practice.

I’ll start by telling a story.

A couple weeks ago I was pacing at the Conquer the Canyon ½ marathon.  I saw a typical example of how powerful form technique can be for the individual runner in a workout or race.

It was late in the race.  Somewhere past the 10-mile point.  The point in a ½ marathon that is analogous to the 18-mile mark of a marathon.  Where people start to fade.  I was running a few yards behind Greg, the official pacer and his pace group.  I dropped back because I was a bad influence on the pace group.  I’d get them talking, they’d forget what they were doing and we’d get going too fast.

I dropped back to run with and coach some of the trailing runners.

One of the lead pace pack runners, Doug, started to drift back to me and I could see from his form that he was starting to struggle.  I had been talking with Doug earlier.  He had been full of energy and smiling and happy and running well.

Now, as he drifted to the back, he had all the hallmarks of a runner hitting the wall. His shoulders were slumped, he was hunched forward, he was breathing hard but shallow and he was shuffling a bit.  Dragging his feet.

More than the physical you could almost smell the panic and defeat he was experiencing as his form slumped and he struggled.

Of course, as he came into my space I engaged him.  “Doug, how are you doing?” He didn’t answer, just shook his head, looking at his feet.

I started coaching him. “Doug, just stay with us, you’ll be fine.”

I bet all of you have seen this in races before.  There is a physiological phenomena where your emotions are tied to your physiology.  Your mental state is tangled with your physical state.  More specifically, for our purposes here, your form has a direct connection to your emotions.  And, as most of us know, your emotional state can determine the outcome as much as your physical state.

Simply put; when your form breaks your spirit breaks. But, it goes both ways.  That is the negative side of the equation.  The positive side is that if you can fix your form you can fuel your spirit.

Against his protestations I coached Doug to get his form back, to get his house in order for those last couple hard miles.

“Get those shoulders back. Straighten up.  Lift your head.  Push those hips forward.  Nice, light, fast feet.  Smile. Relax. Deep breaths. In through the nose, out through the mouth.  Inhaling strength, blowing out the weakness.”

Doug relaxed.  I did not see him finish but he found me later in the melee of the finish area to thank me and to tell me about his PR.

Now, let’s be honest.  I didn’t do anything.  Doug did.  But, maybe my little bit of coaching changed his state and allowed him to help himself.  Coaching him through that low point by cleaning up his physical and mental form enabled him to find what was already in him.

The bottom line, the moral of the story, so to speak, is that by having form practice as one of the tools in your kit you can change your state when you need to and unlock that performance that is already in you.

Let’s break it down.

What happens when you hit that low point and how can form practice help?

First is the physical.  What happens when you get tired? Your body slumps. Your shoulders start to hunch forward, your head droops, your hands hang low, and you bend forward at the waist.  Your stride starts to collapse.  Your foot strike rocks back onto the heel.  Your stride length scrunches and your cadence drops. Your breathing gets shallow and rapid.

And let me ask you a question. Have you ever woken up the day after a horrible race and felt really sore?  And you wonder, “Why am I sore? I was barely moving for those last couple miles.”  Well, when you were training for that race how many miles did you train with a collapsed form?  Not many, or none at all, right? That’s why you’re so sore after the death shuffle.  You never trained with this form and your running the last 3-6 miles of a race with it!  Of course you’re going to have blisters and sore spots!

What happens mentally when you slump like this?  Your physiology sends a message to your brain that all hope is lost.  It’s a downward, reinforcing cycle.

It’s a just bad place to be.

But, you, dear runner, who have been practicing good form, know what to do.  You have this skill in your tool kit that you can use.  You can use form to reverse the slump.

The goal here is not to run faster.  The goal is to relax and stop fighting yourself.  You are in a low point.  It happens to everyone.  Recognize where you are, reset and control what you can.  Stop the panic thinking.  Stop thinking ahead to the finish so many miles away.  Put away your expectations and come back to where you are.  Work with what you have.

Push those hips forward.  Lift those shoulders.  Lift your head.  Straighten up. AND RELAX! Fast, light feet.

Smile.  I don’t know why people refuse to smile.  It’s not a Pollyanna positive thinking thing.  It’s a physiological response mechanism.  When you smile your body squirts happy chemicals into your system.  It will change your mental and physical state.  It will quiet the raging voices of doom in your head.

And breathe! Stop that shallow, slump breathing.  Take big breaths.  Expand that chest and diaphragm. In through the nose and blow it out through the mouth.  Slow, deep, conscious breathing.   If you can manage it try to exhale one beat longer than your inhale.

Again, this isn’t some hippy-dippy, New-Age magic.  This is a physiological mechanism.  Your breath is directly tied to your physical and mental state.  By rationally managing your breathing you can bring your machine back into balance, back into a normal state, back under your control.

Does this mean that you will magically be not tired?  That somehow your legs will start bouncing again?  No, probably not. But it allows you to manage the state you’re with the most efficiency.  Relaxing always translates to better performance no matter what level of athlete you are.

Your body has natural mechanisms to deal with and even to rise above this exhaustion.  By reeling in your physical and mental state you give these mechanisms a chance to kick in. You relax into the effort.

I find myself using this technical all the time.   I use this in races to back away from the edge without losing any time or speed.  I use it all the time in my training runs where I’ll find I’m just fighting the run for no good reason.  That’s when you use your form practice to reset and relax.