Hey Guys..

Big question for all the half marathon/running buffs out there.

My running form is terrible, I know it, and can feel it. In fact, it's so bad I think I'm causing knee injuries just running.
I do anywhere between several 5km runs a week to a couple of 10km run and a couple of 18km runs a week, so need to hone my form for efficiency reasons!

Is there anything you guys could reccommend to improve form? My shoes are shit and start being sore at about 10km, buying new ones soon, so that could help

Anyway signs of my bad form is the left foot becoming tense after about 2-3km and the right calf seeming to be driving periodically, which hints to me that I'm very uneven

Any advice greatly appreciated...
Em

the cheep way...assuming you don't want to invest in a biomechanist
vid yourself on your digital camera, put it thru frame by frame software like windows movie maker. compare your style to an ideal style via youtube. check for:

side on-
footstrike: is it too far forward causing excess knee flex before driving. foot should be landing mid foot for 5k pace, front foot for speed paces. too much front foot landing can strain the feet.
- excess lateral wobble of shoulders. keep shoulders relaxed and stillish.
- slight full body lean forward, not bent at hips.
- arms at 80-100 degrees approx.
- look for excessive bounce of your body. can show flexing knee, or too much calf energy being used bouncing rather than forward movement.

a good tip for the foot strike and bouncing is listen to your feet. try for nice and quiet while still being relaxed. the slapping feet equals jarring on the body.

front on:
arm swing not crossing the midline

look for hip collapse (knee dropping excessively on landing.) wear a stripy top and look at how far it drops at the hips on each foot strike. this can cause all kinds of issues with knees. often knee injuries originate at the hip/ core, not the feet like many think.

knee staying aligned above foot as opposed to flexing inwards (common) or outwards.

core workouts help, as do single leg bends/squats done with good form, glute medius strengthening.

what I do when I run is a body check every minute. shoulders relaxed, feet smooth, breathing deep using the lower lungs, lean with leg drive.

spend time solely developing your style.
do 1 min of technique then rest. and so on. slowly build it up keeping your form

look at your soles of feet for areas of hardness, they can give you tips on unusual landing patterns. both side should show even 'balls of feet' hardness.

finally although you can waste shitloads of money finding a good biomechanist, they're good!! careful of orthodox podiatrists who prescribe expensive orthotics.

Thanks so much mate very much appreciated!! Will do the video thing over the break.

Em

yeah barbs...for that you focus on running 'taller' and a slight lean forward to stop the over-reaching stride & excessive knee flex. Focus on the pushing-off in your stride rather than a reaching-out stride. Feels like you're striding shorter, but the foot strikes are still about the same distance apart. You'll be using the glutes more too, which is better.
There are some good core exercises for the hip collapse. The simple starter one is to stand on a step with one foot hanging over the edge, lift and lower the free foot by raising the hip. Focus on slow and deliberate lowering. This can progress to single leg hops in front of a mirror watching for the knee to stay stable

But sometimes it's just about being aware of it will sort it out. I'm sure your podiatrist gave you a bomb load of exercises anyway:)

See a running coach. My wife has struggled with her running due to poor technique, and she recently had the opportunity to do a group session with a running coach. There were about 6 people in the group, so they each paid something like $20. By the end they all felt and looked like they were running better.

Try barefoot running - new research released last week shows how running in shoes can lead to injury (through the body over-relying on the cushioing of shoes). Running barefoot helps the body to revert back to a natural running gait, improving core strength and improving running form.

Check out http://barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/

BarefootCHCH wrote:Try barefoot running - new research released last week shows how running in shoes can lead to injury (through the body over-relying on the cushioing of shoes). Running barefoot helps the body to revert back to a natural running gait, improving core strength and improving running form.

Check out http://barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/

There is a book on that around somewhere call "born to run". The idea has been around a lot longer than just last week

I thought the single most important thing was to get the stride rate up to 90-100 (double) strides per min? (most people stride too slowly). That is supposed to fix many problems and it's easy to measure.

or maybe you should be running in a shoe that has a whole lot less padding as heel padding encourages the excessive heel strike

slidecontrol wrote:

mfw wrote:I thought the single most important thing was to get the stride rate up to 90-100 (double) strides per min? (most people stride too slowly). That is supposed to fix many problems and it's easy to measure.

its all intertwined, if you are over striding ( and likely heel striking), then your cadence will be very hard to increase. Shortening the stride allows an increase in cadence and puts your foot strike back under your hips where it should be ( and hopefully improves the quality of the footstrike )

Optimum stride for distance running is around 180, and there are people out there who deduce 90rpm for triathletes cycling action as optimum, based on this.

Careful when you talk about shortening stride, that's not ideal at all. What happens is overstriding causes the heel to strike and 'brake' the fwd movement, and the knee to overflex etc...leading to shitloads of joint issues and slower running style.

A good way to think about form is to focus on 2 things:

!. Keep the hips as high off the ground as you can.

2. Focus on the push off for stride length rather than the reach out for stride length.

think of it as over reaching rather than overstriding, (you can never overstride...speed = stride length X cadence)

flexible hip flexors are key, (and not common in cyclists...)

nageM, don't hide your loveliness in the Dark