My Ramblings blog style
Blog 1.
Economy and Efficiency : Good Running Form
Back To The Future Of Running, Training Technique
Better running training tips stretching muscles technique
Above are a couple of old YouTube clips with showing good running form.
They are not perfect, but I find that they are de-mything, and so simple and basic.
This is for endurance running middle distance to Ultra.
Obviously with faster pace, length of time of foot strike and stride length can vary.
But the basic principles of mechanics and posture are the same.
N.B. If transitioning to a more natural way of running, allow time, start with trying on the spot.
Warming up and cooling down, strides and drills, then short runs, gradually developing to longer.
Lean from the ankle, extended rear leg, mid-foot plant under centre of body, upright tall posture,
follow through leg in a natural gravitational way, vision focus 20 - 30 metres ahead,
relaxed pendulum type motion of hands and arms etc.
There are some individual idiosyncrasies, that maybe are not worth trying to eradicate too much, as the waste mental energy trying to achieve it, possibly won't make you any more efficient.
Head bobbing of Paula Radcliffe is an example, but she is extremely efficient in all other respects
Look out for these form killers on road.
1. HEAVY FEET
Getting your stomp on when training for races, is bad news for your joints.
It's often caused by over-striding or having a slower cadence, so count your cadence
(the number of times one foot lands in a minute, multiplied by two).
If it's below 170, work on increasing it by approx 5%.
More strides in the same amount of time means a lighter foot because there is less contact time with the ground.
2. SAGGING PELVIS
This is usually tied to weak glute strength and can be an injury risk due to muscle imbalance.
Hamstring and knee problems are common with poor glute strength in running so
augment your training with glute bridges, single leg squats and deadlifts to help engage
and strengthen the glutes, therefore strengthening the pelvic girdle.
3. HUNCHED SHOULDERS
Many novice runners are guilty of this, be warned that running with your shoulders up
by your ears instead of relaxed and down, creates tension and restricts arm movement,
which you need for stabilising and to drive you forward.
Faster running means larger arm movements.
When practising running drills concentrate on keeping shoulders down and exaggerate
arm movement in sprints so that it becomes second nature.
4. DIPPED HEAD
If you look down as you run you put unnecessary pressure on your neck and take the
whole upper back and shoulders forward too, restricting breathing and throwing off
good posture.
Focusing on the horizon and imagining you have a logo on the tip of your nose that
needs to be kept forwards helps you to run tall.
Tight chest muscles and weak back muscles exacerbate this problem so chest stretches
and back exercises such as inverted rows, deadlifts or lying lateral raises will also help
sort it out.
Practice these on every run and eventually it will become so natural.
N.B. there is more to say on economy and efficiency in later blogs.
Blog 2. What is tempo running?
This is a rehash of a blog I did in 2013
What is tempo running?
Well the accepted interpretation for running at your Lactate Threshold , now normally termed Lactate Turnaround Point, which is at a comfortably hard pace that you can maintain for up to an hour if you were in a 10 mile race.
So an aerobic threshold or lactate threshold run would normally be approximately 30 seconds slower than your current 10k ability, where you should not be gasping for breath but can’t easily string a full sentence together.
Faster runners may be nearer to their half marathon pace, otherwise break it down it to chunks (reps).
So the purpose of it is to improve your stamina and running economy so that you are more comfortable running fast in an endurance race.
The idea of the basic tempo run being, that you run it after a warm up, run at or under your LT for initially about 20 minutes, depending on your current fitness level, then finish with a cool down run.
Over a period of time you should progress this so that you are extending the time you can sustain this effort for, but upto a maximum of 40 minutes, any more at that pace, then you are near to racing.
Ir you feel a burn in your thighs then back off as that is your limit at LT for your current fitness level.
I won’t go into the science behind it here, but will be writing some articles and putting them on my website that I am in the process of building and developing at runningwisedrcoaching
I personally prefer to run them at current 10 mile race pace if on road, but obviously an equivalent effort if on trail or park, and they should be run on the least technical of route you can so as not to have too fluctuating a pace.
There are some variations on a theme that you can run depending on the time of year or competition/ training season as well as which race distance you are targeting.
They should not be overused especially if you are going to be racing shorter distances imminently.
If done properly they should be treated as a hard run in your schedule, and variations can be run as Cruise Intervals, Acceleration and Progression Runs, OBLA sessions, and Splitting into two runs with a short recovery, with time at LT pace for 15 to 50 minutes, depending on your standard.
Whilst those targeting longer races can extend the times to over an hour at steady state pace/ half marathon pace, for 45 to 75 minutes or if going for a marathon race, then at marathon pace for 60 minutes up to 90 minutes.
You will find that if you run at just under LT effort you can train more often at this pace, but don’t progress too quickly, if you struggle to keep up the pace then ease off and cool down as you are going to fast or are not yet ready to progress for longer time.
If you are confident with your ability to use a heart rate monitor and a sure that you know what your Maximum heart rate percentage is then by all means use the monitor to govern your pace and run them at 85% – 90% MHR.
Depending on your age and fitness level you would be running at somewhere between 140bpm and 170bpm any more then you be going too fast for the training effect that you are trying to achieve.
Blog 3.
I went down to the Crossroads to see what I could see.
I was at the Crossroads once before in 2007 after my second TKR.
I walked away again after failing to choose a road with many changes, despite the rhetoric.
The consequence was one of an initial fitness change, a work change, but too few structural changes in my life.
I find myself at the Crossroads again 12 years further on.
This time it is not knee removal, replacements and re-habing, but 2 melanoma removals.
Anyway, I should hopefully be quite well after a few operations and checks at Christies.
Or so I thought, as I stood at the crossroads, the view down each road, got murkier ?
At pre-op a high blood pressure reading, along with my naturally low heart rate, posed questions.
So after ultrasound and further ECG, it appears that I have 2 overactive heart valves.
What will life be like with a pacemaker fitted and possibly some Warfarin or similar blood thinner ?
What do I want to see, and how can any one of the roads address my selfish wants.
What do I need to do now to head down one of those roads.
Well I need time, and more chill out time.
More time to keep my mental well being in order.
More time to get my physical well being in order.
More time to coach to a higher satisfactory level, individuals and groups.
More time for individual runners to help realise their potential and achieve goals.
More time to encourage youth to carry on to be good Senior endurance runners.
More time to look after my wife better,
More time to have a reasonable social life and have holidays.
More time to spend with my Granddaughters to help guide their growing up, and keep pace with them.
How can I achieve these things,
Well self discipline, a little more selfishness and accept help from others.
Rationalise my activities to a manageable level.
So in reality I must keep team management involvement to a minimum.
Keep organization and promotion of events to a minimum.
Recruit more people to help with coaching of various groups.
I / WE need to encourage more people to get involved in our group to coach and group run lead.
Youth under 17 & U20's development, we lose too many who give up or we can't keep them attracted.
We don't have enough to cover all of our key races, I need to create a youth training nucleus, within our group.
We have more runners nearing or reaching International level as Seniors and Vet's, they need more guidance.
Novice or New Runners, couch to 5k, Sunday morning Half & Marathon and cross country groups.
Regular Run & Talk or coming back to running, group runs etc.
Many ideas and ambitions with goals above, but these need to be group goals.
Progression of these objectives are dependant on you runners or family & friends, coming forward.
I will mentor you / them and oversee all our training, groups and coaches, assistants, run leaders etc
Autumn & dark nights are coming, organisation is key, as our groups are growing in size.
Nights, Tuesdays from Crossford Bridge to various places, Thursday on track or road @ Wythenshawe.
Saturdays when no race @ Man Uni Fields or John leigh Pk hills, Sunday run from Crossford Bridge.
Many can't get to some sessions for work, family, lifestyle reasons so we replicate from home / work / holiday.
If there is a demand from some who can or want a daytime midweek session / run, we can set it up.
Likewise a Sunday run in the hills surrounding, or a favourite run near someones house etc.
I walked away from those crossroads as the vision was not clear or was altered.
I need to visit the crossroads again soon, as I have many ambitions still.
Will I see a future that I can recognise and desire, or will I walk down the same old, same old road ?
N.B. Sorry for this self indulgent diatribe, more a cathartic ramble on my part.
Normal service will be resumed as soon as possible.
Or may be not normal ? We will see.