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Improve Your Running Form By Richard Niles

Running is the most natural of the three triathlon sports. No one had to teach you how to run the first time you tried. It just happened. And then you fell. Through trial and error you developed your own style and learned not to fall. Running styles are like a signature or set of fingerprints. There are parts of it that you can't change, no matter how hard you try. A local running club has comedians who parody each other's running style. It always gets a laugh, but only partly because of the intended humor. It's hard to run like someone else, and it usually doesn't come out right.

Running has a consideration that doesn't play in cycling or swimming. There is a flight from which you land. Landing uses energy that is then unavailable to move you forward. This is why heavier people sometimes don't like running as much. They spend a greater percentage of their energy just staying erect. Everything you do in the other sports should somehow propel you forward.

Form Problems

Little can be done to correct running form. A few tendencies, however, can detract from running economy, a topic that we cover in the next chapter. And in running, we get back to the situation of unseen problems producing visible compensations.

Overstriding. Taking excessively big steps is the most common problem that I see. Most recreational runners overstride. Young runners overstride like crazy. I think it starts from thinking that if you want to go faster, you have to reach out and grab more real estate, as you do in the pool. But it doesn't work as well on land. If your foot is out in front of your center of gravity as it lands, you slow down. Because it's so far out in front, the foot has to stop to let the rest of you catch up. The brakes are on. You use more energy to absorb the landing impact. It's trouble all around, because overstriding can lead to injuries.

An extreme heel-first landing is a sign of overstriding. The only way that you can get your foot out that far is to land way back on your heel. Look at yourself running in front of a store window; or better yet, look at yourself on videotape. You want your foot to be directly underneath your knee as your weight comes down.

Most people who overstride are running too upright. Their bodies are perpendicular to the ground. In effect, they are running in front of their center of gravity, which is more of a pulling stride than a pushing one. People who run this way also tend to bounce up and down.

Envision your head traveling from point A to point B over a race course. If it goes in a straight line, it travels a shorter distance than if it has to go up and down. Vertical running directs energy away from the line that you want to take. It is uneconomical. You work harder and have to go farther.

You want to have the sensation that you are pushing off from behind. Some people sense that they have longer contact with the ground. This is what you want. You are then putting some stretch on your Achilles tendon, which will improve your running economy. Others say that it feels more like pushing than pulling. Many people don't like it at first. It feels different. But they run faster and easier without a fitness change when it becomes natural.

To get a sense of the position, I often will grab someone by the shirt and pull them into an extreme forward-leaning position. (You should see the looks of surprise.) You should lean forward from the feet to the head. You don't want to bend at the waist. To start, practice running in an excessive forward lean for about 20 yards. Visualize some wise guy pulling you by your shirt. Then try a more moderate lean for about a minute of running. You should be about three to five degrees forward. It is important to bring your hips forward with your chest. You can't change your running form right away; your style is too ingrained. It's best to practice the forward lean with short pickups or in 200-meter repeats.

I've found that the remaining form problems, though relatively minor, will also prevent you from running efficiently.

Imbalanced arm swing. If your arms aren't swinging evenly, then most likely your upper body is twisting. This is a sideways motion that won't propel you forward. You are compensating for something. Usually the problem is not your arm. Your arm is probably compensating for back tightness. The first thing that you want to check is your lower-back flexibility. Sit down with your legs extended in front and your feet about a foot apart. Reach toward your feet with your hands together. If you can't reach beyond your heels you have a tight back and hamstrings. Try doing some stretching exercises for your back and hamstrings, and after a few weeks your arm swing should even out.

Tight shoulders. Tight shoulders create a hunched look. You might begin to have difficulty hearing because your shoulders are in your ears. Nearly everyone does it as they begin to fatigue. It tends to make your arm swing choppy, which translates to the legs and produces a choppy stride. It takes more effort to maintain a choppy stride. Periodically take a few breaths with a slightly different rhythm and let your shoulders drop. It also helps to relax your jaw, which works down to the shoulder, to the arms, and finally to the legs. If you work at a desk, you should do the same thing during your work day.

Bent at the waist (sitting in a bucket). This happens when you try to learn a forward lean and don't bring your hips forward. It's much more difficult to run bent over. Try it in an extreme position, like running under a low branch. You can feel muscles working against gravity, because you have moved your center of gravity out in front of your feet. If you straighten up and pull your hips forward, you suddenly feel lighter. Your weight is over your feet.

Choppy breathing patterns. We think of breathing as the singular function of taking in oxygen. But we also exhale carbon dioxide. As we accumulate lactic acid in our blood during exercise, we exhale carbon dioxide to buffer it. If you are taking short, choppy breaths you are probably getting all the oxygen you need, but you are inhibiting this buffering process by not exhaling enough carbon dioxide. Short breathing also has a tendency to tighten you up. Breathing patterns should have a long full exhale before inhaling. You want to feel your diaphragm working as you breathe. This is called "belly breathing." It's an easy thing to forget when you fatigue. Part of the problem is that your breathing muscles fatigue just as your legs do. You need to practice full breathing all the time so that the endurance capacity of those muscles increases along with that of your legs.

Form corrections of any kind can forge rapid changes. The hard part is that the longer you have been doing something, the more readily you will fall back into an old form habit. Motor learning is a repetitive process. The more you repeat something, the better you learn it. Old dogs can learn new tricks; it just takes them longer.

Excerpted from Time-Saving Training for Multisport Athletes, 1997, by Richard Niles.

Additional Cross-Training & Triathlons' excerpts--Sleamaker and Evans