Tips on Running Form

There are as many different styles of running as there are runners. Sometimes, what looks like poor running form can work well for a particular runner. The great Olympian, Emil Zatopek, used to run with his head rolling from side to side. This became his trademark: if his coach had trained him to keep his head straight, he would probably never have broken as many records as he did.

Having said that, there are several pointers you can use to make your running more efficient. Just remember that if one of these feels really awkward to you, it may not fit with your particular style. Be flexible.

First, let's talk about posture. The idea is to run tall, with the work being done by the lower body and the upper body relaxed. Think of it as though you were on a horse: the legs do all the work. If your shoulders and arms are tense, you will tire more easily and you're wasting energy on the parts that are not contributing to your run.

The next topic is the feet. If your feet are slapping the ground, you are wasting energy there. Run quietly and you'll feel the difference.

Your feet also should "pull" you along the ground, This means that you will pull back after each foot strike and push forward with a little spring at each toe-off. If you're bouncing, you're probably wasting energy here, too.

Your stride should be comfortably long. Beginning runners, especially, have a tendency to overstride, believing that this will help them go faster. Overstriding, though, puts undue stress on the legs and can lead to injuries. Stretching out your legs with strides once in a while during a run is good, but you should not try to maintain long strides throughout your runs. Running tall, as if there were a string pulling your head up, will help lengthen your stride length naturally.

When running up hills, you'll find that using your arms to "pull" you up the hill can help. Otherwise, your arms will normally be relaxed and moving more or less straight ahead and back. I find that my arms tend to cross over my body, especially when I'm tired, but this is less efficient than having them move straight ahead and back. On longer runs, it's a good idea to let your arms just hang down and flap around for a while every now and then, as it helps to relax the arms and shoulders and get the circulation moving better through the arms and hands.

All this applies after you have warmed up. The warmup phase, the first ten minutes or so of each run, is when your body is getting used to moving. After that, when you are starting to run easier, is when to concentrate on your running form. At first, it's best only to concern yourself with your form during your easy or long, slow runs. If you can concentrate on good form during the middle third of each of these runs, you'll find that it begins to feel natural. Your form, and hence your pace, will gradually improve.

Here's to your great running form!

Enjoying the Heat?

With August fast approaching, those of us who live in the
Northern Hemisphere are starting to feel the summer heat. I just got back from a long, hot run and found myself envying those of you who are running in Australia and New Zealand!

It's been a while since I sent out one of these quasi-occasional "Special Edition" newsletters -- I've been busy on other things. Mainly in developing a business networking web site at http://gr8netbiz.com (shameless plug!). It still has some bugs, but take a look and let me know what you think.

And finally, a lot of those who completed my survey
were interested in hot weather running, which is the reason for
this post. (If you didn't complete it, you can find it
here.)

The first hot weather question that comes to my mind is what to
wear. You probably know that cotton is your worst enemy,
especially if you run in high humidity. Where I run, the
humidity is generally well above 50%, which encourages profuse
sweating. Cotton, in these circumstances, quickly gets wet and
clammy, whereas synthetics are designed to wick the moisture
away from the skin. They still get wet, but help to cool you
through evaporation.

The second issue is hydration. All the books warn about staying
well hydrated in hot weather, even if you're not running. I've
found that the best way to hydrate is to drink before and after
a run. If the run lasts for an hour or more, I'll carry water to
drink during the run, and generally start drinking about 30-45
minutes into the run.

(Long slow distance runs, when abbreviated to ell-ess-dee runs,
are likely to attract unwanted attention from web crawlers, so
I'm changing the references to long-distance slow runs, or LDS
runs. Makes more sense, anyway!)

So, for my LDS runs, I'll drink a couple of glasses of sports
drink before and after the run and carry water with me.
Personally, I like the Gatorade lemon-lime flavor for the sports
drink. I carry water because sports drinks tend to be sticky and
messy when I'm consuming them on the run.

In hot weather, unless I'm training for a specific event, I
don't push myself as hard as in cooler weather. Specifically,
I'll run slower and for a shorter time than I would otherwise.
However, rather than just piling on the miles, I'll be careful
to maintain good form so the runs still count as quality runs.

On the subject of humidity, I've found that if it's much below
50%, I don't seem to sweat at all! What happens, of course, is
that the sweat evaporates as soon as it hits the skin. This is
dangerous, because you can become dehydrated without realizing
it.

Running alone is generally easier than running with a group for
me, because with a group I tend to push too hard. That's OK in
cooler weather, but it adds unnecessary stress in hot weather.
However, some people prefer running with others -- the choice is
yours.

Choosing where to run in hot weather is fun. I pick places where
there is as much shade and as much breeze as possible. I also vary
my route to avoid boredom -- a good idea in any case.

Picking the right time to run is a matter of personal choice and
opportunity. I used to run in the morning before the sun was up,
but found that it was easy to trip in a pothole and get injured.
Also, the relative humidity tends to be at its highest at that
time, which doesn't work for some people.

I find that evening running doesn't work too well for me. If I
leave my run until the evening, I'm inclined to skip it
altogether.

When I was working, I used to run at noon. That way, I ate a
light lunch (very healthy!) and used the lunch break to
exercise. By starting noon time running early in the year, I
built up my resistance to where the heat didn't bother me for the
shorter runs.

For longer runs, I prefer to run in the morning at weekends. The
weather is relatively cool, the humidity has dropped a bit, and
if I run before breakfast I still have the day ahead of me to
use as I choose. In the end, though, it's whatever works for you!

Enjoy the heat!

New Running Website, New Running Blog

This week’s big news is that I have finally got the new website for runners up (and running ).

It looks a lot different from my other site .
I’m still trying to figure out the best way of combining them (or even
whether that’s a good idea). The first site is more of a web service,
with weekly e-mail newsletters, but this is a resource site with lots
of links. It also has several articles posted, some of which were
written for me and others that I took from my newsletters.

You might also be interested in my new running blog.

I have copied the previous content from this blog to it to get it started, but there is more being added to it all the time.

Capitol 10K was huge!!!

Sunday was a great day for running -- mid 60s with light rain
showers to cool me off! That was the day for the Capitol 10K.
Here are a couple of pictures taken after the race, and a copy
of the newsletter I sent out to my subscribers at
http://www.beginning-running.com/.

Your Beginning
Running Newsletter

Capitol
10K and Last Day of Sale


Yesterday I hit another of my goals! I ran the Capitol 10K in
Austin, Texas. There were 6,566 timed runners, and I was not
last! (I was #6,355, so there were 211 slower than me.)

I don't know how many total runners there were, as there were a
bunch more fun runners, many in costume. All I know for sure is
that they were still finishing some time after I had stopped for
refreshments, so I felt really good about that. Since this is my
first race in nine years, I was excited, and it turned out just
great!

For those interested in statistics, my time was 1:34:27.8 and I
was 10th out of 18 in my age group. I don't know if he was the
oldest runner, but a 97-year-old crossed the finish line about
20 minutes after me. The winner's time, by the way, was just
over 30 minutes; his pace was exactly 5 minutes per mile. (I
console myself by noticing that he is my junior by almost 40
years!)

If you're thinking about a race, you'll find a big race is a
wonderful way to boost your enthusiasm. This was the biggest
race I have run, and I have found that the bigger the race the
better my chance of not being last! Not that it really matters
-- the last person to finish gets cheered by the crowd almost as
much as the winner.





My wife took the photo of me finishing -- I had a great kick at
the end and passed the finish line before she saw me! They
announced my name just as I crossed the line, so the shot is a
little late.

Remember, today is the last day of the Road Runner Sports
sale.

One of the great things about them is that you can run in their
shoes for 60 days and then return them if they don't work for
you. Where else can you get a deal like that?



Sincerely

Alan
Jenkin Fitness Runner with a Beginner's Mind

Huntsville,
Texas

beginningrunning@gmail.com

I'm stoked!

Yesterday (Sunday), I ran 10 miles for the first time in more years than I can remember. I was stoked! I couldn't wait to put out a special newsletter to the members of my running site.

Then, today, it dawned on me that I could also put it on this blog. Duh!

So here it is:

Your Beginning Running Newsletter

Special Edition

I am so excited that I need to share this with you right away!

I just got back from a long run (actually, a jog, rather than a
run). If you're in the second stage of my program, you know
about LSD runs. Well, my last long run was 8 miles.

I had set a goal to run 10 miles before April 18. Today, the
weather here was perfect, sunny and breezy and in the 70s. When
I set off for my run, forcing myself to keep my pace as slow as
possible, I knew it was going to be a great run.

As I settled down, after 5 or 10 minutes, I found myself getting
into "the zone". That happens when suddenly everything seems
perfect and I feel that I could run all day without getting
tired.


So guess what? I met my goal a month early! Just blew away 10
miles.

Of course, this means I broke my 10% rule, but what the heck! If
you never break a rule, you never live. The bad thing about is
that that last mile was really hard work, but who knows how much
of that was just because I knew I was breaking my rule?



Anyway, it feels great to be there already. Now I can
concentrate on picking up my pace in time for a 10K in two
weeks. Wish me luck!

Sincerely

Alan Jenkin Fitness Runner with a Beginner's Mind

Huntsville, Texas

beginningrunning@gmail.com

We've been busy!

Sam Camp is exciting and is giving us a lot to do. Reaching our goals is challenging but fun!

My goals for Camp are:

1. I have developed a website and newsletter service for beginning runners, and have 100 or more members by Friday 9:00am PST April 18th., 2008.

2. I have run 10 consecutive miles or more by Friday 9:00am PST April 18th., 2008.

3. Team Laser (our small group of five) has selflessly committed 16 hours or more of community service per person, for a total of 96 hours or more by Friday April 16th., 2008 at 9:00am PST.

Working backwards through this list, I have 5 hours of service so far (30%) and have run 8 miles (80%). The first goal is lagging: I have the website and the newsletter service, but so far have only 21 members (21%).

I'm sure I'll get the other 79 members within the time frame, but I'd like to get at least 200. After all, what's the point in having a goal if you can't blow past it?

So, dear reader, if you want to support me, sign up now! The good news is that until April 18th. it doesn't cost anything. The even better news is that you can drop it anytime (only please hang in there until after April 18th.!) Meanwhile, you can assist me by letting me know all the errors you find or suggestions you may have for improvement. Even if you're not a runner.

BTW, one of Billie's goals is to lose weight until she can get into size 12 jeans. She made it already, and is now trying for a 10. Way to go, Billie! She's lost about 30 lbs., and looks great for it.

We're Back!

We made it back safely to Huntsville after an exciting two weeks in Phoenix, San Diego and Ventura. Billie got some great photos (I think) but they're all still in her camera. The first weekend of Samurai Camp 14 with Klemmer was amazing. I came back with three goals (including a team goal) -- all to be accomplished by April 18:

1. I have developed a website and newsletter service for beginning runners, and have 100 or more members who are receiving my regular newsletters by Friday 9:00am PST April 18th , 2008.
2. I have run 10 consecutive miles or more by Friday 9:00am PST April 18th , 2008.
3. Team Laser has selflessly committed 16 hours or more of community service per person, for a total of 96 hours or more by Friday April 18th, 2008 at 9:00am PST.

The current status for Goal 1 is that the web site is now up and running properly, so if you know anyone who might be interested, please encourage them to look at the site and (hopefully) enroll. I am making it free for the first fifty. If you or anyone you know, would be available to test it for me (by enrolling), that too would be helpful.

For the second goal, I ran 8 miles today, so am well on my way. I'm still v.e.r.y slow, but am working on my speed because I'm running the Capitol 10K in Austin on March 30.

I have not yet started on the third goal.

The following week with Klemmer, staffing Heart of the Samurai 24 was also amazing, but slightly marred by the fact that Billie and I both got allergies. We think it was caused by mold in the room: the weather was pretty damp most of the time. If/when we staff again, we'll probably stay off site.

We saw Paul, Alisa, Kai and Judy for a brief visit last Monday and Tuesday and flew back to Houston Tuesday.

On Thursday we went to the World Championship Barbecue Cook Off at the Houston Rodeo to see Trent perform a great show. Billie stayed on in Houston at Rusty's house to work on her Samurai Camp goals, while I'm working on mine in Huntsville. I'll see her again Monday, when Trent's label has a Houston Rodeo Kick-Off and CD Release Party. Then, in the evening Trent will be performing at the Hideout (formerly known as the Astrodome).

After that, maybe things will quiet down for a while so we can continue to work on our goals!