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Heel Striking
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I'm not one to make New Year's resolutions because changes worth making are worth making anytime of the year. Having said that, I have resolved to begin a program of injury-free running and my resolution happens to coincide with the beginning of a new year!
I am about half-way through reading ChiRuning, the book by Danny and Katherine Dreyer. Danny Dreyer believes that "the primary cause of injury is poor running form and poor biomechanics." As someone who has worked out regularly for many years, I would agree. A couple of my injuries (hamstring and piriformis syndrome) began after I trained for my third or fourth 10-mile or half-marathon race. I was already fit when I began training and I followed a disciplined 10-12 week program of building up my weekly mileage, not increasing the total mileage by more than 10%. Yet I still ended up with injuries that proved to be difficult to heal!
Although form and biomechanics are important, I wonder how much running shoes contribute to running injuries. I am also reading Tread Lightly by Peter Larson and Bill Katovsky. The authors have studied the evolution of running, barefoot running, and the science and marketing of modern running shoes and suggest that our high-priced running shoes, designed to cushion the foot and control pronation, might do more harm than good. I buy my shoes online from Road Runner Sports; my husband prefers to buy his locally at the Boulder Running Company where they will help you find the "best shoe" based on whether you have high arches or pronate when you run.
ChiRunning encourages runners to take their time making changes to their running form even though some people have reported improved running performance in a few weeks. The Chi method is based on focusing your mind and sensing how your body is moving, "the thinking person's way to run." As an accountant, after thinking analytically all day, it is a challenge for me to focus on my posture, running cadence, etc. after work. I just want to turn on the iPod and let my mind wander. But I also enjoy the many benefits of running and want to continue running as long as possible. So if that means I have to focus an additional 30 minutes or so a day to learn some new tricks, so be it!
ChiRunning Focuses are categorized into six groups: 1) Posture 2) Lean 3) Lower Body 4) Pelvic Rotation 5) Upper Body and 6) Cadence, Stride Length, and Gears.
1) Posture: I have always known that my posture is not great. I can see from pictures that I tend to let my chin jut forward. I also know that I don't relax my shoulders, though I am not aware of the tension (my husband and the mammogram tech point that out). ChiRunning includes an exercise where you stand and look down to see if you can see your feet - I couldn't. When I relaxed my shoulders, I could.
2) Lean: If you lean your whole body forward from your ankles, then gravity will assist you in running. Challenge 1 for me is figuring out if I am leaning from my ankles or from my waist since I can't see myself run. Challenge 2 is figuring out how much to lean. The book describes your lean as "your gas pedal." If you lean more, you run faster. On the treadmill this week, I caught myself leaning too much and tripping a bit as I picked up speed.
3) Lower Body: With the ChiRunning method, your lower legs are supposed to be passive. They don't propel you; they support you. You just pick up your feet to catch the fall caused by leaning forward. The book outlines an exercise of picking up your heels and "peeling" your feet off the ground, like peeling a stamp off a roll. You are not supposed to lift your knees when you run because the author says that leads to a heel strike, which is essentially putting on the brakes. I practiced this exercise on my last hike. I know I need to pick up my feet more but the idea of not lifting the knees seems a little weird. I've watched elite runners and they seem to lift their knees.
4) Pelvic Rotation: I'm still trying to get my mind's eye around this concept. Your lower body is supposed to pivot from your "pivot point" which is vertebrae T12/L1 (yeah, that helps!). The book has a "pool running drill" where you imagine when you were a kid and the lifeguard at the local pool yelled at you to walk as you ran along the pool deck. So you walked fast instead. I can picture that but I can't yet visualize how to integrate that into running.
5) Upper Body: Unlike pelvic rotation, this form focus is pretty easy for me to visualize - bending the elbows, swinging my arms to the rear, not crossing my centerline with my hands, relaxing my hands, keeping your shoulders low and relaxed. I clearly have work to do in this area though. Not only do I lift my shoulders unconsciously, I also catch myself clenching my hands when I run.
6) Cadence, Stride Length, Gears: The author says that most people run with a cadence of between 80 and 83 strides per minute. Mine is at the lower end. The author recommends gradually increasing your cadence to 85-90 strides per minute, a shorter quicker stride that reduces your perceived effort. After measuring my cadence a few times, I can tell that I will struggle to increase my spm unless I purchase a metronome as Dreyer recommends.
Low Gear = slower speed, less lean, shorter strideHigh Gear = higher speed, more lean, longer stride
This is a lot of stuff to think about when I run. It is going to take some time. I have slowed down and I am trying to take care of my injuries. I'm avoiding activities that might aggravate my injuries like sprinting or running up hill.
Running Form and Biomechanics:
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