Running Clinic
When I got bit by the running bug back in March of last year, I became a voracious reader, consuming anything on the subject of running. One of the things that caught my attention, although I'm not sure where it came from, was the statement that no matter what your current running times are, you'll always strive to improve them.
Now I kind of viewed this advice with some skepticism. After all I was only interested in being able to run for a certain distance, no walking mind you, and keeping up my fitness level so the pounds wouldn't creep back on. Time was just an arbitrary number. Who cared if you ran a 5K in over or under thirty minutes.
Who cares? Well me, I guess.
Beating the clock, at least in my head, has become a measure of my level of fitness. And as such, I've now been sucked into the vortex of racing time.
One of the ways to run faster, and decrease your times, is to improve your running efficiency, i.e. accomplish more by expending less energy. The problem is that without a third party to analyze your running mechanics, it becomes very difficult to know where your problems lye. So when I heard that my Podiatrist was offering a running clinic, I made sure I was one of the first to register.
Yesterday was the day of truth and I felt excited that when all was said and done, I'd have some idea of how efficient my running mechanics were or as they say in Missouri, if there was a hitch in my giddy up.
They first video recorded me running on the treadmill. Getting shots from all angles. People glancing over and my mind assuming that they were probably wondering who this world class athlete was who was being video taped. I thought to myself this must have been how Lance felt when he was doing wind tunnel testing preparing for the Tour de France.
Second, they threw me out on the track to be video recorded so they could get an idea of my running mechanics on a static surface.
Afterwards, we headed back in to review the video and I was pretty surprised by what they found.
When they have you run on the treadmill, they put a soap line directly down the center of the belt. This allows them to easily see if there is any crossover in your running stride. My running stride had me pretty much running right on the line itself, i.e. where my front foot strikes, and sometimes my left foot would even crossover the line. This forces my trail leg to have to whip around as I bring it forward acting like a counter balance, which is repeated with each stride. Not very efficient.
The prognosis was that this was caused by not having enough strength in my glutes and hips. It was their impression that by strengthening this area of my body, the over compensation of my running stride would be eliminated.
They also pointed out that I use too much of my upper body when I run, i.e. my arm motion is too exaggerated and should be reduced to conserve energy.
Overall they said I looked pretty good and that I had one of the better forms of many of the runners they see. A nice compliment to say the least.
Now as the race season starts to get into gear, I have somethings to work on in an attempt to get my 5K down to a respectable time. It looks like I'm back to chasing the white rabbit, at least for this season.