5. Lean your way to great running

A slight forward lean from the ankles, with the chest & pelvis squarely aligned is a great way to gain a mechanical advantage by utilizing gravity. A forward lean also increases cadence or stride rate, which is an extremely desirable asset to the distance runner. Please note the word slight – leaning too much can create over rotation & put pressure on the core muscles & increase loading in the hamstrings & hip flexors. Do NOT lean from the waist, this is a recipe for disaster. Keep the elbows bent 90* or less – the hallmark of all great distance runners is that bent elbow. Take smaller, but quicker steps & run lightly over the running surface. However do not chop your natural stride length down – allow the speed to determine stride length. The faster you run, the more you can lean. You are trying to reduce surface interaction time, but do not want to have to either lift the foot off the ground or get to the surface too soon & increase friction. If you are leaning too much, your foot strike becomes too loud & therefore heavy & you will have to lift your legs to clear the foot to stop it from scraping the surface – this lifting is a total no-no!
© Bobby McGee – Bobby McGee Endurance Sports
www.BobbyMcGee.com

Mastering downhill running

Been in Tucson helping with run mechanics & sport psychology for age group triathletes & doing some sagging up Mount Lemmon – now that’s a cool ride & probably a monster run. Camps are the way to go if you come from colder winter climes to jumpstart your season. Tucson is literally swamped with athletes of every kind at this time of year & besides opportunities to train swim, bike & run, there’s tons to do & GREAT places to eat. This year the weather has not played ball – cold & wet, but after what’s been going on weather-wise in Boulder & back east, there are no complaints.
Then we have a new world champion! Simon Martin, a friend & regular who attends drills & with whom I work on some scheduling & advice, won the world masters cross country title in Canada recently & made the final in both the 3000m & the 1500m – indoors. Congrats Simon!
Then we have another client/friend, who dived into BFR sans boots-and-all & then owned up to getting a stress fracture shortly afterwards! There were however some extenuating circumstances, so we’ll give him the benefit of the doubt…; speedy recovery Simon (another Simon).
This week I am delving into downhill running. There’s so much to say about this topic & so many struggle to gain the full advantage of gravity in races. 1stly I used to agree that “letting go” was a good idea in short races, but now I think down hills need to be “run” to gain full advantage. It helps to push the arms out a little wider during descents for balance & stability & also to open the elbow angle somewhat, lengthening the arm lever to keep the kinetic chain intact while taking longer strides. BUT I THINK A HIGHER STRIDE RATE IS THE ANSWER – this provides more control & less fatigue.
Lean off the line of gravity as the vertical, rather than off 90* being vertical on the level.
Mid foot strikers are able to brake with the foot & shoe, while heel strikers have to control descents with the shin (decelerating the lowering of the forefoot) & quad. This accelerated eccentric contraction massively fatigues the legs & does micro damage as well. Some studies have shown for example that some 70% of quad power is lost in the 1st 6 miles of the Boston Marathon due to the extreme nature of that descent. Heel strikers tend to step out from a slope & therefore “fall” much further to impact, while a good mid foot runner (still putting the heel down after the mid foot or at the same time), steps down the hill, a more kinesthetic move, with far less quad demand & dissipation requirements.
I remember in the 90s when I was running altitude camps for Olympic hopefuls in South Africa how we used to encourage the athletes to keep their heart rates up on descents by running down as hard as they could. Just this weekend some top long course triathlon pros were telling me how high they got their heart rates when descending on the bike – working against resistance down the hills to attain maximum speed.
Now, unlike the bike, bad form/lack of skill when running down can be ruinous to back, knees, shins & quads. To become a master runner on the downs requires an assessment of your current ability – do others kick your butt on the downs & are you really uncomfortable when running down & are you really beat up afterwards? If so assess your foot strike, body alignment & the other factors I have mentioned. Then practice in a number of ways – strengthen your legs through progressively building eccentric strength with lunges, squats, static & then linear plyometrics like hops & bounds. Then gradually, with short duration, shallow, well-cushioned (read grass) hills slowly develop both your technique & functional strength. Add one progressively longer run per week on a course that goes predominantly up on the way out & down on the way back. Eventually run some unidirectional runs; some faster & others longer, downhill. Progression rates with this skill & conditioning will be slower than for normal running as is indicated by the fact that a taper for a race with a lot of downhill running requires about a week longer to taper effectively.
So learn to actually run downhill rather than hang on & survive – turn descents into a weapon in your arsenal.
Till next time.
Bobby McGee
http://www.bobbymcgee.com/

PS: My new DVD on running form & run drills (with plenty of extras) is now available, either order from my website (www.BobbyMcGee.com) or from Endurance Films at www.endurancefilms.com

Cracking the tough nuts who CANNOT get their cadence up

Those of you that know my mechanics methodology will recall that I insist that an increased cadence should not be sought as a primary objective, but should rather be a result of the forward lean & the unloaded downward application of force, until the foot hits the surface. Thereafter loading takes place as momentum causes the pelvis to continue forward, but the foot is grounded & the psoas, hip & soleus, & associated tendons & ligaments load elastically. While this is still completely correct in my estimation – I have the hardest time teaching athletes to fire the glutes & not the psoas concentrically. Today I had something of a breakthrough – while working with an older marathon runner (not the lady in the pic - she is a pro IM athlete!) for about the 6th or 7th session, who has a very slow stride rate: Despite doing the intermittent application of resistance across the pelvis from the rear with a harness which, as usual, increased his power application correctly, as soon as I backed off, he again engaged the psoas & started lifting again.
So I went against my better judgment & ran next to him & told him to match my cadence no matter what – i.e. move up stride rate as a primary objective. He popped upright, lost power, but looked great & the level of dissipation (& consequent reduced impact sound) decreased dramatically & all I had to do was have him reinstitute the lean & voila he was a racing machine!
Conclusion: Metronomes work as cadence guides, as long as the forward lean aspect is addressed & upward oscillation is limited/eradicated.