Running Blogs
The Running School Blog - Mark from Lanson Running goes back to school!
Introduction
The Running School teaches adults and children alike simple running biomechanics, balance and form. It includes all the key technical factors involved with running more efficiently, remaining injury-free and running faster (for more information see full details on our Performance page).
Below you will find a running blog written by Mark from Lanson Running. The blog will catalogue the 6 sessions in which James from The Running School works with Mark and the impact it has upon his training, performance and injuries. Read on to find out how things went and perhaps find out if this is something of interest to you.
Session 1: Induction, review and preparation
Session 2: Back to basics with correct technique
Session 3: Further practice and building strength
Session 4: Correcting my mistakes and slowing things down
Session 5: More arms and balance the legs
Session 6: The final tweaks and the finished article?
As anyone who knows me and definitely those who have witnessed me running, there is no better candidate than me for some 'lessons in running'. Plus with my marathon time bearing no correlation with my 10k nor half marathon times, it was clear that my performance over the longer distance was not just affected by training. It was time to go
back to basics and to visit The Running School. With the London Marathon a realistic target for
tangible results we have 6 months to play with.
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So having the made the journey across London to the facility in Chiswick I quickly got changed into my kit and prepared for the initial assessment. First up, James (big fella in clip below) watches and ponders me warming up. Next I am asked to run for
several short bursts of increasing intensity (speed and inclination) on the treadmill. James kindly videos these bursts of unorthodox running for your entertainment and for use in my analysis. Plus because this is the first session, this film will be the benchmark for all future improvement.
The film above is a shortened version of a full length, side and rear view of my running. Once all the filming was complete James and sat down (obviously using a swiss ball rather than a chair) and I tried to relax about the news and prepare for some wholesale changes to my natural approach to running technique. James and all the staff at the Running School are experts in this field and with their guidance I was confident that it was all going to be worth it.
So, if you couldn't tell from watching the clip above what was wrong, the first session ended with a synopsis of the main things I don't do right and a brief insight into what will need to change. James was quickly able to point out the cause of an ongoing runner's knee injury, my tight achilles and calf muscles and was predicting back pain to come (something to look forward to). The things to change will include, and not be limited to my arm movement, my stride length, the use of my hamstrings and probably much more that I have either forgotten or blocked out. Collapse
So this is where we start working on
improving my technique. As such I was expecting this to be a fairly busy session and James did not let me down. I was positively knackered after pretty much an hour of short sharp bursts on the treadmill, usually on a heavy incline and going at a pace of more than 8pmh. The idea of structuring the running in this way is to get the correct technique, which is best learned at a
high tempo, but only over a short distance so that you can focus and stave of fatigue.
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The first thing that James wanted to address was raising my heel up to my bum on each stride. From there the idea was to bring the knee forward in order to generate a cyclical motion that would
use my hamstring rather than hip flexor for striding. No problem - ish. My right leg adapted to the exercise quite well for the short bursts. My left side seemed clumsy, sluggish and unhelpful.
We had to spend some time working on this new motion pattern. The problem was that by focusing on the left the right would slip and focusing on both meant the left gave up. After repeating the sequence on the treadmill it was
starting to come together. But I was getting very tired very quickly. A handy side effect of the new style - new muscles, no strength = fatigue.
The session then started to consider the use of my arms. It seems that the right technique for arm movement is
'chin to back pocket' with the elbow at a tighter angle than in the video. I found the key was knowing that it should be the elbow pushing back rather than the back of the fist. Progress? Well my arms were not too bad but you just knew that I now needed to put new arms and legs together.
Back on the treadmill the combination of raising my heels (and having to really work on the left side) combined with really cycling my knee forward, at the same time as working my arms, was just too much. It didn't completely go to pot but it nearly did. But the old adage of
practice makes perfect was applied and it will also have to be applied for the next week or so as I start to adapt to better running.
The only issue is the small matter of the
Royal Parks Half Marathon on Sunday which is now a worry because I will somehow need to blend old and new technique to get round without falling apart and setting a new personal worst...
CollapseHaving practiced and raced the Royal Parks Half Marathon with what can only be described as mixed technique (old and new). And having developed very
tight calves and a slightly
sore left shin it was obvious that things were changing. It was also very necessary to get back to The Running School to continue with my lessons and iron out these problems.
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Today’s session was with Dan, and although not always the case, it was going to be beneficial to have
another set of expert eyes watch over my running. So having warmed up and shown him my stuff he quickly got to work (there is still plenty of work to be done).
His observations were that I needed to
power through my toe off a little more, to get the heel back and up whilst driving the knee forward. We also practiced holding the bar and using the side mirror to ensure my posture was leaned forward but not too much. Dan used the same routine of
short sharp bursts on the treadmill with
exaggerated movements to encourage the body to remember through repetition without fatigue.
We discussed the arms again too and practiced the
'chin to back pocket' motion. And under Dan's watchful eyes he got me really making sure my elbow was the driving force and we discussed not allowing the arms to come inside and rotate the upper body. All these factors were then pulled together and I started to
develop rhythm that could be repeated over long distances.
With about 15 minutes of the session to go it was time to think about
adding in strength exercises to help condition the new but correct muscle groups. We did single and double leg squats, and wood chopper with medicine ball. My back posture was arched and not straight and
I sincerely lack strength in my gleuteus maximus and lower back, core and hamstrings. I definitely need to focus on these at home.
So the end of the session and the conclusion is that
progress is being made. But I need to do more running purely focused on technique. Plus it really is essential to introduce the strength exercises into my fitness routine, which means
finding time to do them. However, there is no point in going to the school if you are not
willing to learn or without the desire to improve. So watch this space for further news on that and to see if I can truly progress.
CollapseThe weekend prior to today’s session I had done a 20 min training session of
mixed drills and strength work on the Saturday followed by a very bad (i.e. slow) 10k on the Sunday. This had left my hamstrings pretty stiff for today’s schooling but I decided to go along to the Running School in Chiswick anyway to see if I was making progress. And despite a slow start once I had warmed up I was able to get my legs moving again.
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Today’s coach was Emma so the third person from The Running School to watch over me. She took me through the
treadmill drills necessary to fine tune and commit the corrected technique to
muscle memory. Today’s focus was really on correcting the right leg which had fallen behind in the adaptation.
It also seemed that whilst out running between the sessions I had conveniently
forgotten about my arms. Well not completely because I was holding a good position but plainly not moving them in the required ‘chin to back pocket’ range. So with some encouragement from Emma and some
blood sweat and tears on my part we got things back on track.
James then joined Emma and I to oversee what improvements or otherwise I had made. His advice was to get the
treadmill moving a little faster in order to accommodate the speed at which I was cycling my legs. This did feel better and despite becoming a little fatigued it was evident that progress was being made. I then raised the issue of applying the technique over
longer distances and we practiced the new technique without the exaggeration required whilst learning. This is what I need to practice between now and the next and 5th session.
CollapseAnother week and another
nervous wait to see if I was managing to 'get it'. That first run on the treadmill of a new session provides The Running School with all that they need for the hour ahead. I was confident in my mind that things were starting to twig but once Lynsey, my coach for the day, saw what I had to offer there was a
busy session ahead.
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The two main things that still required work was the
cycling motion of my right leg and the limited range of
movement in my arms. What still confuses me is that I wrote in the running blog above, that my right leg was just fine. That the problem was with the left hand side. Maybe this was the case but it is certainly now the right which is a little behind and
needed attention.
And to be honest, I really believed I would be complimented today on the rhythm and movement of my arms. But it seems that I was fooling myself and by
closing the angle at the elbow I was limiting my movement. Lynsey introduced stretch bands to keep the angle constant whilst on the treadmill, but the
real moment of clarity came when she suggested I think about moving my elbow forward.
Obviously when practising applying the corrected arm and leg movements together I could only get one or the other right at the same time! And whoever said that men cannot mult-task? But I did start to get the feel for the right arm movement and
I am confident that I can truly remember it this time. The right leg will need
more work and I am not sure whether I can get this right and for it to feel normal. Time will tell on this but I must ensure that I feel that the right leg is working harder for now.
The
repeated short bursts on the treadmill then started to take their toll on my hamstrings and we had to call it a day to avoid slipping back into
bad habbits. As such Lynsey took me through some more strength exercises and stretching to finish the session off. She was able to
subtly adapt the squats to be more effective, and also showed me good stretches for my calf muscles and hamstrings. I wish I could have done more on the treadmill but an hour is still a
tiring session for new muscle groups.
CollapseThe Running School believe that they can transform your running style for the better over 6 sessions, preferably over 6 weeks. And although I have dragged this out somewhat to more like 10 weeks(!) I have now completed the series and should be, by all accounts, a better runner. In this final session I was filmed once again in order to capture the results in full HD (maybe not), but in good enough quality for this standard of blog...
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So without further ado, here is the finished article. I would not blame you thinking that this not exactly perfect, because it's not. But there is clear evidence of progress and because everyone will still be different, this is close to the best I am likely to achieve without dedicating years more of my life in persuit of an unobtainable level of efficiency and technique.
The main differences that should be easy to see from the two videos is the use of the arms and the movement of my legs. You can see how much more my arms are now swinging and useful they are in driving me forward. And the leg motion is unrecognisable from before - such a bigger heel lift and cycling forward.
The final session was with Dan again, and we did still need to work on my lazy right leg which seems to take a few steps to get going. But also, you can see how stiff my left arm also looks in comparison to my right. These areas of weakness are more than likely correlated and will require me to focus in the weeks and months ahead. But the Running School are not necessarily perfectionists, because that could mean that customers finish the course a little disappointed.
What is important is that each person adopts the fundamental principals of the right technique i.e. a postive cycling motion of the legs, a high cadence, smaller strides, good use of the arms, an upright posture and minimal upper body rotation. But because everyone is different the school totally accepts that the results of the coaching will lead to mildly different outcomes.
In my experience I am very happy with the progress that I have made and the results after the 6 sessions, but I do not see this as the end of the road. Perhaps the next step is to graduate to the University of Running, but more likely is that I get held back a year at school for additional tuition. But before that I need to get through the end of year exam, and that is the London Marathon 2010. Collapse