- Running isn't something we usually need to think about.
We presume that because we've done it since childhood,
then we're pretty good at it by now.
But that said, there are still many ways
in which you can improve your running technique.
We're going to be breaking down your run
and bringing you our top five essential skills
to run faster.
(uptempo music)
First up, we've got breathing.
Now, it's not quite like in swimming,
but breathing efficiently and in a relaxed fashion
is to key to running well.
Obviously, your muscles need oxygen,
and the faster you run, the quicker you've got to
get the oxygen into your lungs,
so the harder and faster your breath will become.
You might well have had that horrible feeling
when you just can't quite get enough breath in
or chest feel tight and this actually made you
go back down into a walk.
If you're new to running,
this can take a bit of getting used to
but with practise, you'll be able to manage your breathing
and focus on the rest of your running technique.
It's easy to say, but staying relaxed is key.
You'll need to breathe in and out through your mouth
as you won't be able to get enough oxygen
from just nose breathing.
That said, though, you can combine the two
and you often see long distance runners
wearing nose strips just to help them breathe.
As you start to build up your run,
you should find a pace that's comfortable to hold
and with that, a breathing rhythm that's sustainable.
Naturally, you'll find that you'll breathe
around your stride pattern.
Now this is likely to change
depending on how hard you're running.
It's worth concentrating on this
and seeing when you inhale and exhale
and work out if it's always on the same side.
Controlling this and even changing it
can help keep your body more balanced.
It's also a thought that breathing on alternate foot strides
can actually help prevent a stitch.
Try to keep your shoulders relaxed and down.
If they end up shrugging towards your ears,
then you're reducing the capacity of your ribs to move
and expand and deflate your lungs fully.
You'll see fatigued runners often running
with shoulders coming up high and starting to fold,
or even dropping their head to one side.
All of this ends up having a limiting effect
on the breathing, and as a result,
it makes that running even more tired.
If you do find that you get a bit tense when you're running,
then you can incorporate some breathing techniques
or even something like yoga
when you retrain yourself to breathe correctly
and then that should positively cross over to your running.
(lively music)
That leads us all nicely to posture.
Now, we've already touched on the negative effects
of poor posture on your breathing,
but it doesn't stop there.
It can actually affect
the whole of your running performance.
(upbeat pop music)
Can be confusing.
Sometimes, you hear people say
you need to be more upright.
Then you hear other coaches say you need to lean forwards.
Now, it's a combination of both, to be honest,
but you need to make sure you're not too upright and rigid,
but you also don't want to be folded and bent forwards.
It's a fine line, literally.
You want to run tall
so imagine the distance from your ankle up to your head
to be as long as naturally possible,
yet with a slight forward lean
that's coming from the ground up.
So, if you were running up a dental slope, for example,
you'd automatically find yourself leaning into it slightly
and you can even find a hill to practise this feeling on.
When you come back onto the track,
it's certainly easier to get this feeling
when you're running at a slightly faster pace.
As you start off running,
you shift your body weight slightly forwards
without even noticing.
This is helping you to instigate that forward motion.
Try to carry that over as you get into your stride.
If you feel like you're over-exaggerating this
then you're probably getting this about right.
If you can, try and get someone else
to film you when you're running,
or even look back through race photos.
It's amazing how different you will actually look
to how you think you look.
Well, it certainly is the case for me.
Next up, it's hip flexibility,
which again, leads on from our last point
because if you want to have a desirably running posture
than you need to have good mobility at your hips,
and in particular, I'm talking about hip extension.
So that's your ability to move your leg backwards
behind you, basically.
Now, most of us are guilty of spending far too much time
sitting in our every day lives,
or as triathletes, being on a bicycle,
all of which involve being flexed in this area.
Being tight at the front of the hip
can contribute to that folded, bent over posture
that just makes running efficiently that much harder.
Before a session, once you've done a light job warmup,
add in some single leg swings
to open up the front of the hip
and then adding in drills such as walking lunges
are another way to actively stretch the hip flexors
whilst you're firing up the core muscles
and the other stabilisers needed for running.
Then once you've finished your work or your session,
add in a few static hip flexor stretches
and once you've improved that range at the hip,
you'll be able to lengthen your stride if you need to
and most importantly, engage and utilise
one of the more powerful muscles, the glutes.
Talking of which, we've actually already made
a video on glute activation,
which you'll find a link to at the end of this video.
Now, contact time.
The main difference between walking and running
and running slowly and running fast is the amount of time
that your foot will spend on the ground.
And this is known as contact time.
Now, if you watch the professional runners,
even those running at a marathon pace,
you'll notice that they have a very short time
that their foot spends on the ground.
And it's generally thought
that the quicker the contact time,
the more efficient the runner.
It isn't something that you can change overnight
and it usually becomes harder to keep it short
the more fatigued you become,
but if you incorporate it into regular drills
within your running programme,
it's the quickest way to start seeing improvement
in that contact time.
A very simple exercise that also doubles up
as a warmup for a gym session is skipping.
Keep it fast and light and if you're an advanced skipper,
then you can start to alternate legs
to give even more of a running feel.
There are a couple of other drills
that I find actually really help me
working on my contact time
and they're best done on a track or asphalt
so you can really focus on your technique.
(smooth jazz music)
High knee skips.
As it sounds, it's a skipping-type drill with high knees
but the focus is the contact time
of the foot on the ground
rather than actually getting any height
so you can pause between each skip motion
and just think about getting that foot off the ground
as fast as possible.
You need to remain in a nice upright posture
and think about driving the leg down and back up
in a fast, fluid movement.
(smooth jazzy music)
Straight leg strides.
This is another of my favourites
but it does take a little bit of practise.
So, the idea is you're gonna keep your legs
as straight as possible
and you're contacting the ground
with more the ball of your foot,
trying to keep a stiff ankle.
And again, think about getting your foot off the ground
as fast as possible.
Naturally, you'll find this drill really hard to do
if you don't keep a short contact time.
And both of those aforementioned drills
can lead really nicely into strides
so after doing 20 metres or so of each of the drills,
start to move your body weight into that forwards lean
and then progress from the drill
into a fast, light-footed run,
keeping your focus on that short contact time
and good posture, and you should be running
at around 80 to 90% of your maximum effort
for about 60 metres and then just jog it out.
(lively guitar music)
Finally, we've got pacing
and this is one that's often easily overlooked
but is important to be able to race and train efficiently.
Knowing your ability in your fitness is key
so that you can then adequately push yourself
when your training requires it,
but you can also stick to your plan when you need to.
It's essential to make sure you vary your training
at different paces so that your body can adapt
and get fitter and stronger.
So for example, if you're doing an easy run,
it needs to be easy from the start
right the way through to the finish.
And then if you're doing race pace efforts, for example,
you need to make sure that you're running
at race pace, not faster at the beginning
and then slower at the end.
(slow guitar music)
Obviously, you can use a watch that's got GPS
and then check your pace on there,
but it's good to know the feel of different efforts and pace
so a track or a marked distance is a great place
where you can practise this.
A simple exercise will be job a lap of the track
at target pace, and then use your pace watch
or check your pace at every 100 metres,
then go straight into another lap,
but only look at your watch when you get to the end.
This should be fairly easy
when you're running at a slow pace,
but continue to practise this at different paces
using the same principle.
Another variation which you can do easily
if you maybe don't have a track
and it's something I often do
is run a set effort for say two minutes hard
then have a rest, and then run back to the start.
Now, in theory, you should end up
back where you started at the same time.
And you can mix this up by doing
varying length of distances
and it just helps you practise having that consistent pace.
Pacing in triathlon is key, especially when we add in
the swimming and the cycling beforehand.
If, for example, you're doing something
like an Iron Man, though, when you start off the marathon,
it can feel actually painfully slow
to run at your target race pace,
but you'll definitely appreciate it
by the time you get to mile 24 or 25 of that marathon.
These are just my top pics
and there are so many more out there,
so go and give these a try and find out
what works best for you.
Now, if you've enjoyed this
and you wanna make sure you get all of our videos from GTM,
hit the globe to subscribe.
And if you wanna see that video that I mentioned earlier,
talking about how to activate your glute muscles,
well, that's just here,
and if you wanna see a video
on how to warm up for a running session,
we've made one just here.