Form Drills

Yesterday my boss came in for a staff meeting - okay, that sounds too formal, let me try again. Yesterday my boss walked into our office so that I could ask him a few questions (much better) and my running came up. I told him that I needed new shoes and my knees were hurting. He told me my knees should never hurt. (He runs marathons, triathlons, etc, so he is a very experienced running that I do trust his input). He told me that I was probably running wrong - running on my heels (lazy running), rather than on my toes. If you run on your toes the shock of the impact is not absorbed in your knees, but in your feet. He asked me if I was planning on running after work, which I told him I was, but since my knees had been hurting I was planning on running on the elliptical. He asked me if I would run with him on the beach so that he could see how I ran, give me some pointers, etc.

After work we headed down to the beach, barefoot and ready to make a fool of myself. This may give you a clue of what was going on in my head. He asked me if I ever noticed anyone else's running form, to which replied "No, I always just think ""They are out here doing it - WAY TO GO FOR THEM"". " Which was NOT the answer he was looking for (I mean he likes my encouraging ways at work, keeping his sales team motivated, but would prefer I watch my own running technique a little more :).

He had me doing running form drills - things like high knees, kick butts (yes, I know, it is supposed to be the other way around but I like it better), skips, bounds, sideways running, backwards running, etc. We also did sprints, lunges and squats. He said that my form seemed alright, but I needed to switch to my toes. He thinks that I will be able to switch before my race in September (I am a little unsure, only because changing how I run is going to be a lot hard than I expected).

I was looking for some examples of running form drills on Youtube and came across this video. Not only does it go over most of the drills that we did, BUT I USED TO WATCH THIS KID RUN CROSS COUNTRY IN HIGH SCHOOL! HOW FUNNY!



Anyway, so I think I will try and do form drills on Saturdays at a local park (maybe I can even talk Ryan into trying them with me, that way we look like fools together) on top of my normal running (2 short days and 1 long). I know that changing my running style may be like starting totally over again (I have no idea if I will be able to keep with 3 miles on my short days and 5 on my longer ones), but hopefully it will pay off in the long run :) [haha, get the pun]

PS And my knees don't hurt... Am I sore? HECK YEAH. But at least my joints aren't feeling as tore up :)