One of the questions we hear all the time from runners is, “How can I tell if I overstride? I’m not sure what I’m actually doing when I run.” Reading about running form, watching YouTube videos, and so forth may help you become well-informed about running but it doesn’t improve your ability to feel your … Read more
Sunday, April 23, 2023, was a historic day in the annals of mid-run stretching. On that day Sifan Hassan stopped twice–once for a brief quad stretch and once to stretch her glutes–and went on to win the London marathon. Let’s look at Sifan Hassan’s running form along with her explanation to understand what happened. After … Read more
To say Eliud Kipchoge’s Boston Marathon didn’t go the way most people anticipated is putting it mildly. And yet this performance was actually more revealing about what makes him one of the greatest marathoners of all time than his many successes have been. I’m sure I wasn’t alone in feeling a baffled sense of unreality … Read more
A majority of my clients use sports watches to track their distance and pace. But whether they do or not, most runners also eventually also learn to guess by the feeling in their bodies how fast they’re running. So when they want to run fast, they aim for the feeling they associate wit the pace …
I found an email in my inbox on Wednesday from Robert Johnson, one of the founders of Letsrun.com, the top running news site on the internet. He wanted to know whether I thought Hellen Obiri has the best running form for a marathon–or even workable form for that distance. It had just been announced that …
Here’s a resolution that will transform you as an athlete more than anything else you could do. I realize if you were going to set a New Year’s Resolution for your running this year you’ve probably already done it. But as of today you’ve still got 357 days left in the year, so it’s not …
People have been asking me to do a gait analysis of Franka Potente’s character Lola in the film Run Lola Run for years. I love this movie and only hesitated to write about it because I was afraid only people my age or older would know it. (I was 28 when it came out in … Read more
Alex Hutchinson recently wrote about a study showing significant benefits from drafting behind other runners to reduce drag, or air resistance in a marathon. In a real-world situation it would amount to a savings of somewhere between 3-4 minutes due to less energy spent pushing yourself forwards–whether you’re Eliud Kipchoge, Brigid Kosgei, or simply a … Read more
Hands are more than a mere detail; holding your hands correctly when you run affects your entire body. Much in our lives depends on skilled actions of our hands, every part of our bodies is woven into those actions so we can be powerful, gentle, and precise in fulfilling our intentions. This isn’t something we … Read more
You may hate me for this, but I’m going to say it anyway. The best core workout for runners is one that strengthens the core in the specific ways it’s used for running: upright, weight-bearing, with coordinated movements of the abdomen/back, pelvis, and hip joints, not to mention everything above and below those areas as … Read more
Have you ever had a hip flexor tighten up on a run, or do you maybe even suffer from a chronically tight hip flexor? The feeling of it tugging every time your leg is behind you may make you yearn to stretch it out, and you might even find yourself giving it an extra little … Read more
As Peres Jepchirchir and Ababel Yeshaneh raced towards the finish line of the 2022 Boston Marathon, one of the announcers observed Jepchirchir’s form looked, “like she’s about to fall over.” A short time later she left Yeshaneh behind for the last time and broke the tape. So did Jepchirchir win despite her form or because … Read more
For many of us, whether we’re able to run is just a question about how we like to get our exercise. Are you a runner or are you the type who does yoga daily and says with a laugh that you only run, “If something’s chasing me.” For others, though, running is a fundamental job … Read more
Here’s a simple trick you can do to pick up the pace, especially when you want to run faster but your body just somehow isn’t responding. I’m not a big fan of tricks and hacks. I want you to learn deeply and be transformed. But tricks do have their place, especially for a runner committed … Read more
