Runners often come to me for help with neck and shoulder tension. On their own they try relaxing their shoulders but it only brings a few minutes of relief while running, then the tension creeps back again. The reason for the tension is often not anything to do with their shoulders, but instead how the … Read more
Running faster means running differently. Form changes with speed. Some of those changes will happen automatically. Sometimes, though, runners don’t know how to let them happen, and make extra effort fighting themselves or trying to keep running with the same form regardless of speed. This week in my Stuck-at-Home Running Form Tips I’ve been looking … Read more
Have you ever tried to go for a run after getting off a plane? Your feet probably hit the ground twice as hard as usual, your legs felt heavy and stiff and your lower back got sore. Even the following day running can still feel lousy, especially if your flight was long. This is a … Read more
Does your running feel like drudgery, a chore, or a mindless routine? If so, you’re not getting the fitness benefits you could, you’re missing out on some of the biggest stress-relief, mood-lifting, and even brain-building benefits running can offer, and you’re keeping yourself from becoming a more skillful runner. I have been lucky enough to … Read more
The past two weeks I’ve explained what a pattern of frequent post-run quad soreness indicates about your running technique, and I’ve explained why a lot of the popular solutions both to manage the discomfort and try to solve the underlying problem don’t work. Now let’s look at what will. The fundamental problem underlying frequent quad soreness is … Read more
Do your quads feel sore after a long or fast run? If so, you’re not alone. It’s not a great feeling to have on a regular basis, and if it goes too far it can affect your knees or low back or even heels, compromising your running. Sore quads after a hilly run are reasonable, but if yours are regularly … Read more
Autumn has set in where I live, with grey skies, gorgeous foliage, and the slightly cooler temperatures that remind us why, in Scotland, damp is not an adjective but a noun. Catarrh, which I though was a quaint medieval term for a cough until I moved here, is a wet, hacking ailment so common the … Read more
This week as I’ve introduced The Balanced Runner Online Camp, a number of people have emailed me with questions about it. Since they’re mostly the same six questions, I thought it would be helpful to share the answers with you in case you have one of these questions too. The Most Important Factor The key … Read more
Making significant changes in your running technique is deep work. It means changing not only the way you run, but the movement habits you have all the time. However, small simple factors you never even think of can have a large effect on your running and are a good place to start changing your gait for the … Read more
While there were lots of interesting comparisons to make between runners in the 2016 NYC marathon, what really jumped out at me was the unusual thing both Molly Huddle (3rd place woman) and Ghirmay Ghebreslassie (1st place man) were doing with their legs. Here are screenshots of Huddle: And here are screenshots of Ghebreslassie: As you can see, the space between both runners’ knees … Read more
Jemima Sumgong, the winner of the Rio Olympics women’s marathon, did something unusual for a Kenyan woman: she didn’t move her torso side-to-side much. It appeared as if her sides from armpits to hips stayed basically the same length throughout her gait cycle. Her arm movement also looked increasingly unusal as she grew more fatigued. … Read more
In my analysis of the Olympic men’s 10,000 I wrote how Galen Rupp’s technique reminded me in some ways of Usain Bolt’s, with his use of the frontal plane (side-to-side motion, basically) more than rotation. In this race it became evident he also has this in common with Eliud Kipchoge, the winner. Like Bolt, Kipchoge uses … Read more
Okay, let’s talk some more about heads bobbing forwards and backwards. I expect to mention this when writing about Mo Farah, the winner, but in the whole Olympic Men’s 5000 field in Rio it was practically an epidemic. When I wrote about this phenomenon in my post about the women’s 10,000, I said that one way to think about … Read more
Watching Galen Rupp and Mo Farah running side by side is endlessly fascinating. They are the Odd Couple of men’s track. Rupp channels his height into a clean lean, moving primarily in the frontal plane (bending/shifting side-to-side) and using very little rotation of his pelvis or upper body. In fact I’m always amazed at how … Read more
