The Balanced Runner Keys Series: Awareness

This post is part of the The Balanced Runner Keys series.

You’re probably reading this blog because you want to learn the right way to run. You may have very pressing reasons for that — perhaps you’re hurt, or you feel like running is really taking a toll on your body, or you feel there’s a better runner inside you. These reasons may lead you to work very hard on your running technique, trying to get it right.

This is consistent with what many people say about working on your form or technique — getting it right is really a lot of work, takes concentration, and may even require you to cut your running way back, only running as far as you can do so with good form until you gradually get strong enough to maintain it for longer and longer distances.

There are two problems with that. One of them is that good running technique is easier than bad running technique, and if you have to work that hard to execute any particular kind of movement, it isn’t good technique! I’ve written about that general principle many times in this blog and will do so many more times because while obvious it’s generally overlooked.

My focus today, though, is on the other problem with trying so hard to run right: you have skipped a step. A crucial step. Without it you can’t run correctly no matter how hard you try, and it’s this: you have started by trying to run right instead of taking time to become aware of how you naturally run.

Becoming aware of what you’re doing is the necessary precursor to any improvement. If you’re lost in a city, you can’t use a map to figure out how to get where you’re going until you figure out where you are. Once you know your location, then you know whether to turn right or left at the next intersection. If you don’t know where you are, all you can do is flail.

It’s the same thing with how you move your body — how would you know what to change if you don’t know what you’re doing?

In all likelihood, the reason many runners skip this step is that it may feel hard to tell what you’re actually doing. But that begs the question — how are you going to accurately feel whether you’re executing the changes you’re trying to make if you can’t feel what you’re doing? So skipping the awareness step isn’t an option.

Not only that, but simply paying attention can improve how you do an activity, without any instruction being necessary. To see what I mean, try these two experiments:

EXPERIMENT ONE:

1. Sit up straight.
2. As you continue to sit up straight, evaluate the amount of tension in your body. How hard are you working to do this?
3. Now return to how you were sitting before and evaluate the level of tension in your body — do you feel more or less tension than when you were sitting up straight?

EXPERIMENT TWO:

1. Continue to sit as you have been, and notice how you’re doing it. What part of your bottom is touching the chair? How have you arranged your legs? What shape is your back? What do you feel you’re doing with your belly, chest, shoulders, and head? When you breathe (just a normal breath), where do you feel movement?
2. Now sit up straight. Have you done it the same way you did in experiment one?
3. As you continue to sit up straight, evaluate the amount of tension in your body. How hard are you working to do this?

Which felt more relaxed and comfortable, the version of sitting up straight you did in experiment one or experiment two? I’m willing to bet a lot of money that you felt less tension when you sat up straight in experiment two, and maybe that it even felt better than when you weren’t sitting up straight at all.

Improving your running technique works when you do it like experiment two. Start with awareness, scanning through your body and noticing what you feel and how you’re moving. Then it will become possible to truly begin to improve.