Brightroom gets useful

A couple days after most races, that dreaded email shows up in my inbox that says "Your Race Photos Are Now Available!".

Even though the race is over, I always get a few butterflies in my stomach fueled purely by vanity as I click through to the pics.  

"God, I hope the camera really does add ten pounds". 

Basically my goal is to not look like a Yeti.

It's sometimes achieved. 

Lately though, I've been thinking there are some other thoughts to take from Brightroom.   Thoughts like "What the F is up with my form?".

There are all sort of advice that you can read about having good form.  Keep a quick cadence, drive your knees forward, try to minimize vertical motion, don't twist too much, and keep your elbows at 90 degrees.

Improving your form can help prevent injury and make you a faster runner. 
It'll make you look like these super fast looking dudes with great form:

source

After looking at my race pictures online, it's pretty clear I'm doing at least 78% of it wrong.  Granted, most of these bad pictures are near the end of the race when my form breaks down.  But that doesn't mean it's not a problem.

Let's take a look at exhibit A from the Eugene marathon.

source

Unless I was trying to push the person to the right out of my way or run the slowest marathon possible, I'm pretty sure it's time to stop twisting and flailing my arms around.

But that's not the only problem:

TRYING OUT FOR THE BALLET??? source

You know that part about having a short but fast stride and minimizing vertical motion?  Guess I missed the memo on that one too.

So I've decided it's time to do something about it.  I'm not sure I'm going to get much faster without trying to iron out some kinks anyways.

When I run, I've been focusing on keeping a short and quick stride.  This has added benefits of helping my right knee that's been sore for a while.  One of these days, I'll start doing high knee and butt kick drills too, but only after my neighbors agree not to have me committed when they see me doing drills outside their door.

I've also been doing some very minor strength training.  Really minor like pushups and situps before bed.  I've also made a deal with myself that if I go to the gym, I have to pick up a free weight, even if it's for 30 seconds.

I'm not 100% sure this will make me a better runner, but it can't hurt, right?

And if it does hurt, I can go back to my Batman meets Chubby Checker style of running. 

Have you ever tried to improve your form?  With any decent results? 

Running Efficiency Tips (How not to run like a T-Rex)

I finally decided on my next race!  And even though I solicited advice on what to sign up for, I wasn't aware of secret option F until a day ago. So my apologies for picking something COMPLETELY off the list :(.  

Once Upon A Lime is doing two half marathons in 6 days, and the second one she signed up for, Fontana Days is just $35 AND is supposedly incredibly fast!  I saw it on her blog and wanted in on Fontana Dayz....(Daze?)

Fontana Days Half marathon will have a ridiculously early wake up time for me (have to be there by 5 AM!), and it's in like 4 weeks but why the heck not, right?  

So now onto the subject I want to talk about....running efficiency....

This morning, I was curious what my Wildflower Relay pics looked like, (you know, the good old Personal Worst Race) and came across this lovely photo:

Contrary to what it looks like, I am not trying the latest dance move called the "Dumb T Rex" where I put my non-strength trained arms as high up as possible and flail backwards with one while slightly twisting my torso.


No no...in fact, I am trying to move forward in this picture, and being super inefficient!   

Before I write up the research, I want to qualify this by saying that I hear that Paula Radcliffe has a really inefficient looking stride and she's um....slightly fast.  However for mere mortals such as myself, I figure it's worth a try to see if I can get more efficient!
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I decided to read up on some running form / efficiency tips and thought you might like to read about them too!

From a Running Times Article:

Coach and two-time olympic marathoner Pete Pfitzinger says that runners can improve their energy economy by 2-4 percent by working on running economy.
Some things that he says to watch out for:

Overstriding:
"My observation of runners in road races is that hardly any of the elite runners overstride, but up to 20 percent of the runners slower than 40:00 for 10K overstride."  


Holding Arms Up/ Leaning Is No Bueno Either!

Leaning forward at the waist, which causes the quads to work harder to keep you from falling forward.
Holding the shoulders up or holding the arms tensely or holding the arms out to the side.  

But Wait...Help is on the Way!
Ways to practice improving are to do "strides" where you practice "fast feet and low shoulders" for about 60-100 meters in the middle of a run. Focus on relaxing each part of your body and a quick efficient stride.  


Try Not To Heel Strike 
This article on Active.com suggests landing on the middle of your foot and trying to spend less time actually with your feet on the ground for better efficiency:
Active.com running efficiency

Strength and Pytometrics Train
And Runners World says that strength exercises (especially core exercises) can help you stay efficient even when your body is getting tired in a race...you can check out some of the exercises with this link...Runners World Efficiency Article

It sounds to me that stuff like Yoga / Pilates would be great for core training!

I think more than anything, I need to do some general strength training since I mainly start twisting and raising my arms at the end of a race, when my arms are more tired than my legs!  

Whatcha think?

Have you tried to improve your running form?  


Do you think trying to improve efficiency is a good way to spend time, or are we better off just putting in the miles and speed workouts?