Now as far as running goes people might think that they have been running since they were children and they know how to run. Unfortunately that is incorrect, because your joints, muscles and entire bodies are young, healthy and easily recover from injuries. So in this post we will talk about running form, how to dial up your distance safely and a couple of websites to find training plans for all distances up to Marathons.
Running Form: Most people think they can just go out and start running, but that can easily lead to injury. Running long distance actually takes proper form and technique in order to do it with out injury.
The first thing is to keep your knees under your center of mass. Most children run with their legs out in front of them. That is actually very bad for your knees. It might seem strange, but in order to protect your knees. If you watch a video of Olympic Marathon runners you will see that their knees hardly move beyond their center of mass. This will lessen the impact on the knee as people continually pound the pavement. Over Striding is were the knee passes beyond the runners center of mass. Over Striding can cause Runner Knee, ITBS and many other issues that could sideline a training plan. Keep those knees close please.
Next we need to talk about the foot. The runners foot should land as close to the middle as possible. If the first impact of the foot is the heel if can lead to things like Planter Fasciitis and a host of other injuries. The opposite is that if a runner where to land to far forward on the foot more on the toes other problems arise. Toe striking leads to Shin Splints and other toe problems. It is best to try and land with the center of the foot.
Running isn't all about the lower body though. It is also important to think about the rest of your body in order to help with the above. Moving up the body though the next area is the Core or Abs. You need to keep your body in a good posture and to do that is to keep your Core engaged. You don't have to try and suck you stomach in the whole time, but occasionally keep in mind that you need to engage your Core to keep your posture.
Arm's bent at the elbow and should be at 90 degrees. It is best to keep the hands relaxed as if holding "potato chips". The arms is something that is fairly natural to people, but the hands can be difficult at first as most people are used to clinching. Also relaxing that hands can be hard during cold runs as clinching your hands together will make your hand warmer. In the end clinching your hands and try to keep your arm swing to a minimum as they both waste energy.
The final thing about running form is to keep your head up. Some people look down at the ground too much as they run. This can cause neck pain and stiffness. Others tend to push their jaw and neck forward. It is thought that it is done to keep the body over the knees, but this too is incorrect and can cause other neck issues. The best thing is to keep your head up and looking approximately ten to fifteen feet a head of you.
If you are planning on going down this road there are a lot of resources on the web that can help you along. A few that I enjoy are Hal Higdon and Runners World.
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