Coaching Video and Improving My Technique

I am up-dating my blog, again, with very little running done, I have done about a 1 mile in January so fare and last ran on the 4^th December. The London Ultra Marathon on the 19th February is fast approaching and looks like a 50km run maybe my first day out. My frustrations are an understatement to say the least.

There is a little bit of light at the end of the tunnel and I now at least have a professional diagnosis and my Physio is confident I will be back running by the end of January.  I will expands more on injury in my next post as it is a topic on its own with a lot of learning’s for me and anyone considering the Marathon Des Sables or any other similar event in the future.

The only mile I did run in January was ironically for a coaching session which I had signed up to try and improve me technique to prevent injury.  On the day of the session my leg was not feeling too bad, I had already paid for it, so decided to go and try and at least get some video footage to analyse. I did two laps of a 400 meter track to warm up. I had a few twinges but nothing too painful. I decided to do the additional two laps at pace which would allow me to get the footage. The first Lap was painful but I was able to finish. The second was a struggle – this is the footage from behind on in the video below. It shows terrible form and exactly the reason that you should not train on an existing injury as this will cause further problems else ware. Rather than keeping a strong stable core I am working my hips and body to compensate for the pain in my leg.

Although it is not perfect I did manage to hold reasonable technique to make the side views worth looking at.

I am not a coach so this is just a novice view on my own running. If any coaches are reading this then comments would be appreciated.

First thing to note is that I am toe lead, there are various views on how beneficial this is, however, this is a deliberate change I made over a long period, for me with arthritis in my knees, over extending into a heal led placement impacts my knees more and hurts. Being toe lead reduces the direct impact on my knees, allowing me to stay lighter on my feet and maintain a smoother placement with a fairly fast cadence.  Running on sand with 10kg on my back means I will revert back to a more neutral/ heal lead placement. 

The photo shows that I am not over extending (much) and as my trail leg is almost through. The trail leg should be a quick up and through like it is being pulled up with string; I do need to watch out as I am over doing this which is leading to a flick with my foot. My foot should not be flicked out behind me as shown.

I am a big fan of keeping the arms moving though quickly to maintain a quick cadence, your arms and legs are linked and it is much easier to think about pushing your arms though faster when your legs are tired.

A slight issues I have is that I do not keep them on the same plane, as my arm swings forward I tend to bring it round my body slightly, this causes a slight twist, it has never been a massive issue but something to work on.  It is something to drill by doing hill sprints, this really does embed arm movement under fatigue which is when you need it most in a race.

The one thing I could never get right in rowing is my body posture; interestingly for running I don’t think it is too bad. Looking at the still, I am holding myself up fairly well and almost forward. It is far from perfect, I could afford to be further forward over my feet and I do need to improve my core stability which is something I am working on at present.

Really hoping I can start to put this into practice very soon.