Goal 7 - Improve Your Running Economy

Your running economy is a measure of how efficiently you run. This is a part of running that is generally ignored by the vast majority of runners. That is a shame because good running economy can improve your running performance by up to 15 or 20 percent without any changes in physical fitness. Some runners make the mistake of believing running economy is the same as running form. Make no mistake - running form is a huge part of running economy but it does not stand alone. Other components of running economy include proprioception , running strength, muscle elasticity and joint stability.

Running Form

Many runners ignore running form for one simple reason. They believe that running form cannot be learned or improved. There is nothing further from the truth. Good running form is not something a runner is born with. It is a learned skill. I have been running for more than 35 years and I am still continually making small adjustments to my form. There are a number of elements involved in efficient running form - starting with where, when and how your foot touches down.

Foot Touchdown

You will usually hear this portion of your stride called “foot plant”. I don’t like to use that word because it doesn’t accurately describe what your foot should be doing. The term “foot plant” sounds like you are sticking your foot hard on the ground and keeping it there. You don’t want to plant your foot like a garden gladiola! Your foot should be smoothly and fluidly propelling your body forward with as little ground contact time as possible. That is nearly the direct opposite of foot plant!

Instead of foot plant I am using the term foot touchdown to describe what your foot should be doing in the touchdown phase of an efficient and effective running stride. There are three key elements in proper foot mechanics during touchdown. They are:

Foot Position - This is where your foot touches down in relation to your body and it’s center of gravity. To maximize the efficiency of your stride your foot should touch down directly under your center of gravity, landing first on the ball of your foot followed by your heel or flat footed. Many distance runners make the mistake of landing on their heel with their foot in front of their body or center of gravity. That type of foot touchdown is inefficient and can be the cause of a long list of injuries. When you land on your heel, your leg is nearly straight and extended in front of your body. The combination of a straight leg and a hard heel landing transfers a lot of impact through your heel and up through your knee to your hip. The excessive stress a heel strike places on your joints can cause pain and injury to your hips, knee, ankle and foot. Many runners are unaware that shin splints (pain of the front of your lower legs) are many times caused by heel striking. A heel first foot plant also means you are over striding. You are reaching out in front of your body with each step you take. When you reach out in front of your body, you will land heel first and will be putting on the brakes with each step. It is like trying to drive your car while pressing on both the gas pedal and brake pedal at the same time. You are wasting energy and making your running harder than it should be.
Foot Action - This describes what your foot is doing at touchdown. Your foot action will either be passive or active. Passive foot action is another common form flaw among marathon runners. Passive foot actions takes place when you simply land on your foot and push off into your next stride. While that may sound like a good stride it is missing one important ingredient. With passive foot action your create a considerable amount of braking effect because when your foot strikes the ground it creates friction between the ground and your foot. Your foot is not moving but the ground is. That friction slows you down. For example, if you are running at 8 MPH the ground is in effect also moving towards you at 8 MPH. With passive foot action your foot is not moving, so when it strikes the ground which is passing under you at 8 MPH it creates a braking effect and interrupts your forward momentum. To avoid this you should employ an active foot action by “pawing back” with your foot before it touches the ground. If you match the speed of your foot with the speed of the ground you will avoid all braking effects and will run with a very smooth and fluid motion. One way to initiate active foot action is to focus on simply pulling your foot back and up using your hamstring muscles. You should initiate this action just before foot touchdown. When done properly the result is a very fluid, rotary type motion with your feet. This may take some practice, but the results are well worth the effort.
Foot Angle - This refers to the angle of your foot in relation to your lower leg. Your foot can either be dorsi-flexed or plantar-flexed. Your foot is plantar-flexed when you are pointing your toes toward the ground or away from your upper leg. Your foot is dorsi-flexed when you are pulling your toes away from the ground or toward your lower leg. Foot touchdown in a dorsi-flexed position is more efficient than a plantar flexed position because in a dorsi-flexed or “toes up” position your calf muscle is loaded and ready to contract. In the plantar-flexed or “toes down” position your foot must first flatten out to get your calf muscle in the proper position to contract. It is like cocking the trigger on a gun. In a toes up position your calf muscle is already cocked and ready to fire. In a toes down position your calf muscle will need to be cocked before it can fire. In addition you lose much of the stored energy in your calf muscle when you land in a toes down position because it is absorbed by the ground when your foot flattens out.

Posture

Another important element of your running stride is your posture. Proper running posture is not very different from correct walking or standing posture. You should run tall and relaxed with a slight full body forward lean. This very slight forward lean gives you a completely balanced posture. Balance is the key word. You should always feel as if your upper body is in balance above your hips.

When you are standing still your upper body is very straight and balanced on top of your hips. Go ahead and try this. Stand up and feel your body. Lean your body forward and backward. When you lean forward you begin to lose your balance in that direction. When you lean backward you feel your balance shift to your rear. Only when you are standing with a straight upper body do you feel in balance.

Now start to walk forward. When you being to move shift your upper body very slightly forward. You are leaning into your movement. In a way when you walk you are actually falling forward and catching yourself with your legs. Running is the same. When you run you need to lean forward to keep your body balanced over your hips. If you kept your body straight your balance would be shifted to the rear of your body. You would not be able to continue the action of “falling forward”. You would have to reach out in front of your body and pull your legs back to create forward motion. That would make your running more difficult and inefficient.

The most efficient posture is one that is upright and relaxed with a slight forward lean. Your chest should be out and your shoulders back. If you lean too far forward you will begin a stumbling, high impact stride. You will also put excessive stress on your knees and back. A backward lean will cause you to over stride and land heavily on your heel, which will also stress your knees, hips and back. A visualization that may help is to imagine your hips and legs being a motor. You just want to keep your upper body balanced over your motor.

Keep your hips pressed forward and your butt tucked in. Visualize standing face first against a wall. Press your hips forward so that the bones of your hip touches the wall. Running with your hips forward will help your knee lift higher, with less effort.

Another common form error is called “sitting in the bucket”. This is especially common among beginning runners. This style is caused by the hip and butt being pushed back, into a slight sitting position. This causes your feet to be in front of your body with a very weak push off behind your body. Keeping your hips pressed forward will eliminate this form fault.

Stride Length and Stride Rate

There are a lot of scientific equations involved in the physiology of running. Many of them are quite complex. I prefer the simpler equations and one of the simplest is the formula for running speed. Your running speed is dependent upon just two components - stride length and stride rate. Stride Length x Stride Rate = Running Speed.

The most common form flaw I have observed in runners I have coached is over striding. Forcing a long stride length will not improve speed or running efficiency. Just the opposite happens. Over striding will result in reaching out in front of your body with your foot and landing heavily on your heel. This will cause the braking action that I mentioned earlier. In a proper stride, your foot should land directly under your body with every step. Concentrate on running with a quick and light stride. Your stride should be like a rotary motion with your foot landing directly under your center of gravity at the bottom of each cycle. Over striding is a form flaw, but in order to run as efficiently as possible, you must extend your stride to its maximum, without over striding.

You should increase your stride length by opening up your stride or making “bigger circles” with your feet and legs. Do not reach out with your forward foot, but allow the forward momentum of your body to “catch up” with your forward foot so that no braking action is initiated. Your forward foot should land directly under your body. If you reach out with the forward foot, you will land on your heel and initiate a braking action with each step. This will excessively stress your knees, hips and back, in addition to slowing you down.

Stride rate is something that is often misunderstood among distance runners. Many athletes think that in order to speed up they should increase their stride rate. That is not usually the case. Most top level runners keep a fairly steady stride cadence of between 90 and 95 strides per minute at all running speeds. They increase their speed by opening up their stride and covering more ground with each step. There will always be some small variance in stride rate, but for peak efficiency you should try to maintain that 90 to 95 stride per minute cadence. If you run with a slower cadence you will be spending too much time on the ground, lowering both your running efficiency and your running speed.

Arm Action

The main purpose of an arm swing is to provide balance and coordination with the legs. The arms should hang loose and relaxed, close to the body. Avoid excessive movement. You want to avoid any tenseness in the shoulders. Your wrists should be loose and floppy. Do not clench your fists. Your hands should be held in a relaxed manner. You may try imagining that you are holding a butterfly in your fingers. Do not crush the butterfly. Any tightness in your hands will transfer all the way up your arm.

During the arm swing, your hands should not travel above your chest or behind the midline of your body. Try to avoid crossing your hand in front of your body. Keep your arm swing compact and your elbows at about a 90 degree angle. Do not drive your arms forward. A forward arm drive will encourage over striding. There is only one direction for arm drive - backwards. Driving your elbows back when you run will help you run with a quick, light and efficient stride.

Proprioception

Proprioception is an under appreciated and little known human sense. There are actually three categories of senses. They are the very well known exteroceptive senses (sight, taste, tough, smell, hearing and balance), the slightly less known interoceptive senses (perception of pain) and the relatively unknown proprioception which is the sense of the relative positions of the various parts of your body and the amount of motion of your body and body parts. This sense is critical for a runner because it is necessary for “feeling your stride” and also for monitoring and doling out the amount of force needed to meet your running pace.

The key to improving proprioception is always being conscious of your movements and where the various parts of your body are in relation to each other. A good example of this is being aware of where your feet touchdown in relation to your center of gravity. Remember that is the critical part of an efficient running stride. You always want to land with your foot directly under your center of gravity. Practice being aware of your foot position at all times.

Another example of proprioception is knowing your pace without looking at your watch. You should be aware of how your body feels when it is running at your goal pace. Always be conscious of your movement over the ground and through the air. Be aware of how your stride “feels” at your goal pace. That type of proprioception will make your goal pace feel “comfortable.”

An interesting type of proprioception is called proprioceptive trace. An example of proprioceptive trace takes place during both hill training workouts and high intensity interval workouts. During a hard hill run or faster interval your body learns the amount of effort and force required to complete the workout. When you then run on level ground or at an easier pace your effort feels much easier than normal. That is because your body’s memory is expecting to use more force than it needs. A non running example of this is picking up an empty milk bottle that you expect to be full. Your brain is prepared for a relatively heavy bottle. Instead it is very light and you nearly throw if over your head!

As I mentioned earlier, proprioception can be improved by simply being more aware of your body’s position and motion. You can also practice proprioception by performing squats and jumps on a wobble board or stability ball. The instability of the wobble board helps train your awareness of the motion and position of your feet, legs, hips and center of gravity.

Another way to improve your proprioceptive skills is with barefoot running. Running shoes tend to surround your foot with an insulating shell. Your feet cannot “feel” the ground. Barefoot running allows your feet to regain some of the proprioception that was lost through years of wearing shoes. When you run barefoot concentrate on feeling the motions of your feet and toes. Feel your toes grip the ground and pull your body forward. If you do some barefoot running be sure to start with just a little. Your feet have probably become very weak because of the cast like effect of running shoes. You will need to strengthen them gradually to avoid injury.

Muscle Elasticity, Running Strength and Joint Stability

Muscle elasticity - the ability of your muscles to lengthen, store energy and efficiently return that energy - was touched on previously, so I won’t bore you with repeating the same information. The important thing to keep in mind is that muscle elasticity is an important part of running economy because it allows you to run with less effort.
Running strength and joint stability go hand in hand. Strengthening your muscles, especially your leg muscles, will improve your power and speed. It will help improve the elasticity of your muscles and as a result will make you a more efficient runner. Strong muscles will also support your joints and improve their stability. If your joints are loose and unstable you will not have a strong core to support your stride. Your muscles would have to work harder to keep your stride from breaking down.
Muscles elasticity, running strength and joint stability are all improved through a proper strength training program that includes general strength exercises, running specific strength workouts and plyometrics. Plyometrics are high intensity exercises in which your muscles are used explosively. Examples of plyometric exercises are hops, jumps and bounding.

Continue to Increase Your Sprint Speed

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