Running is a very complex activity. You may or may not have the potential to be elite. You always have the potential to improve. This checklist is meant to help you find areas to work on, and maintain good practices. It's a big list! The opportunity is that there is always something to work on, even on your blackest days.
Claim 1: Run Smarter >> Run Harder.
Claim 2: Fast improvement comes from fixing your weakest areas.
TL;DR - follow these:
- muscle imbalances
- muscle weakness
- tighness somewhere
- ignorance, not knowing form.
- yes, you look beautiful
- yes, you look disgusting
- no one cares.
- running sucks
- not running sucks
- not every day is a Personal Record Day
- you can do this
- getting better means being uncomfortable some of the time
- breakthroughs are rare
- it will be over soon. Procrasting counts against your pace!
- you against you. Compete with yourself. Compete with your potential, with your past
- you are an athlete. yes, you. you are allowed to be good at this.
- tiredness, not PAIN
- even, fluid form
- controlled pace (intentional, chosen, reverse splits)
- breath, spirit, body in balance
- uneven stride
- lunging with one or both legs
- arms should be robot arms, not cross body
- braking on downhills. Puts a lot of strain on knees, soleus
- slow cadence, giant leaps.
- head / neck: turtle neck and scrunching are exhausting. NO!
- arms: robot arms! up and down like a sprinter! no crossing the body! [
- hips / back (rotational): cat / cow yoga stretch, others. Core muscles help maintain leg form alignment
- hips / back (bounce / vertical)
- psoas: kneeling warrior (pnf style)
- hip flexor: kneeling warrior (pnf style)
- front quads
- knees: pain here can be a symptom from muscle weakness elsewhere
- calves https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Triceps_surae_muscle
- soleus & achilleus
- biceps
- feet: massage and stretch bottom of foot ligaments
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GO TO A Physical Therapist
- they will check for IMBALANCE and WEAKNESS
- do the exercises
- prevent getting hurt
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GO TO A COACH
- film your run
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GAMIFY / Measure
- get a running watch. A phone will do for distance and pace, but is a bit more of a hassle
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Only do RIGHT THINGS. Do not practice WRONG THINGS. If things are aren't feeling right, STOP and FEEL.
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balance: can you stand well on each foot? If not, practice that
- inline kneeling hold / balance
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muscle activation (they can be STRONG, but not activating:
- get those glutes firing
- get hamstrings firing
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increase cadence (on a treadmill) up toward 180
- automatically prevents overstride
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stretching: focus on FORM AND CONTROL. stretching with control IS strengthening. No jerking! Small, precise movement.
- hip flexor / psoas
- heel lifted half-squats, to work quad adductors
- groin
- calf
- dynamic hamstring against doorway
-
more core work. Nobody does enough.
- side bridges
- walk down to plank
- pile up miles. Smarter miles, not more
- chase PR's every time.
- overtain
- Do Too Much at Once. Cadence OR Smarter OR Better form OR Breath OR Gear.
- stronger on one side (bigger muscles on one side): imbalance fixes
- HUGE CALVES: (means your are either too far forward, or your other muscles are weak)
- your quad adductors are weak
- your shoes are too stacked. lower your heels!
- my lungs get tired before my legs
- work on VO2 max, using cross train, intervals, fartlek, etc. Something that has "hard push" and recovery
Gregg is a terrible, untrained runner, prone to getting hurt. BUT, they went from couch to marathon in 9 weeks, recovered using PT, has had a lot of gait coaching and reads the internet.
Take all their advice with all the Salt.