There’s more to running than just pounding the pavement. Image: The Running Centre

If you want to run further, faster or both then the crew at The Running Centre have a course just for you. I attended their very informative running techniques course today. Here’s what I learned.

1. Practice running drills. If you’re like me you’ve started running thinking that running is just walking faster. It’s not. To run well takes practice. Swimmers have known this forever. They practice with drills designed to make their stroke more efficient so they can go faster with less effort.
2. Increase your strength. Running well demands a strong core, strong hip flexors and strong glutes. Individually a running stride does little to strengthen any of these muscles and that’s why you’ll need to activate them through plyometrics. Try squats, pushups, leg raises, a bridge, calf raises and ITB leg raises.
3. Increase the flexibility of your hip flexors. Flexible hip flexors helps you to create that beautiful circular stride that top athletes have.
4. Increase the flexibility in your achilles tendon and your calf muscle. Over 50 percent of  your propulsion comes from your ankle. The two things that impact that the most the elasticity in your achilles and plantar fascia (the tendon in the bottom of your foot). So make sure to do lots of calf stretches.
5. Run less to run more. This is a trap I’ve fallen into. The fitter I get the further I want to run but that often leads to overuse injuries – like the calf strain I’m carrying right now.
6. Forget about which part of your foot hits the ground first. Instead, focus on getting your foot to land under your body. If your foot lands to far in front of your body it spends too much time on the ground. If you have an efficient stride you’ll be in the air for about 60 percent of the time. Over-stride and your time on the ground increases and your speed slows.

I’m keen to learn more so I’ll probably invest in their advanced workshops.