John Withrow Run Technique Review and Video...
I was lucky enough to stay at Casa Withrow during my most recent trip to NJ for our last Age Group clinic. While I was there I offered to video tape John's running as he is really focusing on that this year. Secretly I wanted to video tape him making the best shake I have every frikkin tasted as it's gotta be a secret recipe. But that will have to wait!!!! Here's the video and my thoughts!
[Edit - Here is the link to the TTBikeFit blog post by Todd that I mention in Gazelles vs Striders]
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Tightness in B hips (Psoas and possible tensor fascia )
Possible Weakness in the right hip causing left foot to cross over midline and left arm to stick out during stance phase on the left.
Tightness in B hips (Psoas and possible tensor fascia )
Possible Weakness in the right hip causing left foot to cross over midline and left arm to stick out during stance phase on the left.
1) Get the hands higher and don't let my elbows drift back so far, instead immediately get them moving forward again.
2) Get my front foot down quicker so it's more under me when my weight gets on it (so it's under me instead of in front of me). I have never even "thought" about this before, so need to figure out how to do that.
3) I am obviously crossing my center line with my feet which I guess is why I have to run on the outsides of my feet. How do I fix that...? I guess I can try to straddle the white line when I run, but that might force me to look down which might screw up the rest of my form. Further suggestions welcome here...
4) Focusing on a slightly higher cadence might help with all of those things.
Many others, but those were the obvious ones to start with.
@JK- I don't know what Tensor Fascia is... and should I stretch my Psoas? How do I do that? I've been working VERY hard on strengthening my glutes, hips, and core for a bout a yr now... I do 20-30 mins of this before and/or after every run since November. In addition to a lot of stuff throughout last yr. I don't even know if I could logistically work on this anymore than I am, but I'll certainly be keeping up the program I am on...
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=Y8nKNQ6QAjE&desktop_uri=/watch?v=Y8nKNQ6QAjE
Another good video! Here's what I see:
1. If I saw you on a track or passing me on the road, I'd think "dude knows how to run."
2. the earlier groundstrike that P talks about at around 13:00 + can be accomplished by firing the glutes to push the foot down earlier.
3. The elbow / arm angle can betightened up by drilling with the "pebble in the elbow" trick I mentioned in P's thread. It's as simple as grabbing a medium-sized pebble on the side of the road, putting it in the crack of the elbow, and folding the arm so the pebble is held while running. The trick is keeping that elbow at an acute angle in order to keep the pebble in there without tensing up the shoulders, back and the rest of the upper body. Like any drill, it will feel funny at first, but if you were to vid your run, you would see forearms that are nice and parallel to the ground.
4. on the upper body lean, you might get a cue from where your eyes are going. It appears that you are looking straight ahead, but I would have you instead looking at the ground 15-20 feet ahead, and orienting your head correspondingly.
(If some or all of this sound like I'm cribbing from Bobby McGee and I don't have one original thought in my head, it's because I am and I don't. But his stuff would apply to the very very minor improvements I could see room for).
-Dave
First things first... You look great John, much improved from mile 1 at IMFL. If I saw you on the road today i'd also think... strong runner! Yet I appreciate your quest for excellence.
The only thing I want to add is regarding your left foot cross over. Patrick didn't quite say this, but I notice that as your left foot crosses over your midline there's a slight compensation by your left arm to chicken wing out to maintain your balance. I know you've had run analysis and an immense amount of core work, but from that visual I'd say that your left inominate is raised slightly along with your sacrum on that side is likely anterior and superior. As you stride through, this imbalance/instability is magnified as that side of your pelvis drops, relative to your right side. Mention this to your chiropractor and ask them to confirm. I suspect that your QL is going to be weak and tight on that side. So i'd work on loosening that up and strengthening that muscle too. As that changes and your chiro works on your left sacral/inominate I believe your going to see that left foot on the left side of that white line.
1) crossing the midline: are you keeping up with your clams? You've got a ton of lateral stability from your side planks, but it's the clams and monster walks that help control the swing of the leg. Your body knows when there's some weakness, and forcing yourself to run on a white line may work, or may be a recipe for injury.
2) lower leg forward swing: P points out that your lower leg is swinging forward of vertical (overstriding), which puts on a bit of a brake. Two things to consider here. Are you actively thinking about forward leg swing? If so, you don't need to, you have plenty of it, and overthinking that can lead to overstriding. Two, I think this is related to the arm swing "stall" that P points out, which is my point #3
3) stalling of the arms: the stall is indicative of a whole system opportunity. Your arms stall while simultaneously your trailing leg glides behind you and your front leg overstrides in front of you. In POSE running, they teach a concept about just focusing on picking up your feet as soon as they've hit the ground. The longer you leave a foot on the ground, the further your counterbalancing pendulum (your front leg) needs to swing forward. I really think that #2 and #3 will both be resolved by a little focus on not trailing your stride behind you, but just picking up your feet after they've hit the ground. No need to think about backwards push/force, since that stuff happens automatically and so quickly you can't control it anyways.
You've made a TON of progress, John! Excited to see how these next few months play out. Looking forward to a little throwdown at AmZof and LP!
Since the earlier feedback in this thread, I have been consciously thinking about getting my front leg down faster in an attempt to minimize my overstriding. I think this has helped to limit crossing over the centerline a bit, but certainly not enough yet. I guess I'll also try to pick it up quicker as well. I have also tried to "hold the pebble" in my elbow to help keep my hands higher to also shorten my arm swing. This stuff is all small, but also very difficult to consciously maintain for an hour at a time or more. I'm hoping if I do it enough I will eventually reprogram myself for it to become natural, but that hasn't happened yet. I also bought a metronome to force me to keep my cadence up late into my runs. I usually use this after my work intervals are done so I can keep focused on it when I'm tired.
It's hard to focus on too many things all at the same time, but I'm certainly already in a MUCH better place than where I was a yr ago. But given how bad my starting point was, just being "better" than that isn't good enough. I still have a lot of work to do to get to where I want to be.