Great video but I really would love to see it real-motion-speed For a TP run it really looks "easy" to me ... maybe too easy ... I'm missing the hip rotation and the counter-rotation in your upper body (shoulder and arms). I looks a little bit as the stabilization of your body is holding you back somehow. Your heel lift is not that bad but you can also improve here especially during our TP intervals.
Aaaaaa now that's better I like viewing people running with a super-stable upper body! This is super awesome when running at EP or MP in my opinion but when going TP or faster you should try to focus on a higher heel lift and just let your shoulders more freedom to move. You will recreate actual speed from the momentum in your upper body. I'm also pretty sure your hip rotation will get "active" automatically
Good job Brent - 6:55/mi is no joke - keep it up!
I feel it very hard to focus on multiple aspects of my running form similar to technic drills in the pool - so I just pick one and focus on that as long as I can. When you your mind gets distracted and fading away it's maybe time to mentally relax and just run. After some time I start to focus again ... just use every run as an opportunity to improve your form - there's nothing like "EP run and just enjoy the melody" for me
Brent - good stuff here! What I saw on slo-mo were the following:
-head position. IMHO, the head should be aligned with the "ideal" perfect line you can draw from shoulders/hips/ankles, that are the forward lean. Yours has your head looking straight ahead. I would try to acomplish this alignment by finding a point about 5-10 on the ground ahead of you, and looking at this when you run, orienting your head tilt towards it. maybe only a few degrees, but it's all part of the chain and the contribution to gravity that is pushing you ahead. -lean at hips. I see your "lean" coming from upper body, but not so much the hips and below. try to lean at the hips so they fall into line - kind of push your hips out there and forward so you even feel a slight pull. Find a screen shot of Craig Alexander to see what I'm getting at. It took me a good 2-3 years of work to get this right - Mike Graffeo - pointed this out to me - but it's definitely a major part of the big picture, and will really facilitate a more natural engagement of core and glutes. -in the slo mo, I can see the shin angle leading to some"braking." Get your footstrike such that the shin is 90 degrees or negative to the surface. You'll probably find this is easily accomplished in the first 30-60 seconds of an FT interval, and thenb falls away after that. Practice, practice, practice.
Stefan is 100% correct about form being something you are *always* practicing. EP runs are no longer something where you punch the clock - instead you are working on PERFECTING form and really putting your mind to things. My advice is building on his - I call them form fartleks - where you choose a very discrete, specific skill to concentrate on, and be attentive to it 100% for at least 3 minutes. It's easy to put your mind to something for 60 seconds. 90 seconds is a bit harder. Minutes 2 to 3 are really where you have to keep thinking about it, and keep practing it, and it seems to be where it goes from the congnitive place of "monitoring" the mind-body connection, to "practicing" and "learning" and reinforcing the skill development. IOW, it's where the money is. I do 100% of my in-season Sat and Sun weekend brick runs on a track with this 2 or 3 minute pattern. It sux, but it works in a big big way. -to Stefans point on armswing: do you swing your arms forward, or do you concentrate on pulling your elbows back? following the broader 'lean forward" model, it should be the latter.
Can you post a stationary video with camera at hip height?
Also, was this filmed at the OAC? I had a membership there for a brief time a number of years ago but my workouts were crap because I was constantly distracted by pretty girls.
Brent - in the time between my last post and now, I watched "Without Limits," the Steve Prefontaine story. There is a GREAT scene in there where Donald Sutherland (as Bowerman) describes what I am getting at with the bend at hips. Very lewdly. Watch it - the movie is gold for a bunch of different reasons, at the very least, that scene.
@Brent - Just a few more words on the head-position (where you look at) point: I paid special focus on this point after Dave's analysis of my run video and I really could FEEL that in fact there is a HUGE difference for me wether I look 15m out to the ground in front or 50m (as I used to do before). I guess it's just a difference of a very few degrees in your head position but my whole body forward lean greatly improves by doing this! IMHO the faster you run (Z4, Z5, Sprints) the more forward lean you need but from my experience this is hard to learn so practice on EVERY run!!
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Comments
For a TP run it really looks "easy" to me
... maybe too easy ... I'm missing the hip rotation and the counter-rotation in your upper body (shoulder and arms).
I looks a little bit as the stabilization of your body is holding you back somehow.
Your heel lift is not that bad but you can also improve here especially during our TP intervals.
I like viewing people running with a super-stable upper body! This is super awesome when running at EP or MP in my opinion but when going TP or faster you should try to focus on a higher heel lift and just let your shoulders more freedom to move. You will recreate actual speed from the momentum in your upper body. I'm also pretty sure your hip rotation will get "active" automatically
Good job Brent - 6:55/mi is no joke - keep it up!
I feel it very hard to focus on multiple aspects of my running form similar to technic drills in the pool - so I just pick one and focus on that as long as I can. When you your mind gets distracted and fading away it's maybe time to mentally relax and just run. After some time I start to focus again ... just use every run as an opportunity to improve your form - there's nothing like "EP run and just enjoy the melody" for me
-head position. IMHO, the head should be aligned with the "ideal" perfect line you can draw from shoulders/hips/ankles, that are the forward lean. Yours has your head looking straight ahead. I would try to acomplish this alignment by finding a point about 5-10 on the ground ahead of you, and looking at this when you run, orienting your head tilt towards it. maybe only a few degrees, but it's all part of the chain and the contribution to gravity that is pushing you ahead.
-lean at hips. I see your "lean" coming from upper body, but not so much the hips and below. try to lean at the hips so they fall into line - kind of push your hips out there and forward so you even feel a slight pull. Find a screen shot of Craig Alexander to see what I'm getting at. It took me a good 2-3 years of work to get this right - Mike Graffeo - pointed this out to me - but it's definitely a major part of the big picture, and will really facilitate a more natural engagement of core and glutes.
-in the slo mo, I can see the shin angle leading to some"braking." Get your footstrike such that the shin is 90 degrees or negative to the surface. You'll probably find this is easily accomplished in the first 30-60 seconds of an FT interval, and thenb falls away after that. Practice, practice, practice.
Stefan is 100% correct about form being something you are *always* practicing. EP runs are no longer something where you punch the clock - instead you are working on PERFECTING form and really putting your mind to things. My advice is building on his - I call them form fartleks - where you choose a very discrete, specific skill to concentrate on, and be attentive to it 100% for at least 3 minutes. It's easy to put your mind to something for 60 seconds. 90 seconds is a bit harder. Minutes 2 to 3 are really where you have to keep thinking about it, and keep practing it, and it seems to be where it goes from the congnitive place of "monitoring" the mind-body connection, to "practicing" and "learning" and reinforcing the skill development. IOW, it's where the money is. I do 100% of my in-season Sat and Sun weekend brick runs on a track with this 2 or 3 minute pattern. It sux, but it works in a big big way.
-to Stefans point on armswing: do you swing your arms forward, or do you concentrate on pulling your elbows back? following the broader 'lean forward" model, it should be the latter.
Can you post a stationary video with camera at hip height?
Also, was this filmed at the OAC? I had a membership there for a brief time a number of years ago but my workouts were crap because I was constantly distracted by pretty girls.
Sorry for the typos.
@Brent - Just a few more words on the head-position (where you look at) point: I paid special focus on this point after Dave's analysis of my run video and I really could FEEL that in fact there is a HUGE difference for me wether I look 15m out to the ground in front or 50m (as I used to do before).
I guess it's just a difference of a very few degrees in your head position but my whole body forward lean greatly improves by doing this!
IMHO the faster you run (Z4, Z5, Sprints) the more forward lean you need but from my experience this is hard to learn so practice on EVERY run!!