A Passion for Running

I will answer for myself first: Not very good I’m afraid.

Let me explain. Before I went to the POSE clinic I knew I was a heel striker but it turns out I really had no idea how bad a heel striker I was. The truth made itself painfully apparent when we did our first session of video analysis with Dr. Romanov…

In my old style of running, my feet reached way the hell out in front of my body so, really, my heels had very little choice but to strike first. The simple physics of the matter is that the further ahead you reach, the worse you heel strike. Put the vision in your mind. Makes sense right?

So, now I am back to perception. In 13 years of running, it never, ever felt like I was reaching that far forward with my feet.

A big part of the clinic was learning to percieve correctly where my feet were landing. We did drill after drill after drill. We even did a couple of drills involving surgical tubing. The purpose of the tubing being to restrict our feet from pushing ahead and landing ahead of our bodies.

And let me tell you, it felt WEIRD. Really weird. And it still feels weird. Less weird with every day I practice but still…

So, here’s a little test for you. Go for a run. Once settled into a good rhythym, look down at your feet. Can you see them? How MUCH of them can you see?

Guess what? If you are seeing anything more your toes, you are probably landing too far ahead.

Try the same test running faster and faster and faster. What happens? Do you see more and more of your feet? Yeah? Naughty naughty!

Next, try landing right under your center of mass. You can find your center of mass by imagining a line that goes from your shoulders, through your pelvis and straight to the ground.

Try this stuff and let me know what you discover!

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Unrelated Topic: During our clinic, Dr. Romanov mentioned a few famous runners he thought did perfect/near perfect POSE style running. Guess who one of those runners was? Emil Zatopek – the guy in my header! I know you may not see it, but he really IS running POSE style – especially in the center and left photos in my header. Yet another synchronicity. I love that word.