A Passion for Running

I often get questioned on what it feels like to run using the Pose Method. Here’s the simple answer that just moments ago occurred to me:

Do you know the feeling of lightly touching on stairs as you go down them? There is that fine line between going too slow — when your feet begin landing more heavy and flat-footed — and going that speed where they just tightly touch the stairs.

That’s what Pose Method runners try for — that kind of quickness and lightness.

It’s all about quick cadence (turnover) and lifting the foot up almost before it touches the ground. And that kind of lightness can only be accomplished on the balls of one’s feet.

Does that make sense to you?
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Oh! Remember I introducted you to Megin? Well, she’s now run her first 5k. Go congratulate her!

Much is being said within running circles about Lance venturing into the world of running.

The big question seems to be around how well Lance will run. Is he a 3:00 hour marathoner, a 2:30 marathoner, a 2:20 marathoner - or might he be even better than that? In other words, does he have world class potential?

A lot has been made of Lance’s stratospheric VO2 max, lactic acid threshold and lung capacity. While those things are undeniable, it may also be safe to say that lance has used up his best years on the bike.

Can we count him out based on age? I’m just not sure.

I’ve also read some people’s assertion that the pounding miles of running will inflict will be harder on Lance than even he can imagine and that, because he is not a ‘lifer’, he’ll break down and suffer from injury before he can attain running greatness.

I’m not sure where Lance will end up, but I think it will be impressive. My guess is he could pull off a 2:30 in fairly short time if he really trained for it. (edit: how’
s 18 months training sound?)

Why? Because I think Lance will run in such a way as to minimize the pounding on his body and take full advantage of his strengths.

And how will he do that? By having something many runners do not have - incredibly high cadence.

My guess is that Lance will quickly become an expert in proper form. Not only that, I believe he will naturally adapt the high cadence that set him apart on the bike to the run.

High cadence = less time on the ground = less impact on the body = less injury = greater chance of success.

Lance will be nimble, Lance will be quick, Lance will break through the finishing tape.

I don’t know about you, but I can’t wait to see what this guy can do.

I had a very good 30 minute run with Nick on Friday. Everything continues to feel better and I’m convinced it was my very bad pronation that was causing the problem. To back-up that statement, I analyzed a few video clips of me running over the weekend. The most telling one was a clip I had my mom take of me running barefoot. The clip was taken three or four weeks ago - so, just before I started having the foot, ankle and shin-splint problems. What was really valuable about that particular clip was that I had them taken from the front and back instead of how I usually have them taken - from the side.

The clips convincingly demonstrated what I’d theorized about bad pronation on my right side. In slow motion it was quite fascinating to watch my right foot doing an inward reach prior to making contact with the ground.

Explanation: Imagine following a passing line down the middle of a highway. To follow that line, you wouldn’t necessarily need to land on it. Your feet would mostly land on either side of it - although the insides of your feet may touch it. That was the case with my left foot - it was coming straight forward and landing on the outside of that imaginary line. But my right foot was coming inward and landing in the middle of the line, or even crossing somewhat over the line. The problem was that the inward reach was making my foot tilt and contact the ground on the outside of my foot - causing a pronounced inward roll.

So, I definitely had some bad pronation on that side. Some pronation is not a bad thing, but severe pronation is.

I’m sure many readers would be bored to tears of my ongoing self-analysis but I find it fascinating and even exciting since I’m really beginning to learn how to assess and fix my own form problems.

Yup. I’ve got that whole ankle/leg/shin-splint issue figured out. It was definitely the pronating on my right foot that was the problem. Ran again tonight with Aaron keeping the focus (again) on making proper contact with the ground. The pose felt good and the pain I had is all but gone.

The only discomfort I have is some muscle soreness in my right foot - undoubtedley because I’m working “rightey” in a different way than it is used to.

I’m thinking this latest tweak to my form is going to take a couple of weeks. I’m way happy and looking forward to a winter of fine tuning followed by a spring and summer of rockin’ racing.

Woohoo!

I hadn’t planned on it, but today I went for a 30 minute jaunt in the river valley.

Today’s focus was entirely on form. I wouldn’t allow myself to deviate at all from proper foot contact and from lifting my heel quickly and cleanly from the ground.

Guess what? My leg and ankle feel better tonight than they have for quite some time following a run.

The further along I get on this journey to re-engineer my form, the more I realize form is everything.

I thought the following comment from Debra was so helpful I’d post it. Thanks Debra. I’m going to go see my Chiro/ARTS guy as soon as I can!

You can often spot leg length discrepency by looking in a mirror and checking whether your pelvis is level. The tell-tale sign is that the curve of the waist is different on both sides. That?s what my podiatrist says.

Mind you, according to my chiropractor (as far as I can remember) leg length discrepency can be caused by a tilted pelvis.

Debra left the comment after reading yesterday’s post.

So, after about a week off, I got back to running. Aaron and I went out for a 20 minute test run - just to see how things would feel. It went well but my leg, foot and ankle still have some…discomfort.

The really valuable thing about today’s run came from having Aaron along for the ride. After I concentrated for a few minutes on correct foot placement, Aaron asked me to follow him to see if I could spot his “knee coming in” - a troublesome thing for him. While I could not see his knee doing funny stuff, I was able to clearly see the toes on his right foot turning outward as they left the ground. His left side was fine. This left Aaron wondering if this might be the reason/part of the reason for his knee hurting/having some discomfort so he worked on it for the rest of the run.

Then Aaron returned the favor and ran behind me. The first thing he mentioned was that my right heel wasn’t coming anywhere close to touching the ground. Hmmm…I concentrated on letting that heel come closer to the ground. It didn’t want to. It was work. It became obvious to me that’s part of my problem. If my heel/ankle is not sufficiently relaxed, it’s going to cause tension in my calves and achilles tendon and that’s going to cause all kinds of other problems. I wonder why my right leg is doing that? Perhaps it is shorter than the left one? Maybe, as I discussed in a previous post, I have a problem with hip alignment? I have to figure that out. Are there any experts out there that would like to chime in?

At any rate, I learned a lot today. And I’ve (still) got much to work on form-wise.

But I’m patient. I’m in this for the long haul.

Dear Mark,

I know you’ve worked hard to fix your form. I’m proud of you for learning the pose method and am impressed you took up barefoot running to strengthen your feet. I wish all my children would spend time in their bare feet - I created the earth hoping all of you would spend at least some time connecting with it.

Anyway, I gave you some shin splints to tell you something. Unfortunately, you didn’t listen so I’ve made them worse. Mark, I want you to think about why you got shin splints. Really think about it and once you are sure you have the answer, tell people because there are others who suffer as you have. Think you can do that?
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Dear God,

I wondered about that and was frankly a bit peeved at you for your latest “gift”. After I noticed the shin splints, I thought it was just because of increase of mileage I’d started into but, in the back of my head, I was thinking that wasn’t right because the pose method says if I’m running right, I won’t get shin splints.

The splints got worse and my ankle even started hurting. I felt like I was back where I was a year ago.

I concentrated on the problem. Why why why? I paid attention to how I was landing and discovered I wasn’t landing on the ball of my right foot - I was landing on the outside part of my forefoot. So I read up on pronation and supination and saw pictures like this one (normal on the left, pronation on the right):

I studied how I was standing and walking and began to think I have a pretty severe biomechanical problem(s) with my right foot. I had the doctor I sit next to at work take a look. He agreed. We talked about what I should do. I was happy to learn he doesn’t think orthodics are the answer. He thinks I need to strengthen my foot some more and that strength training exercises are the key. He suggested I see a sports physiology expert. He also mentioned the problems may not solely be centered in my feet and that their cause may be as far away as my hips. That got me thinking about Aaron. He’s been seeing this expert who, among other things, identified problems in Aaron’s hips. He gave Aaron a whack of exercises to correct a number of imbalances. Now I’m thinking I have very similar issues.

So, I’m gonna follow-up with this stuff. I’m going to work at landing on the balls of my feet but, more importantly, I’m going to figure out what I need to do to fix the physical imbalances I have on my right side.

And I’m going to tell everyone who will listen that if they have problems such as shin-splints, they need to think really hard about the underlying causes.

Is that a good start Big Guy?

It’s quite simple faithful reader. It’s because I am a slow learner.

I remember a time way back when. I’d discovered the cause of some pain I was having in my right foot. The cause being that I had been excessively landing on the outside of that foot.

Well, here I am months later and I’ve been having similar pain and even a little bit of shin-splints. Yes, you heard it Jon (and everyone else), the pose dude is having a bit of shin splints. However, Dr. R will be happy to hear that the splints are not because of the pose method - they are because I have not been relaxing my foot so I can do the pose method properly.

On today’s run I decided to see if I could find a form related reason for my recent pains. And find it I did. Yup, same thing as before…

I think the important lesson here is that sometimes, a person can figure things out on their own. In this case, the most obvious alert was that I had pain only on the right side so I immediately focused on the difference between how I was running (and landing) on my right vs. left side.

It didn’t take long to pin-point the problem once I focused on that idea. I almost immediately became aware of the difference between how I was landing, and how the landing point for my right side was placing pressure on my foot and shins. It was simple. Land too much on the outside of the foot (pronate) - get pressure and pain on the inside shin. Land nearer to the ball of my foot and, viola - no pressure or pain.

Of course, there may be a reason (muscle imbalance?) I tend to revert to landing this way but at least I am onto the problem and can work at it.

Introduction

Anyone who spends time here knows I believe strongly in the Pose Method of Running. Why? Because I think for many of us, poor form leads to injuries and layoffs from running. In my opinion, the Pose Method is the best way to learn good running form, avoid injury and become a better, more healthy long-term runner.

If you have an interest in learning good running form, or improving your current form, I strongly recommend getting your hands on Dr. Romanov’s book and DVD. You can purchase them directly from posetech or from amazon.

To Buy From Posetech

Pose Method of Running Book

Pose Method DRILL Companion Book (included with DVD purchase)

Pose Method DVD

To Buy From Amazon

Pose Method DVD

Pose Method Book

Pose Method DRILL Companion Book (included with DVD purchase)

Pose Method of Running Links

-Posetech
-Posetech Forum
-All my own posts on the Pose Method subject
-Article on Slowtwitch.com written by Christopher Drozd. He was the host for the Pose clinic Aaron and I attended in Los Angelas.
-Barefoot running guru Ken Bob Saxton endorses the Pose Method
-Article on coach Brian Mac’s website.
-Erin is a speedy female pose method runner

Strike a POSE!

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here’s a link to my main running links page