Marathon Training Tip #5: Form Running Drills

One way to improve your running speed and efficiency is by practicing form drills.  It is very common that your running form can break down with fatigue and any change in stride will increase your chance of injury.  Form running drills exaggerate different elements of the running stride to increase range of motion, build strength and develop muscle memory for important movement patterns. 

When should you perform form running drills?

Try adding the drills below into your training 2-3x per week. They should be done after your warm up/dynamic warm up and before your workout.

Note: Do not perform any exercise that causes or increases pain.

High Knees

High knees focuses on a powerful leg drive to develop strength in the quads and hip flexors.

How: Take short steps and alternate lifting your knees upward until your thigh is at least parallel to the ground. Foot strikes should be soft and near the balls of your feet.

Butt Kicks

Hello hamstrings! Butt kicks get the hamstring muscles firing and emphasize the recovery phase—also known as the follow through. Tight or weak hamstrings can lead to more of a shuffle stride with a low heel kick and shorter gait.

How: Alternate bringing your heels towards your glutes as you keep your thighs perpendicular to the ground.

High Skipping

Benefits are similar to the high knee drill but skipping also incorporates calf and hamstring power along with increased ankle stability.

How: When was the last time you skipped? Skip forward focusing on height and soft landings. As you drive up off the ground, lift your opposite arm overhead.

Quick Feet

Quick feet works on your cadence teaching your muscles to fire and turnover at a faster rate. Bonus! Quick feet is an excellent drill for over-striders.

How: Work on fast feet and fast arms as if you are running on hot coals. You should be running more on the balls of your feet and don’t worry about your high knees and butt kicks—just speed and quickness!

Backwards Running

Run backwards to recruit different muscles. It strengthens the quads while promoting good posture.

How: Just as it sounds—run backwards! Focus on standing up tall and take long strides landing on the balls of your feet.

Carioca

Running is almost performed exclusively in a straight line moving forward but it is very important to train laterally. The Carioca exercise (also known as the grapevine) works on hip mobility and lateral stability.

How: Cross one leg in front of the other, step out to the side, then cross your leg behind the other, step out to the side. Swing your arms side to side and your hips should be rotating as well. Start out slow and increase your speed as you get the hang of it. Don’t forget to repeat the exercises leading with the other leg!

Good luck out there!  Happy running!

Blog post by Jen Skiba

About Coach Jen Skiba

Jen began her running career as a middle-distance runner for Falmouth High School and has been involved with the sport for over 12 years as a runner, official, race management, and coach.  A Mashpee Fitness trainer and Certified Running Coach through the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA), Jen enjoys working with runners in the gym and on the roads. “Whether you are a beginner looking to get started running or at the intermediate level hoping to improve your times or tackle new distances, I can help you reach your goals!”

Marathon Training Tip #4: Run Negative Splits

What are negative splits?

It’s pretty simple.  Negative splits are when you complete the second half of your run faster than your first!

Why should you run negative splits?

Every runner—whether you are a beginner or an experienced runner—should practice running negative splits on a weekly basis.  Practicing negative splits in your normal training runs will translate into racing negative splits.

Why does this matter?  Ok, here’s a common scenario.  You are at a road race.  The gun goes off.  All the excitement and the adrenaline at the start of the race leads to a super speedy first mile or two.  Even though you know it’s too fast, you feel good so you try to maintain the pace but totally bonk and have to practically shuffle your way to the finish line.  Has this ever happened to you?

In an ideal race situation, you start out at a comfortable pace.  In fact, you can use the first few miles of your run as a warm up—just don’t skip the pre-race dynamic warm up and form running drills!  By starting out slow you are conserving energy for the end of the race and hopefully avoid hitting that infamous wall everyone talks about.  After the first few miles, gradually increase your pace and finish strong, giving it all you got in the final miles.

You may think that starting out at a slower pace will effect your ability to run overall fast times but this is not true at all.  In fact, Runner’s World wrote at article a few years back about the last five men’s marathon world record runs.  Going out too fast and “time in the bank” rarely works out in favor of distance runners.  Spoiler alert!  3 of the last 5 were run at negative splits.  You can view the full article here: http://www.runnersworld.com/newswire/what-world-records-teach-about-marathon-pacing

Patience is a hard trait to teach.  There is such thing as starting out TOO slow and not being able to make up for the time but that’s why training runs are so important.  The more you practice running negative splits, the more comfortable and confident you will become with your own pacing strategies.  As always, you need to trust the process and work on your ability to hold back, build on your speed and cross that finish line with a new PR.

How can you practice running negative splits during your training?

Good luck out there!  Happy running!

Blog post by Jen Skiba.

About Coach Jen Skiba

Jen began her running career as a middle-distance runner for Falmouth High School and has been involved with the sport for over 12 years as a runner, official, race management, and coach.  A Mashpee Fitness trainer and Certified Running Coach through the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA), Jen enjoys working with runners in the gym and on the roads. “Whether you are a beginner looking to get started running or at the intermediate level hoping to improve your times or tackle new distances, I can help you reach your goals!”

Use It or Lose It!

It is important to always keep up with the exercise that we do daily because taking a break from it for too long can have consequences. Our bodies need to move around and exercise whether it is a program that you are apart of or just a simple walk in the morning. It is certainly okay to have a day of rest or modify the exercise based on how you are feeling that particular day. However, stopping the exercise that your body is used to for more than two weeks can start to show changes in the muscles endurance that are being used. This is a term known as detraining and along with muscle atrophy can also show decreases in the 6 essential qualities of life and sport: balance, coordination, flexibility, endurance, speed and strength. 

Sometimes it is difficult to keep up with the exercise programs that we are in because we become busy, but even just getting out and moving makes a huge difference. There will still be a loss in the muscular endurance if the exercise intensity is decreased, but it will be substantially less endurance lost than just sitting around all day. Studies have shown that if the exercise intensity is decreased by 2/3 of the original training load then there will be losses in endurance. Even if a few weeks go by and you start to see your endurance being lost don't get discouraged but rather get back into whatever exercise you were doing before. The endurance that you worked so hard for will come back quickly so it’s always better to not hesitate and get right back to it. 

This graph below shows a one repetition maximum in kilograms taken before 20 weeks of training and one taken after 20 weeks of training. It then shows a 6 week period of no training after which another measurement was taken and finally after another 6 weeks of training another value was taken. This graph shows how even after losing the strength in the muscle after 6 weeks of not training it only took another few weeks to not only get back what was lost but improve on it. These measurements were taken by RS Staron in 1991 when he was doing a case study on the detraining and retraining of women.

So the point to take home here is to never give up on exercise even if a long break has been taken from it, there is always time to improve and create a healthy lifestyle.

Blog Post by Summer 2016 Intern Matt Leduc.

The Dangers of a Sedentary Lifestyle

Sedentary lifestyle is defined as inactivity or any activity that does not require higher than normal levels of energy expenditure. This class of activity includes sitting, sleeping, and laying down. In the Physical Activity Council’s 2015 Participation Report, it was found that there was an increase in the amount of sedentary activity in the United States. Research suggests that roughly 25 to 35% of the US adults live a sedentary lifestyle.

           

The age group that is the most sedentary are adults over the age of 65, with females being more likely to be sedentary. The increase in sedentary activity in the United States can be attributed to jobs, technology, and better transportation. The amount of sedentary jobs increased by 83% from 1950 to 2015. The work week is also longer, with the average full-time employee working 47 hours per week. Better technology attributes to longer screen viewing time. The average American watches 28 hours of TV per week. Better transportation means that people no longer have to travel long distances by feet or bike. Rather, they can ride public transportation or drive, which require little energy expenditure.  

Sedentary lifestyle can lead to many health damages and is linked to higher risks of multiple health issues and disease incidence:

• Obesity - In the United States, approximately 35% or adults and 17% of children are obese. Obesity is linked to multiple health risks, such as: cancer, hypertension, and increased mortality. Sedentary lifestyle is highly correlated with obesity.

• Colon and Breast Cancer - Sedentary individuals have a higher risk of colon and breast cancer. Increase risk in colon cancer could be due to the fact waste stays in the colon longer when individuals are inactive. Breast cancer risk is 30%-40% higher in sedentary women, however, the reason behind this is still under research.  

• Diabetes - Sedentary activity is highly correlated with diabetes. In a study from the International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity, they found that the risk of diabetes is increased when individuals sit for more than 4 hours a day.

• Stroke - Sedentary individuals are more likely to have a stroke. This is because sedentary individuals are more likely to have hypertension, diabetes, obesity, which also increases the risks of strokes.

• Cardiovascular Disease (CVD) - Sedentary individuals are at a greater risk of mortality from CVD than active individuals. Sedentary individuals are at a 30%-50% higher risk of dying from CVD.

Blog Post by Summer 2016 Intern June Yao.

Marathon Training Tip #3: Tackle the Hills

Whether you are signed up for a hilly marathon like the Cape Cod Marathon or a super flat race with one epic hill like the Cape Cod Half, it’s important to incorporate hills into your training.

Cape Cod Marathon Elevation Profile

The benefits of hill training is simple.  Hills will make you stronger.  More specifically:

• Improves muscle strength.  Running uphill will strengthen your hamstrings, glutes, hip flexors, calves and Achilles.  Your quads take over most of the workload on the downhill.  You also use a lot more upper body muscles running hills than running on flat roads.
• Improves endurance.
• Improves power as your muscles need to work harder to fight gravity.
• Improves running form and promotes a more efficient stride.
• Hills can often break up your rhythm.  Train on the hills to master a technique so there are no surprises on race day.  Most new runners will try to surge up a hill and then feel totally beat at the top.  The best advice I can give you is to not worry about your pace—focus on your effort.  Maintain your effort level on the way up and then allow gravity to carry you downhill.

Running Uphill

When you approach a hill, think about changing gears.  Your form will change and your pace may slow down but your effort levels should remain the same.

First, lean into the hill.  I’m talking about a hip hinge, good posture and no slouching.  With this you will be running more on your toes—that’s ok, forefoot running on hills is what we want!

Next, think about your arms.  You want to aim for a shorter, faster arm swing.  Faster arms translates into faster leg turnover.  Some coaches will talk about using “higher knees” on the hills but the Road Runners Club of America stresses that the focus should be on your arms and your legs will naturally do their job.

So if you are completely out of breath at the top of the hill, your effort levels are too high.  Try slowing down and finding the right speed to tackle the hills with ease.

Running Downhill

Downhill running can actually be harder than uphill running.  It pulls up a lot of strain on your quads and pressure on your hip and knee joints.

One big thing is that you always want to be in control on a downhill and accelerate gradually.  Your natural reaction will be to slow down and “put on the breaks” but that can put your knees at an even greater risk.  Instead, lean forward and allow gravity to carry you downhill.  Use short strides and keep your elbows tucked in.

How can you incorporate hills into your training plan?

Good luck out there!  Happy running!

Blog post by Jen Skiba.

About Coach Jen Skiba

Jen began her running career as a middle-distance runner for Falmouth High School and has been involved with the sport for over 12 years as a runner, official, race management, and coach.  A Mashpee Fitness trainer and Certified Running Coach through the Road Runners Club of America (RRCA), Jen enjoys working with runners in the gym and on the roads. “Whether you are a beginner looking to get started running or at the intermediate level hoping to improve your times or tackle new distances, I can help you reach your goals!”