What A Difference Form Makes

After doing a lot of moaning and groaning about how sore my feet have been the past couple of weeks, today I 'went back to basics' and really focused on maintaining my form. What a difference using good form makes!

I completed a 9.1 mile course without any problems at all - in fact, I felt like I could have just kept running forever. Where before I felt bruising and hypersensitivity, today I felt warmth and a happy tingling in my feet. I seemed to just glide over rough spots, and I was unaware of the passage of time.

So, even though I probably sounded like a "moaning Susan" when talking about my runs the past couple of weeks, today's run more than made up for all of the sorry, pitiful runs I had recently.

The main difference was that I really made sure I was putting my feet down beneath me, not even a little bit out in front, and keeping my stride close to the center line. I experimented with taking short steps, high steps, low steps, high back leg lifts, etc. and none of it seemed to make much difference. The key was "center down" foot placement. I noticed that doing a high rear leg lift along with a higher knee lift in front, while still doing a center-down foot placement, made my forward speed pick up quite a bit.

It was a fantastic run for me. The wind blew, the rain came down hard at times, the sun came out and dried up all the water, it hailed, it blew some more, and we ended with a hard downpour and thunder. What a rush!

At the end of the run my feet not only felt more than fine, they tingled like they were ready to get out and go again!

Big NW Smiles

Ryan