These 3 Running Form Myths Almost Ruined My Marathon

These 3 Running Form Myths Almost
Ruined My Marathon
Watch, listen and read the full episode here
[00:00:00] So a few weeks into my marathon training, I found out something
absolutely crazy at slower marathon paces. I was slightly heel striking and
overriding,
[00:00:09] which led to a hamstring strain,
[00:00:11] but it was actually a couple other issues that led to the hamstring strain.
[00:00:15] I’ll get into that in a second
[00:00:16] back to form. When I do run intervals or sprints, my form is great. It’s
perfect. I don’t overstride. I land right under my hips
[00:00:24] I don’t heel strike.
[00:00:25] I midfoot strike.
[00:00:26] So I had to figure out why does my form breakdown when I run at
Marathon Pace and how can I fix it without destroying my training? Because in
seven weeks I’m about to run, hopefully a sub three hour marathon. I’m pacing a
guy that I’m coaching Brenton to his first sub three hour marathon. I’ve done one
before and I’m gonna try to do another 1, 7, 8 years later, and a couple.
[00:00:46] Couple weeks,
[00:00:47] Yes, I’m already seeing gains within like seven to 10 days, and hopefully
in seven weeks this will all be done. We’ll run our sub three out marathon. There
won’t be any issues.
[00:00:54] , and I’m destroying some of the old long held running myths that a lot of
people think in their heads and that actually aren’t true.
[00:01:00] So in this episode, I’m gonna go through my marathon run form analysis,
[00:01:04] three common running form myths. So I’ll talk about heel striking, not
always being bad or always being bad. Slower paces mean better form, not usually.
And one quick fix that solves everything. And then I’ll move into some practical tips
to improve your form.
[00:01:20] By the end of this video, you’ll know how to spot and correct really small
form issues before they lead to nagging injuries. And you’ll find out easy incremental
steps, like shorter strides and strength drills that can make a huge difference in your
marathon training.
[00:01:32] And I have a free download that you can get that will increase your
cadence, that will possibly help your run form. So stay tuned for that.
[00:01:39] I’m Darren D. Lake runs
[00:01:41] a sub three out marathoner, 10 hour Ironman finisher. And since 1996,
yeah, about 30 years now almost. I have been helping other self-coach runners like
yourself.
[00:01:50] Get better 1% each day. Let’s get into it.
[00:01:53] So I’m seven weeks out from this marathon, and training has been going
okay. Like I said earlier, I actually had a hamstring strain, very, very mild, and it
keeps popping up every few days. And then I did some research and I talked to
some experts, like I always do, and it’s a new one. I know I have tight hips, but my
SOAs, which is the, I’m pointing right now to the, the muscle, um, below your lower
back.
[00:02:17] It’s lower back muscle and it’s above your. Kind of rear pelvic and that is
super tight. Like I actually feel it when I do twist or when I’m laying down, it doesn’t
feel very good and I put two together and said I have a tight, so as I have tight hips,
you know what that equals? A hamstring pull. And the left hamstring.
[00:02:33] Even though I’ve been doing crazy amounts of strength training, I’m
leading up to this. I’m always strength training. Hamstrings. ’cause I know that I
have interior tilt, interior pelvic tilt, so I need to, I am quad dominant ’cause that’s
just how I’m built. And also we sit a lot as humans. So I have been focusing the last
probably two years on hamstrings, uh, lower back hips and just pull techniques.
[00:02:55] So deadlifts, kettlebell swings, all types of stuff. And now I need to focus
even more on the left side. And through all of this, I was actually like, well, if I
actually. Make my running form better. IEI shorten my strides. IEI increase my stride
length. I actually can get through this, keep running through this, keep training, keep
building up fitness so we can run this sub three hour marathon and it’s actually
been working.
[00:03:18] So let’s get into the first myth. Heel striking is always bad. That is the
myth, is it? Is it not? So common advice, never heel strike. It’s the root of all running
injuries.
[00:03:26] I learned that I was slightly heel striking during a
[00:03:28] run form analysis
[00:03:30] and it’s not necessarily a bad thing if you heel strike
[00:03:34] as long as you don’t.
[00:03:35] Overstride is where the problem can be fixed. So heel striking is okay,
especially with the shoes that we have. It’s overstriding
[00:03:40] obviously excessive heel striking is not good, but if I can land under my
hips so shorter stride, and also just kind of make sure that I’m lifting up my legs,
then it works.
[00:03:49] So what I’m actually doing about it, I’m doing some drills to where I’m
lifting up my heel, my leg so that it goes higher and I’m creating more of a circle.
’cause when I get tired and I’m in that marathon pace, which is kind of slow, kind of
fast, not really, and it’s just this pace that I actually don’t run in.
[00:04:04] I’m not efficient. It, I don’t run in the marathon pace enough. I need to
practice running in it with good form. So doing that, that’s one drill. Uh, a lot of
other drills that I do are plyometrics, high knees, butt kicks. Those are good ones.
High knees and butt kicks uphill is really good ’cause it forces you to not overstride
and to not heel strike.
[00:04:21] And also just general apply metrics.
[00:04:23] A skips, B skips, C skips. I do all that stuff habitually, probably four or five
times a week. And I have a dedicated session usually once a week doing that and
strength and mobility work. So I’m constantly. Rolling on the hard spiky ball, uh,
right on my hips. It’s not great.
[00:04:38] And also stretching. I try to stretch twice a day and after, always stretch
after my runs. Uh, and just generally keeping my hips nice and supple and loose
and spry and all those things. So over 26.2 miles of 42.2 Ks, even a mild overstride
or uh, even a mild heel strike more than I would like, can accumulate to strain on my
hamstrings and also inefficient form.
[00:05:02] So that’s what I’m laser focusing on right now, which leads to myth
number two.
[00:05:06] Slower paces automatically mean better form. So I kind of, I think some
people think this, other people don’t. I don’t know. It’s when I run at a certain pace,
I have good form. I personally run better when I run faster.
[00:05:19] I have better form. Some people might run better when they have slower
form, but me personally, I’m always thinking the faster I run, the better my form is.
I’m looking great. I love getting video from the side.
[00:05:28] It looks really good. Hopefully I’ll put some video up of that.
[00:05:30] But in my case, at Marathon Pace, I have more of a relaxed stride, which
makes me drift into a, I call a sloppy stride, where I’m actually stretching out a bit
longer than I want. It’s just, it’s just a slight bit amount from that video
[00:05:41] that I saw when I did the run form analysis with a professional running
physical therapist physiotherapist.
[00:05:46] I was like, I’m overriding what? And then it’s like, well, that pace again,
I’m not practic practicing enough,
[00:05:50] so I do active form check-ins during slow runs where I have an alert. It’s
kind of annoying. Um, I’m starting to like zone out on it,
[00:05:56] so every three minutes, I actually focus for two minutes on picking up my
legs again. Uh, that original thing I said earlier where I’m making sure my knees are
driving forward and it’s not being sloppy, and also just generally making sure that
my ca cadence is high and I actually am constantly listening to
[00:06:12] DJ mixes and music.
[00:06:13] That is my optimal. Cadence, but slight, like 1% faster, so about 180 2
BPMs. So my optimal cadence about 1 78 for let’s say zone two easy runs, and I’m
actually bumping that up to 180 2, which is actually the cadence that I have for
faster runs, and I’m trying that out and it seems to be working much better again,
using drills to make sure high knees, butt kicks uphill A skips, B skips, C skips, B
skips in particular, really help with overstriding and just constantly reminding myself
to correct my form.
[00:06:43] Subconsciously. So you gotta do it consciously. And then after you do it
a lot, a lot, a lot. And when you’re tired, you’ll just subconsciously make sure that
you’re running with good form, picking up my legs, making sure I’m doing that circle
and not stretching out with my leg forward and doing that over stride sort of thing.
[00:06:56] And I think it’s kind of funny how comfortably hard paced can lead to
sloppy running mechanics if I’m not paying attention. So now I’m being super
mindful with those alerts and making sure that those middle paces are with good
form, which leads to the miff number three.
[00:07:12] You can fix your form overnight with one trick. I don’t believe that, but
maybe some people do. When I did some research, research, I saw it
[00:07:18] So the common belief is just one drill will change your foot strike
instantly, and boom, you have perfect form.
[00:07:24] Obviously, no, this stuff takes a long time. And guess what? I actually
have a guide
[00:07:28] it’s a six month training plan and the QR code is right up here. That will
help you run with higher cadence, which will possibly, I’m gonna say possibly help
you run with better run form. And it’s slow, incremental, 1% better.
[00:07:41] This whole thing right here. Small incremental gains over the span of
months and years to make you a better runner. So that’s what we do with this
training plan. And you also get a quick start guide on how you can just start right
now, some tips and tools and tactics in the the gear that you need. And also you’ll
sign up for my email newsletter that gives you mental hacks and allows you to think
about.
[00:08:02] Other things, uh, VO two max and Temple runs, and I’ll be posting about
that and goes right in your email newsletter. You’ll have to wait for YouTube to get
back to you. So, uh, this end, the plug there for that. But check that out. Make sure
you check that as a link in the show notes if you’re listening and in the video
description below, if you didn’t get that QR code for the free download
[00:08:19] but again, form changes, take time, consistency,
[00:08:21] and often complimentary work like mobility, stretching, and strength will
help your running form. So I put all that stuff, a lot of that stuff in that guy, check
that out. And despite seeing improvements in a week, it’s still part of an ongoing
process to change your cadence.
[00:08:36] To increase your cadence. That takes months to do it properly. So if you
wanna increase your cadence. 5%, 10%, I’d say do that over the course of six
months. If you wanna trace it one to 2%, you can do that over course of probably
one to two months. But it’s still slow and steady. It’s the way. So what I’m actually
doing about that, again, I’m doing daily mobility, targeting my SOAs, hips and
hamstrings.
[00:08:54] I’m doing new exercises, so
[00:08:57] bird dogs, which is, I hopefully have a, a, uh, video or a photo of how to
do the bird dog and also, uh,
[00:09:04] donkey kicks. So it’s, uh, lifting your leg up, lifting your leg up there. And
it’s stuff that I never really did it. Wakes up your glutes. Uh, that, which, that term is
[00:09:11] but it’s more like, it’s making sure my body is, when I basically get
fatigued on these longer runs for the marathon,
[00:09:18] it’s making sure that when my body and my brain automatically shift to
other muscles because of, you know, the marathon is really, the marathon training is
fatiguing my muscles and you know, the quads, the glutes, the hamstrings. When
those get fatigued, it then goes to smaller muscles
[00:09:33] because that’s the whole posterior chain and obviously hips and glutes.
So I wanna make sure that those small little muscles are being activated, are strong,
can handle it. And I’m doing exercises, new exercises now. I’m still doubling down
on hamstring stuff as much as you can. You can’t, I can’t go in the weight room and
like get myself out of this, like, you know, I’m just gonna weight train my weight.
[00:09:52] It’s like, no, there’s not enough time in the day to sit there and wait train
all the time. I also fatigue myself, so I have to be smart about the exercise that I’m
doing. I’m doing three to two, so my left side. Three, uh, three sets to two or, you
know, every three reps that I do, I do two on the right side at least just for a couple
weeks, and then I’ll even it out.
[00:10:08] And that seems to be going very well. I’m also with my stride. I am
shortening it again with higher, slightly higher 1%, even less than 1% I. Increase in
the cadence to make sure that I’m pushing off from my glutes, I’m doing a proper
push off of my hips and I’m not overstriding and landing and breaking.
[00:10:23] It’s not what I want. So I’m only a week into all these changes again, and
I’m seeing some pretty good progress. I’m not expecting it to be magically fixed and
my hamstring seems to be happier mostly, and it’s really paying off and I can handle
some of the longer runs. I’m being smart though. I’m actually backing things down
10% in my training to, count for the fatigue and I’m seeing.
[00:10:45] Just overall it’s going very well. So let’s see how I go. I’ll try to do some
of these check-ins like every week or two with the marathon training. And hopefully
you can learn from me as I’m learning. ’cause even though I’ve done a whole bunch
of five Ks, a whole bunch of half marathons, some 10 Ks, I like am so inexperienced
with the marathon.
[00:11:01] And this is a fun learning lesson, juggling the marathon with my life and
the scheduling and what does my body handle and all these other things. And
what’s really unique is that I. Can handle a lot of the marathon training because I’ve
done so much of the 5K and half marathon training before,
[00:11:18] which is very similar to the half marathon training, which I’ll talk about in
one second as I wrap all this up
[00:11:22] so we talked about the three myths that got busted. It was the heel strike
myth, changing your form overnight. And I’ll just see which one that one is. Slower
paces automatically mean better form. They, they don’t, obviously, hopefully you
learned a bunch from this. Uh, the 1% better philosophy, it is real. It incremental
changes, incremental gains, consistent habits.
[00:11:41] They lead to sustainable improvements later so you can run your best
time. This running game is not fast and quick. You will burn yourself out and please
if you have any issues with certain paces,
[00:11:52] remember, do not panic. It’s not about radical overhauls and quick fix
hacks and changes.
[00:11:57] It’s about mindful tweaks. So again, here’s a QR code to check out. That
guide to increase your cadence if you want to do that. It’s very simple. It’s free.
Again, it’s free. And you’ll sign up for the email newsletter and please comment on
anything that I missed and what you think about any myths that I didn’t talk about,
and how’s your training going?
[00:12:15] So if you wanna learn more about how to get better run form, I have six
tips on how to do that. Click the link below, the video below or the link in the video
description if you’re listening these show notes and you can get that.
[00:12:27] Thanks for rocking.