Running Clinic
The key thing about running is trying to stay relaxed, run efficiently as possible and to cover as much distance as you can in the shortest amount of time. Sounds simple? Well, here are ten ideas to help you cover those three components:
1) Keep your face and jaw relaxed as you run. Try chewing gum as you run; however don't bite your tongue as youare chewing the gum. That hurts!
2) Breathe through your mouth when you run since it is the largest passage to allow air in and out of your lungs. Breathing through your nose limits the air flow and makes you lack oxygen quickly.
3) Try to keep your shoulders in a stationary position while swinging your arms as you run. If your body is twisting or shoulders are moving you are wasting energy and will tire quickly.
4) Keep your elbows highly bent; do not have a low arm carry. High arm carriage makes your leg cadence higher and quickens your pace of running. Cadence is the back and forth movement of your legs while you run. Just incase you didn't know that fact.
5) Make little fists as you run but hold them closed gently. This position is the most efficient position and makes you look darn good when running in the park infront of a bunch of senior citizens.
6) As you swing your arms forward bring them near chin level and slightly infront of your body. This the most natural movement of the arms and again keeps the cadence of your legs at a quicker rate.
7) Try to be in an upright position when running; do not bend forward or lean backwards. Again, the senior citizens will praise you for how good you look while running in the park.
8) Do not over stride while running. It causes a braking effect, causes most injuries, and causes a runner to “sit” while running. This takes away from the efficiency of your running.
Running Warm-up:
Pick a small stretch of grass which is about 25 -100 meters long for doing these drills. Preferably a park near an senior citizen home so you might get a lot of praise for how good you look when you do these drills. Do the drills back and forth on the grass covering the 25 m to 100 m distance depending on your level.
1) Start jogging back and forth on the grass.
2) Add arm swings across your body as you jog.
3) Change to up/down arm swings as you jog.
4) Change to ground sweeps every fifth step bringing hips closer to ground but not bending over.
5) Change to above double arm reaches to double arm toe touches on every fifth step.
6) Change to high knee running with toe pointed upward; not downward. Remember to swing your arms while doing this drill.
7) Change to bum kickers and again remember to swing your arms.
8) Change to lateral bounding drill keeping hips prependicular to the direction you are moving and switching every fourth bound.
9) Change to Polish straight leg running and again remember to swing your arms while doing this drill. A senior citizen might be looking out his or her window at you.
10) Change to grapevine cross-over running switching lead leg every fourth cross-over.
These drills can be repeated a number of times and can be run straight back and forth or on a diagonal to add variation to the workout.
Running Stretches:
1) Shoulders
2) Torso and Trunk
3) Ankles
4) Asian Squat (maybe don't do this one when the senior citizens are watching out their window since they might wonder what you are doing on the lawn)
5) Hip stretch
6) Hamstring stretch
7) Butterfly stretch
8) Calf stretch
9) Soleus stretch
10) Quad stretch
11) I-T band stretch
12) Shin stretch
Running Drills:
1) High Knee Marching Drill
2) High Knee Skipping Drill
3) High Knee Running Drill
4) Quick Bum Kicking Drill
Running Strides:
These strides are one of the most important aspects of training. They are run over the 80-100m section of grass. The runner concentrates on proper running style and attempting to run at a pace that is quicker than normal running pace. The runner should do ten repeats over the 80-100m section of grass with about 30 seconds rest between each interval. As you progress through the 10 repeats your pace should be increased. As the runner improves over a few weeks of this type of training, the runner can increase the repeats to 12, 14, 16, 18, 20 repeats.
Running Drills versus Runing Workout:
These drills can replace the runner's running workout or can be done before or after the run. The drills can be done in a very small space and in a very little amount of time. A quick drill session could take 10 minutes or could be extended to 40 minutes or more. The drills could be done when a runner is travelling and can't find a good place to run. They canbe done easily or very intensely depending on the runner's ability.
Running Cool down:
Make sure you cool down after your run and do a proper stretch. You will be most flexible after your run and can gain the majority of your flexible at this time. This can make you a more efficient runner and also prevent injuries.
Written by Harvey Weber
(A runner who has been praised by many senior citizens . haha)
