You cannot improve what you do not measure.

If you’ve been following this blog you’ll know that I’m following a training plan from The Cool Impossible by Eric Orton and this plan places a strong emphasis on running form to improve speed, efficiency and endurance. This week I experienced first hand what good running form can do to enhance your performance.

As part of the training programme I’m doing a 1 hour long  run every week that’s based purely on Heart Rate zones:

• Warm Up, 10mins – Heart Rate Zones 1-3
• Main Interval, 45 mins – Heart Rate Zones 2-3
• Cool Down, 5 mins – Heart Rate Zone 1

As I’m running this weekly it’s a good indicator of fitness if I can run faster and further in that 1 hour without exceeding Heart Rate thresholds and I have been seeing improvements over time, but this week I made a real effort to concentrate on form:

• Increase stride distance without over striding
• Land with a mid to forefoot strike as close to my centre of mass as possible
• Strong knee drive
• Extend rear leg to maximize glute activation

The results compared to the previous week were staggering:

I ran 0.65km further at a faster pace, with a lower heart rate, lower cadence and a greater Stride Distance just by concentrating on form with no extra physical effort involved.

Changing your running form is not necessarily difficult, but it does take time, discipline and more than a little bit of patience. Given the results I’m glad I stuck with the programme and persevered :-)

For full details of these 2 runs check out the comparison on Garmin Connect.