Just a few years ago, few runners questioned their habits. Runners wore cotton socks and the latest Nikes. The stretched before every run. They figured running injuries were bad luck. Orthotics were thought to cure all running pains. They drank a lot of water during races. Their feet hit the ground heel first.
In the past year or so, catalyzed by Christopher McDougall's book Born to Run, academics, coaches, and the running media have begun asking fundamental questions that seem to have begun a revolution in the sport. The well-read runner of today is dizzy with differences of opinion on footwear, stretching, nutrition, training, and running form. Nearly every aspect of running is under attack:
- Should runners wear big shoes, traditional running shoes, low-drop shoes, minimalist shoes, or run barefoot?
- Should runners stretch? Does stretching shock muscles into weakness and contribute to injury? Will stretching hurt performance by reducing the body's built-in springiness?
- Why are 37-50% of runners hurt each year? Is it their shoes, their technique, the surfaces they run on, muscle tightness or weakness/imbalance, too much sitting?
- Should runners lift weights?
- Are orthotics harmful or helpful?
- How much water is safe to drink during exercise?
- How should my feet hit the ground? Forefoot first? Midfoot? Heel strike?
The sport has fractured into factions, with coaches, manufacturers, and academics all devoted to the sport yet unsure how to run. Runners are caught in the middle. Navigating running's new forks in the road is easier when you understand the sport's roadmap of ulterior motives.
Big name coaches spend years building careers by differentiating their approach from other coaches. When science finds a flaw in an approach, its adherents point to their years of athlete improvement. Nevermind that any coaching is probably better than none, that leading coaches attract the most inherently talented runners, that athletes might have run even better under a better training method. Coaches stick to their entrenched views.
Manufacturers are slaves to their customers. They will make what customers will buy. Successful products will become the basis for new products. Without some outside interference, manufacturers have little incentive to innovate when producing more of the same thing is more profitable than trying something new. Born to Run convinced enough runners that the "big shoe" status quo might not be ideal and soon after, minimalist shoes began to appear in stores.
Fortunately, there seems to be a common middle ground of accepted running truths, most of which have some scientific backing. Just as Michael Pollan offers food rules, here are three simple guidelines for confused runners: Run well. Not too much. Enjoy it.
RUN WELL
All the major run techniques - CHI running, Good Form Running, POSE Method, Natural Running, etc. - share a similar running posture that reduces the physical stresses of running on the body. Academic research shows that these techniques mimic many aspects of the way humans run without shoes. The technique is this:
- Land each footfall roughly under your hips. Running like this requires a short, quick stride rate. This shorter stride will reduce or eliminate heel striking -- when your heel hits the ground before the rest of your foot. Academics and coaches seem to agree that heel striking is the genesis of many running form problems and injuries.
- Lean forward a bit, not from your neck or hips, but from your ankles. This sounds kind of impossible, but the idea is to avoid running with an upright posture that causes overstriding and heel striking.
- Run with your arms hanging lightly and loosely from your shoulder. Your arms should swing freely. It's okay for your shoulders to move front and back with each stride. It's not okay for them to bounce up and down. When your arm comes forward with each stride, your hand should not cross the center line of your chest.
- Look ahead, not down.
NOT TOO MUCH
Coaches say that the best predictor of running performance is the number of miles a runner runs. Those same coaches also say that the best predictor of the incidence of running injuries is the number of miles a runner runs. More miles means faster runners who are injured more often. Why? Practiced runners develop more efficient technique and they are simply more fit from more training. Yet runners who often run tired allow sloppy running technique to creep into their training. When the physical damage from too much bad running overcomes the body's ability to heal itself, runners break.
Runners should spend some time crosstraining and building strength. Cross training and strength training help runners avoid overusing those parts of the body required for running and helps strengthen and balance muscles so they can maintain good running technique longer during runs.
Don't run more than your body can handle. How will you know when you're running too much? See Rule #3.
ENJOY IT
Running writer Matt Fitzgerald has spent a lot of time thinking about how the brain interacts with the body. His books Brain Training for Runners and the more recent and more thoroughly developed book RUN: The Mind-Body Method of Running by Feel explore how enjoyment of a run is the brain's way of saying that the run was physically beneficial to the body. If you're having to drag yourself out the door because you've run yourself ragged, that's a sign that you're running too much. Back off until running is fun again.
Enjoyment offers some insight into the footwear debate, too. What little research has been done on footwear and running injuries has found that more comfortable shoes cause fewer injuries. That's not to say that we should run with pillows strapped to our feet, but that runners should probably buy new shoes based on comfort. Fitzgerald and others guess that our perception of one pair of shoes as being more comfortable than another is our body's way of indicating that the more comfortable shoes are more beneficial to the body. This isn't a foolproof method, though, because the comfort studies mostly compared pronation control against neutral shoes without considering minimalist or low-drop shoes or barefoot running. I like my low-drop Newton shoes because of the low drop; the heel is barely higher than the toe. I think this shoe design has helped to reduce my heel strike quite a bit -- it is certainly easier to land on the midfoot in my Newtons than in my high-drop Mizunos. And yes, I find the Newtons more comfortable.
Running in pain is obviously an indication that something is wrong. Danny Abshire's book Natural Running explains that pain and injury are symptoms of bad technique or overuse. Running should feel good, and if something hurts, that's a signal you shouldn't ignore. If muscles feel uncomfortably tight, stretch them gently until they are comfortable again. If your knee kills, run less until it feels better and then figure out a way to run that doesn't hurt. This will likely be one of the techniques I mentioned above in RUN WELL.
Physical and emotional enjoyment of running are the entire point of running, right? If you enjoy your running, you are doing it right. That seems like a clear-cut answer to any running debate.
