Our very first run technique coaching workshop on Saturday 18^th November was a huge success with 14 athletes joining #TeamTCUK co-founder and coach Matt Sanderson and ‘The Running Coach’, Chris Adams for a morning of insight, demonstrations, drills and theory.

Following an introduction from Chris and Matt, who after his own session with Chris five years ago took 16 minutes off his Ironman marathon time purely by learning how to run more effectively and efficiently, the hard work began.

Explains Matt: “It’s fair to say that when most people think about run coaching they think someone is going to watch them run, point out what they’re doing ‘wrong’ and show them how they should be running. After all that, they then go away a perfect runner. Sadly, it doesn’t work like that. To improve your running you first have to prepare your body and this takes time.

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“There are so many elements involved with improving a person’s running and the first is to assess their stability. So, the first part of the session was to look at each athlete’s stability and their range of movement. We worked on balancing on one leg and then closing our eyes to experience how our muscles are directly linked to our nervous system. Think that’s easy? Give it a go and see how long you go before you start to wobble!

“Next up were a few deep squats to compare the range of each athlete and identify any specific issues or injuries. We then added in a half foam roller to raise the heels and experience, by taking the ankle joint out of the equation, how much easier it is to squat.

“Restricted movement in the ankle joint, as well as the big toe joint, are common issues amongst runners so we completed some joint mobilisation exercises to free things up. Again, one to try while you’re reading this: can you wiggle your big toe up and down without moving the other four toes? Easier said than done, right?

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“We then went onto box springs to see how people’s feet responded to the floor and focused on improving individual plyometric ability. The quicker your foot can spring back the less energy you will use. That’s the big difference between elite and recreational athletes; watch the elites and you will see they have a high cadence (often referred to as strides per minute or ‘spm’) upwards of 180spm and with it a very quick and reactive foot strike meaning their feet spend much less time on the floor which equals more energy for running itself!

“Moving on to running backwards and forwards we all realised just how much better we run backwards, yes backwards! Our posture is nearly always better running backwards than when we run forwards as many triathletes have a tendency to lean forward from the hip rather than remaining more upright.

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“We finished the session with a little routine combining toe springs, jogging on the spot and then running forwards at the same spm and repeating. The idea was to feel as light and reactive as possible on the feet and use the natural spring in each foot which occurs naturally as we actually run faster. Your arms also dictate your leg cadence so we also focused on pushing our elbows back while staying relaxed and in time with our legs, to further improve efficiency and technique.

“Everyone who took part in the session thoroughly enjoyed it and went away with plenty of exercises to focus on over the winter months. If you missed out on this session, we’ll be holding another group coaching event with Chris in January – watch the blog and social media for more details.”

If you have any questions about your running or would like to book a one-to-one run coaching session with Chris, email coach@triathloncoaching.uk.com