Form

   Earlier on in this running adventure, it was very easy to lose my form. I would find myself running with my head down, hunched over my knees. This always seemed to be the result of being tired and having to concentrate on forcing my legs to follow each other. The feeling was that my weight was centred over my knees and that my knees were then being forced to propel me not only forward but upward. Not only that, every now and then one of my feet (the right one, for some reason) would shuffle and catch pavement. To top things off, I would get wobbly-kneed and head off in one direction or the other.

Courtesy of newbreedrunning.com

   This was not how I was taught to run. I was taught to run with an upright posture, looking ahead, with my torso centred over my hips and a bit of a forward tilt. When I am struggling, I remind myself of this and try as much as possible to go back to a more upright running posture. Whenever I do this, the running immediately seems to get easier. My legs feel more like they are gliding across the pavement, rather than pounding down on it. The sensation is that my legs are being flung out and then back by my hips, rather than as part of a conscious effort on my part. Breathing also seems to get a little easier with all my internal organs in a more natural alignment (at least I guess this is what's happening...)
   When I began running, I was a heel striker, meaning it was my heel which hit the ground first with a running stride. I assume I had run this way since Day One. I never even knew there was more than one way to run. I was quickly taught, however, that a mid-foot strike was a more efficient method  and caused less impact as well.
   It took me a little while to re-train myself. Soon, however, running with a mid-foot strike seemed like the only natural way, and occasionally reverting back to a heel strike seemed awkward and jarring.

   If there is an area of my running form which might require some attention, it might be my arm movement. My arms have a very minimal swing to them and tend to stay centred on my mid-torso. Apparently a runner's arms should swing back and forth from the shoulders and should maintain an approximately ninety degree angle at the elbow. I have no idea how close I come to that!
   So, as with everything else in my running life, my form is still a work-in-progress. My form at rest has lost about twenty-five pounds at this point, since the beginning of August. As the weight has come down the running has, naturally, become easier. I am currently able to do things that just five months ago I would never have thought possible, let alone likely. All I really wanted to be able to do at the beginning was a 3k fun run. Now I'm contemplating 10k races somewhere in the not-too-distant future and it would always be kind of cool to say I ran a marathon once....