It’s episode 10, series 2 of the Women’s Running podcast! This is our third Women’s Running Workshop. In this episode, Esther chats with Holly, the Women’s Running digital editor about her running, as she builds towards running a virtual half marathon in March 2021. If you’d like to do this with us, it would be great to hear from you – do please email Esther with any questions you have – address below. Over the next few workshops, we’re going to be chatting about how she’s going to increase her long run at the weekends, and the things she can do during the week to increase her strength and endurance.

 Workshop 3 is all about form. Before we launch that on her, we chat about Holly’s running and how it’s been over the last few weeks. If you remember, she’d been tasked with a few technical runs, which she gamely took on. She’s been doing some hill sprints, and – as we suspected – avoiding the fartlekking. This is very much a usual state of affairs: the thing with running homework is that while it’s good to see it as a structure, there’s no point making yourself do stuff that will eventually put you off running altogether

With her training for the half, she will continue to run three times a week – these runs include a longer run at weekends, and that now needs to be in the region of 6-8K, an easy run a few days later, and a technical run – that’s hills or sprints. While she’s doing this, she’s going to think about form. 

It can be weird to change the way you run. And can feel quite alien, but tiny adjustments in the way that you hold yourself, and the way in which you move your arms and legs, can have a massively positive effect on your running – especially in terms of injury reduction but also in terms of performance. 

Here’s your good running form checklist:

Head: Hold your head up high, think about someone pulling your ponytail skywards. Keep your chin tucked in.

Shoulders: Keep your shoulders down and back.

Arms: Hold your arms parallel to your body at 90 degrees and pump them forwards and backwards. Don’t let your hands cross your body.

Core: Hold your tummy in just a little bit, to help keep your posture upright and your back in a neutral, rather than curved, position.

Legs. Cycle your legs behind you. Push backwards, drawing a circle with your feet, picking your heels up at the end of a stride and landing with your feet directly beneath you rather than in front. This will make you lean forward, and it makes you run a little faster. It also makes your feet land mid-foot, rather than heel or toe. 

Feet: Keep your feet on train tracks – so your feet place parallel to each other, and don’t cross over an invisible middle line.

That’s it. Head, Shoulders, Arms, Core, Legs, Feet. It’s a lot to think about, so worth starting off thinking about it on one of your easy runs, and just check the points off one by one from head to toe.

Remember, email Esther here with any questions, and we’ll talk about them in the next podcast.

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