Not that people often ask me, but if they did I’d say every run should be form focused, intervals, hills, long slow run, there’s never an excuse not to be thinking about it.
I’ve been doing this a while now and maybe it was going quickly into ultra stuff that meant I’ve always been interested in maximising efficiency, noisy footsteps are surely inefficient right ?
So whether its Pose, Pirie, Chi running, Barefoot, Minimalist or whatever you like to call it for matters.

Here’s a few things I like to try when I’m out and about, the last two being my favourites (Interspersed with some piccies from my run home the other day):
– Focus on standing tall between lampposts, like you’re dangling from the top of your head with your feet barely touching the ground.
– Kick up your heels as you pick your feet up to accentuate recovery, soon shows you how tight and restricted your movement has become on a long run!
– Going uphills, keep a high cadence with your head up and hips pushed forward… not hunched over fighting for air.
– Get off road and go technical, nothing focusses the mind on how you place your better than a slippy, technical trail. If it’s not placed under your centre of gravity, your foot will soon slip from under you, you learn quickly.. plus its nice out.
– Don’t tread on the cracks. Aim to put your foot down in the middle of a paving stone each step, there’s a section near me where they force me into a great combination of stride length & cadence and even if it doesn’t fit so well you can play with pace/stride length and cadence until it does.
– Crossing a driver or side road ? Much like the standing tall drill I like to imagine that my head stays at the same height and run tall, letting my legs and feet to extend as I drop down the kerb, keeping a fast cadence and a pronounced forefoot strike.

So there we have it, a bit more about the how than just me talking about me.. I’m well overdue with a few other ride & run reports so watch this space also.