 When the pack broke up and runners were trying to chase down the pack, I could tell that they were trying to over-strive to help make them. And we're back everyone. We're back. Back on track. I hope you're doing well. Going right into the shooty-o today. Oh man, I don't know about you. But after a long run like I did today, sometimes like when it starts getting serious in training, it just let my stomach, it just needs some time to just simmer down now. So right now, we're going to make it through, but I just don't feel great. So anyway, I hope you're doing well. Here we go. Onward and upward. Talking about running form today. But first today's run 23 miles, 640 a mile. Oh, it feels good. It feels real good. And I posted this on Strava for the title of the run. I said fitness is back. Officially took eight weeks. And I mean that today's run, I finally felt like I was myself again. After taking two to three weeks off because of the runner's knee, plus taking some downtime around Christmas, my fitness was just down. And that's to be expected. And that is normal. And I actually like that in my annual training cycles to take downtime. But it's also nice when you start to return to your fitness. And I felt it today like 23 miles. That's the amount of volume I wanted to hit. And around, I want to basically at this point in the marathon training block, I want to begin to touch base with the wall. All right. And whatever that wall is in the marathon for a lot of people, it hits at 20 miles, 18 miles, 21 miles. For me, I want to make sure that basically at mile 23, I still feel in control of a lot of things, my breathing and my running form. So in this buildup for the Hamburg marathon, I'm going to focus on my long runs on getting comfortable with being uncomfortable, meaning pressing through that wall. And one last point before we dive in is that I did get an email maybe a couple of weeks ago, somebody who's feeling frustrated. And they're a brand new runner, brand new. They just started running for the first time in their life. And they're feeling frustrated after I think it was three or four months of running. They don't feel like their aerobic capacity or their, yeah, their aerobic development is coming along well. And I just, you know what I emailed back. I said, whoa, whoa, whoa. This is a two, three, four year proposition. If you've never run in your life, your, your patience has to be at the front of your brain all the time because it takes years, not months to develop that aerobic capacity to the point where after me running for 20 years, it still took me eight weeks in this training block of being patient. That's slow buildup. Okay. You've seen the graph go up and up and up in my volume every week. And it's taken eight weeks after 20 years of being a runner to where the point I can post on Strava and confidently say fitness is back, but it took eight weeks. So there you go. Okay. Let's dive in after the Olympic trials this past weekend in Atlanta, Georgia. I've been, it's been, it's actually been on my, on my mind for a long time, basically since the New York city marathon to take a look at my own running form. Okay. I've actually never really like hired a professional. I don't know who that would even be, but somebody who maybe has some more experience than I do. But I, but before we analyze my form, I just want to point out once again, just to drive home a key point here. Remember this gentleman from the 2019 Boulder Boulder. Excuse me. Sorry. Can I just get the, there we go. When I published that blog about nine months ago, a lot of people were commenting and noticing like, wait a minute, he's got a really unique form. Well, guess what? That same gentleman who ended up winning the Boulder Boulder was also in Atlanta. And so I bring up the example of his stride just to drive home the point. No matter how unique or maybe different your stride is, you can still make it fast and make it work for you. Sure. There might be a few things to tweak like today's blog. That's what we're going through. We're going to analyze my stride a little bit. And the goal of course is to hopefully race faster, but I just want to make that clear from the outset. Like I try not to let too much outside noise influence my natural stride that I've been using my entire life. Sure. After years and years of running and watching other strides, like there are a few things that I'd like to work on personally. But anyway, just wanted to drive that point home. Now, before we dive into my running form, a couple points, a tip of the day actually is to get to the bottom of your true running stride, running form. I would argue that it's hard to accomplish that on a treadmill, especially in a running shoe store when you're on fresh legs, okay? Or setting up a phone in a park and then running toward that phone and then going back and reviewing it. Sure. It could give you a little bit of an idea, but at the end of the day, this is why I'm making this point is you're consciously thinking about your running form and running stride when you're filming yourself or maybe at the running shoe store. Like you're thinking about what you're doing. Whereas I'm going to make the argument like the best way to get to the bottom of your stride is to have someone film you in the middle of a race or in the middle of a long run. When you're not thinking about it, you're starting to get a little tired but not too tired and you're just running and you're just doing what you normally naturally do. I know for me, when I'm on a treadmill or which is rare or when I'm setting up the camera even for the vlog in a park, sometimes I'll be on it like I think about the camera and I'm like okay, I'm going to run a little maybe a little more smooth right now whereas like today, 23 miles in the middle of the run, I was starting to get a little tired and I could feel my form just slipping a little bit and that is the moment when you want to pull out the camera. So anyway, just want to make that point like make sure if you're going to analyze your running form that if you're able to get a friend or a buddy or a family or a coach to film you when you don't even know it's happening, that would be the best moment like they're driving alongside you in a car and you just pull out the iPhone and kind of secretly film the runner for 30 seconds. That is the ideal moment. Okay, so here we go. Three maybe issues or concerns that I have when I look at my running form. One of them is Bennett on a long time problem that I'm working on right now and it's with, see if you actually, I'm going to play the clip right now. Can anyone pick it out as I'm running toward the camera? These are clips from the New York City Marathon. Can you see something that's just a little off? And I can, I've been watching my running form for a long time so I can pick it out pretty easily but I'll just let you know. Okay, it's my right arm. My right arm swings lower than my left arm. I have no idea why that happens but it happens and it's something that I'm working on right now. I don't know why it's, maybe it's the long time mountain running. My, I am a right arm dominant, maybe that has something to do with it but what I'm doing to help fix this issue instead of letting my arms swing so low which I think is also again a result of mountain running because you're just digging and it's just a different, like you're digging more in mountain running instead in marathon running. I want to be a little more compact, okay? Keeping those arms just a little closer to the body and basically what I'm out, I did it today on my long run is I actually have my fists and I don't, it's not squeezing them but I have my fists just kind of barely tap my pecs, okay? So just doot, doot, doot, doot. Just to make sure this arm is not drifting too far down and it's just coming up and going boop, boop, boop. Just a little, just getting up there. Again, just I, based on what I've researched and what I've read and what I've watched is just having a nice, nice, just like right close to the body not crazy arm swing and again this is for road racing in the marathon not crazy arm swing just nice and efficient kind of just nice right up by the body so I'm trying in my long runs and middle distance runs to just touch my pecs with my arms just a little bit just to remind myself keep those arms up, okay? Issue number two, here we go, the head wobble, okay? And I noticed it in this clip in New York City when I was starting to get tired around mile like 21-22 maybe 23 actually my head starts to wobble and this happens to a lot of runners but it's something to just keep in mind you don't want that head to be wobbling and so you can see my head wobbling in this clip where this this guy I never I actually don't remember this gentleman's name but he came up running behind me in New York City with a GoPro thank you you know who you are I wish I could shake your hand because you got a great clip and here it is my head is starting to just drift around just a little bit and again I'm starting to get tired this is an uphill section but there's no excuse I need to make sure I keep my heads nice and straight and I looking straightforward up the road so because when I once you start to wobble and your eyes start to drift around that's when I have found I start to slow down in races no good I don't want that and the last issue that I'm seeing in my running form is my hip strength I'm noticing that my hips start to drift back and my glutes start to drift back so they're not underneath me not underneath my torso but they start to go backward and I start to break down where I'm almost leaning almost too too far forward and I don't know there's a couple clips that maybe show that it's really hard to notice but again this gets back to hip flexor strength and this is why I'm going to the gym and working on these box jumps so much just to work on the hip flexor strength to help keep those hips and those glutes underneath my torso so I'm really supporting my my torso and my body when I'm getting tired late in the race once again so that's the last issue that's really jumping out at me is keeping those hips more forward when I'm getting tired now we cannot have this discussion about running faster and running form without talking about stride length and cadence or steps per minute okay actually on today's long run I think I hit like the average was 181 steps per minute that's pretty typical for me I'm pleased with that and so there's a little bit of a debate in the running world whether which one is more important stride length versus cadence and I'm gonna say that both are important but I would lean more in the direction of steps per minute or cadence is more important than your stride length um I do think actually in Atlanta I saw some runners I was analyzing their form it it looked like they were overstriding just a little bit and and I saw it especially later in the race when the pack broke up and runners were trying to chase down the pack I could tell that they were trying to overstride to help make up time and I lean more in the direction I think overstriding can actually uh long term I think it can actually really make your quads more tired so I lean more in the direction of quick steps cadence that's why I do the fast feet exercises in the gym and I'm more that's that's my that's my mantra and that's that's where the direction I lean into and one of the reasons I lean in that direction most likely is probably because I'm five foot six and so it's like my legs only have so much to give and so I try to focus like even if I just think that trying to lengthen your stride an inch or two yes that's good uh but at the end of the day like I'm not going to get too much more out of my legs um so anyway I focus more on quick feet and turnover and efficiency in that regards that running economy that you hear about so uh there you go okay that's my breakdown of my running form some things to work on for me in marathon training leading into my third marathon I'll be curious to read some comments if you are seeing something uh this is not the question of the day but if you are seeing something in my stride that I could be working on I'm all ears feel free to comment down below I'd appreciate it and yes excuse me I'm dying out here that question of the day whoo after listening to today's vlog is there a component of your running stride or running form that you would like to work on in 2020 or that you have been working on in the last let's say six months okay and let us know your results if you are improving in in a particular area okay I cannot wait I love this topic thanks for being here thanks for watching I gotta call it because I have some stomach issues and I'm gonna make it through but uh oh I love you all you're the best onward and upward keep fighting just keep fighting oh my goodness we will get better together we will get better together okay I love you all right in case you did not see the Atlanta vlog from the Olympic trials you could check it out right up here it's a doozy and you can analyze and see some running form in slow motion from the men and the women just some great amazing running strides all right there you go see beauty work hard and love each other see you tomorrow