The above is a quote from 'old school' coach Arthur Lydiard and is one of the motto's of Champions Everywhere along with wanting their runners to Run Injury Free. I had been following their training plans for a few weeks back in January when I picked up a niggle in my achilees that I couldn't shift and was becoming frustrated with. Rene invited me to one of their weekend courses at the end of January of which I was able to make the first day and with that I set off for Laragh in Co. Wicklow not sure what to expect.
The course is delivered by Tony Riddle & Ben Medder who travelled over from the UK along with Rene & Jason from Champions Everywhere. The main thing I wanted to get from the day was to see what Tony had to say about my running technique and how I could improve it.
The below video shows me running at the start of the workshop in runners & barefoot and then at the end in barefoot. Underneath the link I have added in feedback from Tony on each stage of the process.
Before with runners: Head chasing with hips back and foot landing ahead of the body, because of the footwear and posture no option but to heel strike.
Barefoot without coaching: Posture remains the same with head forward, because of this no alternative but to land ahead of your body otherwise you would fall over due to the weight of your head. To start with you have a heel strike until you start to receive the right signal from your foot to your brain that it isn't appropriate to heel strike, you then start to heel stroke and the finally forefoot landing.
After coaching: Posture greatly improved with your head up and back strong you are now landing underneath the head but now with the head in it's correct position. You are now spending a lot less time on
the ground and are landing flat footed. The less time on the ground with the correct posture and relaxation reduces the risk of injury. I want you to relax more in the ankles as you're still holding tension in that area.
To me it was definitely a day well spent. I learned a lot about running technique and tried to focus on the recommendations above in my running. I'm pretty sure I'm not doing it completely right yet but I know that since the course my niggles have disappeared and I'm doing pretty big mileage for me injury free.
There is a lot more I could have written about the course that was so beneficial but maybe I would have lost you before now. The biggest positive I can give it is that there was an international standard runner on the course the same day that had undergone 4 hip operations in the last 2 years and was unable to run without pretty chronic pain before the course. Before the day was out he was bounding around pain free again.
It's simple really if you have a history of injuries and want to enjoy your running for years to come then check this course out.
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