1. Deliberate running. Let your GPS watch worry about pace, and distance, and time. Make everything about every step purposeful, and be aware of every feeling and what it means. This gets easier with practice.
2. Up and down motion is wasted energy. Eliminate it by never rising above your lowest point.
3. When you leave the ground, gravity inevitably pulls down on you, creating up and down motion. Don’t leave the ground unless you’re running too fast not to.
4. Impact is bad for your joints. Don’t land on your heel, which produces full impact. Land on your midfoot, which is flexible and allows you to use everything from your foot to your torso in shock absorption. Don’t land on your toes, which works the calves too hard.
5. Running is not a lower body exercise! Running is a full body exercise. Act like it is. Coordinate your whole body in the run. Don’t just push off with your legs, push off of your leg with your body! Keep in mind, though, that you should only be slightly twisting your torso. Hands should not cross your center, and feet should land below the hip.
6. Proper breathing is critical! Oxygen is what keeps you going, so if you don’t oxygenate properly you will not run properly! Keep in mind that if you are coordinating your whole body in the run, it will affect your breathing. This makes it important to allow the pace of your breath to correlate with the pace of your step, so that the expansion and contraction of your lungs is in sync with the slight twisting of the torso involved in proper running. Read more “What are the proper techniques to run?”