Question
College Sports: What is the best running technique?
Answer
I agree with Thomas Valadez: foot-fall technique is key. I don't think you can really train yourself to use a certain technique though, if you are a casual runner.
It takes some natural athletic talent, coaching and naturally high levels of body awareness to work directly on technique. Because technique development takes feedback loops, and natural ones are weak for most of us. So why fly blind? Take the easy way out: use the right tools that compensate for your body awareness limitations, and technique will take care of itself.
So instead of techniques, I'll recommend two tools: minimalist shoes and a heart-rate monitor. Why should you listen to me and my noticeable gut instead of all those superfit alien athletes with sixpacks? Because I think more people are like me than those damn freaks who like to pretend that hunter-gatherers 20,000 years ago had no bodily hair and 4% body fat and that ancient Greeks actually looked like those guys in 300 fighting Persians.
Anyway. Details.
Minimalist Shoes
So I'll go further than Thomas and endorse the minimalist/barefoot approach and encourage you to get barefoot or minimalist shoes. Yes, there are faddish elements to this, but overall I think the new thinking is sounder than the old thinking. And though the primary evangelists are those superfit and super-ripped paleo-Crossfit athlete types, the thinking actually makes even more sense for regular people.
Here's my anecdotal experience FWIW. It helps to think in terms of general use of feet, not just running. So think jumping, dodging, climbing ladders, skipping, playing soccer, walking, kicking the cat, chucking spears at 8-foot Persians, etc.... the full range of activities that involve your feet.
I recently bought a pair of minimalist shoes (with just a little more padding than Vibram five fingers, but still with a zero drop between heel and toe). These: Inov Bare XF 210s (I am told they are really popular with the CrossFit crowd):
My old shoes were the traditional kind with a thick heel and stiff, tyre-like structure. I have nearly flat feet, and when I bought my old pair, the running store shot some video and showed me how I was pronating, told me that my feet shouldn't really roll that way, and recommended shoes with significant arch support, as well as inserts. The pseudoscience convinced me. I'd been using these shoes for several years (too many).
Why did I switch?
When I started working out with a trainer recently, I found that my feet really hurt when I did things like jumping jacks. The pain, rather than muscle or cardio endurance, was setting my limits. My balance was also lousy.
My trainer said I should get minimalist shoes. I countered that I had flat feet and pronated. He argued that the shoes I was using were the equivalent of casts on my feet that were making my muscles atrophy, and preventing my brain from adapting to the peculiarities of my feet. He claimed that minimalist shoes would help my feet naturally adapt and strengthen in ways that would compensate for my flat feet.
So I said, what the hell, I need new shoes anyway, lemme try this approach. New, not-yet-debunked pseudoscience instead of old pseudoscience that was making my feet hurt.
The change made a huge difference when it comes to general conditioning exercises like jumping jacks, standing jumps etc. I can now do a lot more of that stuff, and generally cardio exhaustion is what stops me now, not pain. My balance is also way better now. I no longer randomly fall over while walking. I can stand on one foot for more than 10 nanoseconds. I can even do squats on a Bosu. Last week, a Persian threw a spear at me and I smartly jumped aside and avoided it (in case you are wondering, Indians tend to root for the Greeks when they fight Persians, because it keeps the latter busy on the west so they don't invade India in the east, go Greeks!).
For running, I've only run on the treadmill with them so far. It took a few sessions to get used to them, since they are designed to encourage a midfoot strike instead of a heel strike (no technique learning required, it happens naturally), and activate more muscles in more complex ways. But once I got used to them, I began to prefer them. They are much lighter for one. You feel the running surface more. And intuitively and unscientifically, I prefer the less interventionist approach (out of a possibly dumb belief that nature has probably designed us to function pretty well without stiff and heavily padded casts on our feet). I think my speed and endurance have also improved, but that's probably got more to do with the fact that I do more running now, not the shoes.
When I get back to outdoor running, I'll buy another pair with a little bit more padding, but still minimalist, with no arch support. I am not spartan enough (hehe! this whole answer is an excuse for that pun) for literal barefoot running and Persian-fighting, or socially bold enough for Vibram five fingered dorkiness.
So overall, the change I notice is minimal/in my head perhaps, as far as just running goes, but huge, objective and measurable when it comes to foot-activities other than running.
They also look more badass than regular shoes. So long as you don't get the five-fingered kind.
So that's good enough pseudoscientific evidence for me.
If you decide to go this route, make sure you try out LOTS of brands and models of minimalist shoes. Because they are so minimalist, tiny differences can matter a lot. I had to try on like a dozen at two different stores, and had almost given up, before I found a pair that worked beautifully for me.
So my suggestion #1 is: get minimalist shoes.
Heart-Rate Monitor
My suggestion #2 is: get a heart-rate monitor and get a gym to do a Cardio-point test that identifies your "zones" and the percentage fat/carbs you burn in each range of heart rates (you go from burning primarily fat to primarily carbs as you increase intensity and heart rate).
The reason for the latter suggestion is again my preference for using better feedback tools over conscious technique learning. In this case, feeding back heart-rate automatically takes care of your pacing techniques.
Your heart rate is an important component of body awareness. I am sure elite athletes have naturally high sensitivity to what their heart is doing, but not me. It's all one generic haze of huffing-and-puffing-and-aching-muscles for me, driven entirely by subconscious adaptation. Knowing my subconscious, I suspect it always takes the easy way out.
Maybe I'll develop more refined body awareness if this bout of fitness enthusiasm lasts longer than 6 months, but the point is, you can use a feedback tool while your body awareness is developing.
Your heart rate monitor measures only a single narrow variable, to be sure, and is no substitute for monk-like zen-running mindfulness where you are aware of every molecule of ATP being burned, in Matrix-style slow motion. But it is better than a diffuse haze of useless body awareness that you are not able to consciously use to regulate your workout.
Once I started using the monitor, I realized I wasn't pushing myself very hard. Without lions or Persians attacking you, your body and mind don't really like working hard. Civilization, as William James said, is nothing so much as the gradual reduction in the frequency of proper occasions for fear.
Never fear. You don't need to rent a lion. Or a Persian. A heart-rate monitor will do the trick.
My heart rate wasn't even getting to zones it was perfectly capable of going to. Once I started measuring, I started managing (MBA lesson applies here: you manage what you measure).
Running is generally boring to me, but the monitor even made it interesting. It is like a tiny TV with just one extremely boring channel, but it is better than no TV.
I was able to use it to match workouts to my moods, and improvise little games and experiments ("I feel like crap, I want to get off the treadmill now... oh wait, let me try to at least get to 170+ for 30 seconds before quitting... oh hey, that actually makes me want to stay on and finish at least a mile"). If you don't like boring zone numbers like 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, you can mentally relabel them civilization, running to catch the train, holy crap I'll miss the train, PERSIANS, LION!
Doing a Persians and Lions workout once in a while does you a power of good.
So I am a convert to heart rate monitors.
Tools over Technique: General Thoughts
The only reason I am not one of those raving lunatic type quantified self people is that most instrumentation is still too complicated to incorporate in meaningful ways into workouts for average people. But it is becoming cheaper and more accessible everyday. I'll bet that within a few years, instead of specialized instruments that you need to access at a gym, you'll be able to wear a mask and cheap sensor that talks to your smartphone, and does cardio-zone tuning on the fly, during every workout (right now, at my gym, dedicated people get themselves retested every 3-4 months). We'll all be running around in masks soon, our unfit grunts transformed into Darth Vaderish rasping.
At some point, I hope to experiment with things like VOX consumption, using pressure sensors to monitor the symmetry of my running etc. etc.
But I'll wait till the CrossFit freaks figure out the kinks in that technology and beta test it to the point that it is ready for the rest of us.
It takes some natural athletic talent, coaching and naturally high levels of body awareness to work directly on technique. Because technique development takes feedback loops, and natural ones are weak for most of us. So why fly blind? Take the easy way out: use the right tools that compensate for your body awareness limitations, and technique will take care of itself.
So instead of techniques, I'll recommend two tools: minimalist shoes and a heart-rate monitor. Why should you listen to me and my noticeable gut instead of all those superfit alien athletes with sixpacks? Because I think more people are like me than those damn freaks who like to pretend that hunter-gatherers 20,000 years ago had no bodily hair and 4% body fat and that ancient Greeks actually looked like those guys in 300 fighting Persians.
Anyway. Details.
Minimalist Shoes
So I'll go further than Thomas and endorse the minimalist/barefoot approach and encourage you to get barefoot or minimalist shoes. Yes, there are faddish elements to this, but overall I think the new thinking is sounder than the old thinking. And though the primary evangelists are those superfit and super-ripped paleo-Crossfit athlete types, the thinking actually makes even more sense for regular people.
Here's my anecdotal experience FWIW. It helps to think in terms of general use of feet, not just running. So think jumping, dodging, climbing ladders, skipping, playing soccer, walking, kicking the cat, chucking spears at 8-foot Persians, etc.... the full range of activities that involve your feet.
I recently bought a pair of minimalist shoes (with just a little more padding than Vibram five fingers, but still with a zero drop between heel and toe). These: Inov Bare XF 210s (I am told they are really popular with the CrossFit crowd):
My old shoes were the traditional kind with a thick heel and stiff, tyre-like structure. I have nearly flat feet, and when I bought my old pair, the running store shot some video and showed me how I was pronating, told me that my feet shouldn't really roll that way, and recommended shoes with significant arch support, as well as inserts. The pseudoscience convinced me. I'd been using these shoes for several years (too many).
Why did I switch?
When I started working out with a trainer recently, I found that my feet really hurt when I did things like jumping jacks. The pain, rather than muscle or cardio endurance, was setting my limits. My balance was also lousy.
My trainer said I should get minimalist shoes. I countered that I had flat feet and pronated. He argued that the shoes I was using were the equivalent of casts on my feet that were making my muscles atrophy, and preventing my brain from adapting to the peculiarities of my feet. He claimed that minimalist shoes would help my feet naturally adapt and strengthen in ways that would compensate for my flat feet.
So I said, what the hell, I need new shoes anyway, lemme try this approach. New, not-yet-debunked pseudoscience instead of old pseudoscience that was making my feet hurt.
The change made a huge difference when it comes to general conditioning exercises like jumping jacks, standing jumps etc. I can now do a lot more of that stuff, and generally cardio exhaustion is what stops me now, not pain. My balance is also way better now. I no longer randomly fall over while walking. I can stand on one foot for more than 10 nanoseconds. I can even do squats on a Bosu. Last week, a Persian threw a spear at me and I smartly jumped aside and avoided it (in case you are wondering, Indians tend to root for the Greeks when they fight Persians, because it keeps the latter busy on the west so they don't invade India in the east, go Greeks!).
For running, I've only run on the treadmill with them so far. It took a few sessions to get used to them, since they are designed to encourage a midfoot strike instead of a heel strike (no technique learning required, it happens naturally), and activate more muscles in more complex ways. But once I got used to them, I began to prefer them. They are much lighter for one. You feel the running surface more. And intuitively and unscientifically, I prefer the less interventionist approach (out of a possibly dumb belief that nature has probably designed us to function pretty well without stiff and heavily padded casts on our feet). I think my speed and endurance have also improved, but that's probably got more to do with the fact that I do more running now, not the shoes.
When I get back to outdoor running, I'll buy another pair with a little bit more padding, but still minimalist, with no arch support. I am not spartan enough (hehe! this whole answer is an excuse for that pun) for literal barefoot running and Persian-fighting, or socially bold enough for Vibram five fingered dorkiness.
So overall, the change I notice is minimal/in my head perhaps, as far as just running goes, but huge, objective and measurable when it comes to foot-activities other than running.
They also look more badass than regular shoes. So long as you don't get the five-fingered kind.
So that's good enough pseudoscientific evidence for me.
If you decide to go this route, make sure you try out LOTS of brands and models of minimalist shoes. Because they are so minimalist, tiny differences can matter a lot. I had to try on like a dozen at two different stores, and had almost given up, before I found a pair that worked beautifully for me.
So my suggestion #1 is: get minimalist shoes.
Heart-Rate Monitor
My suggestion #2 is: get a heart-rate monitor and get a gym to do a Cardio-point test that identifies your "zones" and the percentage fat/carbs you burn in each range of heart rates (you go from burning primarily fat to primarily carbs as you increase intensity and heart rate).
The reason for the latter suggestion is again my preference for using better feedback tools over conscious technique learning. In this case, feeding back heart-rate automatically takes care of your pacing techniques.
Your heart rate is an important component of body awareness. I am sure elite athletes have naturally high sensitivity to what their heart is doing, but not me. It's all one generic haze of huffing-and-puffing-and-aching-muscles for me, driven entirely by subconscious adaptation. Knowing my subconscious, I suspect it always takes the easy way out.
Maybe I'll develop more refined body awareness if this bout of fitness enthusiasm lasts longer than 6 months, but the point is, you can use a feedback tool while your body awareness is developing.
Your heart rate monitor measures only a single narrow variable, to be sure, and is no substitute for monk-like zen-running mindfulness where you are aware of every molecule of ATP being burned, in Matrix-style slow motion. But it is better than a diffuse haze of useless body awareness that you are not able to consciously use to regulate your workout.
Once I started using the monitor, I realized I wasn't pushing myself very hard. Without lions or Persians attacking you, your body and mind don't really like working hard. Civilization, as William James said, is nothing so much as the gradual reduction in the frequency of proper occasions for fear.
Never fear. You don't need to rent a lion. Or a Persian. A heart-rate monitor will do the trick.
My heart rate wasn't even getting to zones it was perfectly capable of going to. Once I started measuring, I started managing (MBA lesson applies here: you manage what you measure).
Running is generally boring to me, but the monitor even made it interesting. It is like a tiny TV with just one extremely boring channel, but it is better than no TV.
I was able to use it to match workouts to my moods, and improvise little games and experiments ("I feel like crap, I want to get off the treadmill now... oh wait, let me try to at least get to 170+ for 30 seconds before quitting... oh hey, that actually makes me want to stay on and finish at least a mile"). If you don't like boring zone numbers like 1, 2, 3, 4 and 5, you can mentally relabel them civilization, running to catch the train, holy crap I'll miss the train, PERSIANS, LION!
Doing a Persians and Lions workout once in a while does you a power of good.
So I am a convert to heart rate monitors.
Tools over Technique: General Thoughts
The only reason I am not one of those raving lunatic type quantified self people is that most instrumentation is still too complicated to incorporate in meaningful ways into workouts for average people. But it is becoming cheaper and more accessible everyday. I'll bet that within a few years, instead of specialized instruments that you need to access at a gym, you'll be able to wear a mask and cheap sensor that talks to your smartphone, and does cardio-zone tuning on the fly, during every workout (right now, at my gym, dedicated people get themselves retested every 3-4 months). We'll all be running around in masks soon, our unfit grunts transformed into Darth Vaderish rasping.
At some point, I hope to experiment with things like VOX consumption, using pressure sensors to monitor the symmetry of my running etc. etc.
But I'll wait till the CrossFit freaks figure out the kinks in that technology and beta test it to the point that it is ready for the rest of us.