"My hands are to be in loose fists, and should just barely brush my hips as they swing. Theeere, brushing. Brush. Brush. Brush."
"Where are my hands? At my chest? No, back down to the hips."
"Wait, this is a good song. Go faster."
"Nice lake. That's kind of a cool car, I wonder what it is."
"Where's your hands again? Back down to the hips."
"How much further?"
That's what goes through my head as I'm running. I think I've finally gotten to the point where I'm not feeling like I'm going to die as I run. I now am beginning to think about form. Which, what in the hell is running form? I've been reading Runner's World for several months now (a Christmas gift to myself), and they always talk about form as if we all already know what it is.
So, I asked someone at work who has been running for years. Running form, in case you care but don't know either, is making sure your steps are straight (I tend to pigeon toe I think), and that your hands stay down at your hips. She says there's other things, but that these initial things will help.
During yesterday's run, I made a mental assessment of my foot falls. I don't think I'd know if they were straight or not while actually running. And, as far as the loose fists by one's hips...I'm guilty of not doing that. So, I made a more concerted effort to try to remember to bring them down. Allegedly, keeping your hands down there doesn't exert as much energy and allows you to run more efficiently and comfortably.
I love how most things related to running is to make it more comfortable. I think it's the nice way of saying, that running pretty much blows, we're just trying to make it blow less.
I don't know if keeping my hands down at my hips made a real difference, but it did give me something different to think about instead of my usual "am I done yet?"
Hands by the hips was the hardest part for me to remember when running. I too had them up by my chest and would find myself clenching my fists, it did feel better when I kept them loose and by my hips.
ReplyDeleteI have friends who ran iron man and they ran mainly with their hands up by their chest, but no clinching of the hands. I think I prefer the hands down as I find my shoulders creep up when i'm stressed. I have to tell myself to drop my shoulders all the time and 'am I done yet?' I run the same route too much, so I don't think that helps, but then again, I'm running about once a month lately - that's not helping either!
ReplyDeleteGood for you. Keep at it and make sure you have really good music.