Run Drills

Run drills are often forgotten about but are much needed. It's easy to step out your door and go for a run and think that is all you need to become the stud runner you've always wanted to be. The bad news is, is that in order to become a better (faster) runner you have to work the little things.
Everyone has to teach there body how to perform an action (running) before they can efficiently do the action. Most of us can run without having to do a great deal of thinking about it but that doesn't mean that your running is a very efficient action, and efficiency is the key to running fast! If your running form is efficient then it costs your body less energy to go from point A to point B, which means you can use more energy on going faster and not on trying to hold yourself together during the run.
Run drills will help teach your body proper form and efficiency. With very little time and cost to your body, you can see great gains in your running just from doing a few drills a couple of times a week. Small investment with big gains!

A few drills:

High Knees - Start off with a slow jog, then begin the drill by bringing one knee up in front of you as high as you can. You should be pushing off the front of your foot with the opposite leg. Alternate legs. You should be moving forward during the drill but the focus is not on forward motion rather then quick foot strikes and high knee drive.

Butt Kickers - This drill is very similar to the high knee drill but with more of a focus on bringing your heel up to the underside of your butt. It is common for athletes to flick their heels behind them and actually kick their butt. While that is not entirely bad, it is not the proper action for the drill. Bring the leg up as if your were doing the high knee drill but emphasize more on bringing your heel to the underside of your butt. Your knee should be at a 90 degree angle with your hips if you're doing this correctly.

Circles or Paw Backs - This drill should be done standing still. For the drill you will steady yourself with an object so that you can stand on one leg steadily. Have one leg on the ground with your body weight on the forefoot. With the free leg you want to perform running like motions. You'll bring your knee up, extend your leg, bring it down to make small ground contact, then pull the leg through behind you, and then back up to the knee drive phase. You're basically doing the running motion but with one leg.

You will come to notice any inefficiencies within your form once you start these drills. You might even be surprised with what you might find out about yourself. It is common to see some coordination issues for most people at the beginning of doing these drills. If this is the case, don't worry! It's like I said before, you have to teach your body how to be efficient!

On your marks.....get set...SLOW!

Well the start of a new season is rapidly approaching and with that comes lots of training and lots of stress. Combined with the change of weather, this is a perfect time for people to get sick! Making sure you get proper amounts of sleep, good food, and training are all key things to look at. It is common for most of us to have a great deal of energy this early in the season and, in turn, want to do a lot hard training. Before you make this mistake and do too much too early, just remember that there is plenty of time to put in some quality work. Being injured or burnt out are two things that can easily creep in with little to no sign to the athlete.
Keep the focus and dedication and remember why we all do this sport........FUN!!