By: Nikki Reiter

What if you could improve your running performance and reduce the likelihood of injuries at the same time?  Seeing as how most runners will encounter an injury this year, chances are you’re apprehensive about this opening claim.  So how is it achieved?  It’s all in your technique.  Coaches and researchers have been debating and implementing the idea correcting running gait (i.e. the way your run) for these purposes for years.

But Doesn’t Your Body Choose How to Run?

You may have heard that a runner’s body selects their most economical way of running, and that ‘you cannot change the way you run.’  Although it’s been found that runners will run using the technique that expends the least amount of energy, it’s not necessarily the right technique that will allow you to increase your mileage and take your running to the next level.  Certainly, making changes to your stride initially requires concentration and commitment to change and initially the change makes your ‘new’ form less efficient, especially when you’ve been running this way for years.  However, the long-term benefits are likely to outweigh the short-term challenges required for adjustment.

How Do You Make the Change? 

Making permanent changes to the way you perform any physical skill requires practice.  Perfect practice.  Michael Jordan didn’t hit his first free throw, but learned how to execute the skill consistently after practicing it perfectly.  Gait can also be performed perfectly (for your body – everyone will run slightly differently), yet most of us run with poor mechanics.  Gait retraining involves changing the way you run and changes can be seen in as little as one session.  Researchers have found that successful changes to gait with simple feedback to runners, such as ‘run lightly,’ can reduce loading rates and tibial accelerations, both variables associated with the shock of impact and are thought to be related to stress fractures in runners.

Gait retraining can certainly improve speed and performance, however the approach must respect the training capacity of the body to perform the new skill.  Injury often occurs when training strategies are not realistic for the runner’s current state of fitness.  This varies highly between people.  The runner must respect training load and start with one change at a time, and not try to replicate their current mileage with a new style of running.

Try This at Home

The optimal approach would be to hire a technical running coach or a biomechanist who specializes in running to watch you run and make recommendations for what can be done to improve your mechanics.  Alternatively, you can ask if a physiotherapist can point out some of your weaknesses (particularly hips/core) and ask them how this would affect your running.  Then, hop on a treadmill at the gym and watch your running style in the mirror, or get someone to videotape you running.  See if you can address what the physiotherapist told you now that you have this visual feedback.

Attempting gait retraining is a risk, as adopting new mechanics is accompanied by a decreased tolerance for workload and likely a decrease in fitness due to reduced training capacity.  Be careful and be persistent.  Change can only happen if you’re open to it.

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Nikki Reiter is a Mizuno Running Brand Ambassador from Kelowna, BC.  She holds a master’s degree in biomechanics, coaches Cross Country at UBC Okanagan and is the founder of Run Right Gait Analysis Service (run-right.ca).

Never Settle.

That’s Mizuno’s philosophy, and runners like Dylan Wykes demonstrate it in everything they do. Wykes, who has been sponsored by Mizuno since 2008 and just signed another four year contract, says that Mizuno’s been good to him over the years, and he’s excited that they’re willing to invest the time and energy in him over the next four years.

Upon re-signing Dylan, Mizuno’s President, John Stacey, had this to say: “Dylan is a dedicated and talented runner who embodies Mizuno’s corporate message of “Never Settle.” We are thrilled to have Dylan represent Mizuno for the next 4 years as he devotes himself to training and qualifying for Rio 2016. As a member of Mizuno’s International Racing Team our support for Dylan stretches beyond Canada and we look forward to standing behind him, cheering him on, in his on-going evolution as a professional runner.”

2012 had a lot of ups and downs for Wykes – from pulling out of the Lake Biwa Marathon, to qualifying for the Olympic team at Rotterdam, to running in London. “2012 was a whirlwind of a year, and after taking time to reflect, it was a very special year,” he says. “I managed to achieve a lot of things – things you hope to do over an entire running career – and I managed to do them in about six months.”

Wykes admits that at first, he was a tad disappointed in his performance at the London Olympic Marathon – he was hoping to run about a minute faster and place higher. However, after some time and reflection, he felt pleased. “I think it is a good sign that I wanted more, but performing on that stage is tough,” he says. He’s also very modest about the swell of pride among Canadians following the Games. “It’s nice to know that people can be inspired by what we’ve achieved. It’s great if it motivates them to get out on the road for that next run.”

Wykes plans to spend the first part of 2013 getting back to his old self. “I have had a lot of little injuries that pretty much made the fall a write off. I want to get back to the level I was at when I qualified for, and ran, in the London Olympics,” he says, adding, “I would like to go to the World Championships – it would be great to represent Canada there.”

And of course, he’s planning ahead, with the goal of getting to the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio. “In some ways it seems like it’s a long way off, but in others, it is also creeping up. The plan is to focus on qualifying – I don’t expect it to be easy. I think the standard will be tougher this time, and I am going to need to be a better athlete.”

Some members of the iRun Gear Test Team have been busy testing some of the latest performance shoes from Skechers.  Over the next few weeks, we will be sharing their reviews – and giving away a free pair to 8 lucky readers to try for themselves! So read along, and be sure to follow along on Twitter and Facebook, since we won’t always do the give-aways in the same way!

The Skechers GOrun 2 and GOrun Ride are engineered to promote a mid-foot strike, and feature Resalyte Cushioning, a proprietary lightweight, injection-molded compound with memory retention. Stripped of all extra material, these shoes are lightweight and flexible. They also have a roomier forefoot to allow toes to spread, grip and push off naturally.

Skechers GOrun 2

The lightest of the GOrun series, this shoe weighs in at 6.2oz* and is designed to bring you closer to the barefoot experience while still providing impact protection. The high-abrasion rubber at the strike points provides stability and traction control on practically any surface, while the four-way stretch mesh toe panels allow for natural splay in the forefoot.

Skechers GOrun Ride

Don’t let the cushioning in this shoe fool you – it is still a lightweight shoe at 7.9oz* and promotes the midfoot strike with its M-strike engineering. It also still offers feedback through the GOimpulse sensors for a responsive running experience – a great fit for transitioning to barefoot, or for longer runs when you just want a little more underfoot.

*Men’s size 9

By: Rachel Seaman

Shortly after Tim and I got married on October 31st, 2009, we had decided that we would wait until the 2012 Olympics to try and have kids. At the time, it felt like it was a long way away but once 2012 hit I started to realize that time was coming very quickly. Specifically once we got over to Europe before the Olympics began, we were staying with our good friends Sabine and Bastian and Germany and the topic of kids came up a lot and I was getting very scared about it because I knew that within a few weeks we had planned to start trying. I was very hesitant and feeling like I was not ready for this big life change. I am 26 years old and Tim is 40 which is why we wanted to have kids asap after the Olympics. I decided to just not think about it and just let things happen the way they were supposed to.

After the Olympics, Tim and I headed to Croatia for a week-long vacation and it was so nice to not have to worry about training or any other care in the world and just have a good time. Once we got home, I had decided that I wanted to keep training for another month or so and try to do one last race in Europe at the end of September because I knew how good of shape I was in and I didn’t want to waste it. Then a few weeks in, I started thinking “what if I got pregnant before the race and I had already booked the ticket, etc”. Then pretty soon as these thoughts started to come into my mind, I started feeling kind of strange. I was getting cramps during training on a daily basis, was feeling more tired than usual and my heart rate wasn’t going down in training. I thought that something must be off but I took a pregnancy test and even though they say it can detect a positive pregnancy at least a week before your expected period, my test came back negative. I could have sworn I was pregnant, I just felt it! So I kept trying to train like usual but still wasn’t feeling great. After a few days of missing my period just over a week later, I decided to take another test. My sister said that I should do it first thing in the morning for the best result so at 4am I woke up having to go to the bathroom and I decided to take the test then. Tim had woken up and was wondering why I was in the bathroom so long and I just told him it was nothing. The test came back POSITIVE this time. OMG, I knew it! Obviously I could not sleep the rest of the night. I decided to not tell Tim so that at least one of us would get a good sleep. I told him as soon as he woke up that morning and he was so excited!

I immediately decided to take a bit of time off training since I hadn’t taken my yearly break yet. After taking only a week off, I decided to start doing some training since at this point I knew that my 2013 season was not going to happen and I might as well just do some light training every day just to stay active. The first few months during the first trimester were pretty tough. I felt pretty exhausted every afternoon and soooo hungry ALL the time! I haven’t experience fatigue and hunger to this extreme even in my biggest mileage weeks of training. Thankfully once the second trimester hit in mid November I started getting back into my regular eating habits and I had tons of energy again. I have been lucky to have no morning sickness at all but I did have a bout of really bad back pain where I couldn’t stand or walk without Tim helping me. It was extremely painful but only lasted about a week. Otherwise I really have nothing to complain about so far in my pregnancy, I have been very lucky!

I am now in my 22nd week and am shocked to still be able to do every normal physical activity that I usually have done but just with no intensity and at a reduced amount of mileage. I thought for sure that I wouldn’t be able to race walk at this point but I have surprised myself and am doing very well. I’m just trying to enjoy training to stay fit for the birth and to make it easier to make a comeback after the birth. At the most, I’m doing 100km’s per week with all of the activity I’m doing with race walking, running, hiking and elliptical. I’ve been feeling great!

Last week we had our major ultrasound for all of the measurements and to be able to find out the gender of the baby. Tim and I were always planning on finding out the gender and in the weeks leading up to the appointment, I was always saying that it was a girl. Well, I was right, we are having a baby girl and we are so excited! The baby is exactly where she should be with her development. All of her limbs and organs are there and look great.

Our due date is May 15th and if you do the math, we got pregnant in Croatia, just a week after I raced at the Olympics! We couldn’t have planned it any better! I am so thrilled with the timing as it puts no rush on me getting back to training too quickly and I can just focus on my recovery after the birth and on our little girl. As long as I am back into full training by September I will be happy. In the meantime, I look forward to enjoying my last 4 months pregnant before our lives change forever.

Keep on walking,

Rachel

By: Dylan Wykes

Almost everyone reading this has probably experienced that letdown after a big race. For months and months (or years and years) you have this goal race, the date circled on the calendar. You train hard with that date in mind. You make many sacrifices, skipping out on beers with friends on Saturday to rest up for a Sunday long run, or you leave behind family and travel thousands of miles and hole yourself up in an apartment in the Swiss Alps to training your butt off. Whatever the event, however many miles you log, whatever the sacrifice, eventually that day on the calendar comes…and it goes. No matter the result, whether you met your goal or failed miserably, the big date passes. And if you’re like me, sometimes you’re not prepared for what comes after that date. You experience this feeling of, ‘what now’? And what’s next might not seem that compelling, or you might just feel lost not having that big race on the horizon that brought you focus and routine. Or upon reflection you might wondering if all the hard work and sacrifice for that one day was really worth it. These are some of the feelings I experienced after the London Olympics and feelings I am sure many of you have felt as well after your own big race.

It’s funny, I’m not sure what I hoped to feel after I crossed the finish line in London. It’s not that the experience and my performance didn’t meet my expectations. I think for me the post-race blues was more about me always having a desire to achieve more, to think about what I can do to continue to get faster, and forgetting to reflect on the experience. I have learned a thing or two in the months since London, not about how to get faster, but how to deal with that letdown after the big race. So I wanted to take the chance to share some of them with you now.

1)  Take the time for some R & R (rest and reflection) – The first part, rest, isn’t always easy. You might be like me and always have the desire for more, and try to start back training too quickly after a big race. Sometimes when you do this you’re body does not respond well and it contributes to some of the melancholy. But perhaps the more important part is reflection. In the few days and weeks immediately following the Olympics I didn’t give myself much time to reflect on how amazing the experience was for me. I packed my time with seeing the family and friends I neglected while living like a monk in the Swiss Alps. I didn’t give myself much chance to evaluate what the experience was really like. My stock answer to everyone’s question “how was it”, left me realizing I really needed to take some time to reflect, to properly grasp everything that happened. These were all amazing moments for me. I recommend writing down your experience or dictating it to your smartphone, depending on your generation. I never seem to take the time to reflect on the positives of my running and achievements. I get stuck in a rut of focusing on what I could do better. This certainly happened to me after the Olympics.  So, in those reflections be sure to seek out the positives. If you experience some post-race letdown returning to those reflections might help you out of it. Being a part of the first full ‘team’ of Canadian marathoners at the Olympics since 1996; going to the start line of the most important marathon in the quadrennial alongside the best marathoners in the world, many of whom I’ve idolized for years; sharing in my ‘success’ post-race at Canada House with so many family and friends that came to watch. These were some of the highlights of my Olympic experienced that I overlooked at first, when concentrating only on what I could’ve differently and how I’ll do better next time.

2)  Say thanks – No matter how big or small your goal race, there were likely people in your life that helped you out along the way and made their own sacrifices to help you reach your goals. I think it’s important to connect with those people afterwards and let them know you appreciate the help they gave you. This will help you realize how many great people you have in your life and snap you out of any post-race funk. For me, saying thanks also involved sharing stories about my experience at the Olympics and doing so helped me realize how special it was.

3)  Run for the sake of running – Sure, a lot of us run because we like the structure of it; seeing our split times and our progress, and setting goals and breaking barriers. But, inside all of us we likely started running for the pure enjoyment of it. When returning to running after a big race, I recommend trying to get back to finding the purity and enjoyment in your running. Whether that be leaving your watch at home for a few runs, exploring some new places to run, or meeting a group of friends for a run. If you know yourself, you’ll probably know what it is that makes you love running, so be sure to enjoy that. For me, that meant getting out the door simply because I wanted to go for a run, not because I had to get in shape for this workout or that race. This helped me enjoy my running again and snap out my funk, because I was running without any anxiety about what I needed to achieve.

4)  Set some new goals – After you’ve taken the time to rest, reflect, and say thanks, sit down and set some new goals. It can be simple things, like getting back into a regular running routine. Or it can be that next ‘big date’ that you circle on the calendar. Either way, you do need to get to a point where you put the race that was behind you and move on to something new. If you’re really feeling like you’re in a post-race funk, don’t make your goals too grandious. I recommend setting some goals that take you on a bit of a different path from your previous big race. Try training for a different distance or a different type of course. One of the problems with setting a new goal similar to the last is that you might get back into a training routine and find you’re not running your workouts as well as before, and that might contribute to the post-race funk. So, try something different, where you know the workouts won’t be the same so you won’t be comparing the new you to the old you.

Hopefully you don’t experience any sort of letdown after your next big race, but if you do I hope some of my suggestions will help you. They’ve helped me get back on the saddle, so to speak. Though, since it’s 6 months after the Olympic marathon, it’s taken me longer than I’d hoped. But, I think I needed some time to recharge the batteries – both mentally and physically. I’ve taken some of my own advice and am now sitting down with my coach to sculpt out a spring racing schedule that I hope to share with everyone in the near future.

Another event that has helped my spirits and motivated me for the future is that I am continuing my sponsorship with Mizuno Canada and Mizuno Corporation Japan. Mizuno Canada first took me on as an athlete ambassador in 2008, after I ran my first marathon and they’ve been providing me with great gear and support ever since. Having them behind me for the next 4 years makes it that little bit easier for me to focus 100% on my training and racing.  I’m looking forward to doing my part to help promote all the exciting things that Mizuno has going on.

The following is a guest post by Jennifer Pevec.

When I was diagnosed with multiple sclerosis, I could barely walk. The cruel irony is that my once powerful legs carried me through three half and two full marathons in 2004. A year later, I had to quit a career I loved in Marketing Communications. Running was out of the question. I could barely get around my own home or properly care for my two young kids.

The prognosis was not good. In those early years, I was in a lot of pain and was experiencing relapse after relapse. What started as pain and weakness in my right leg, now affected all four limbs. And the fatigue was debilitating. I was told that due to the length and severity of my symptoms, I would likely never run again. Obviously, my neurologist was not a runner and did not fully understand just how tough (stubborn?) us runners can be!

In late 2007 I tried a new aggressive treatment aimed at reducing the number of relapses and slowing disease progression. It took some time but it really helped me regain some of what I had lost. With the help of special carbon fiber leg braces, I started running again in 2009. I even qualified for the Boston Marathon in 2011 as a mobility impaired athlete. Unfortunately my MS flared up a few weeks prior to the race leaving me unable to run for much of 2011. As you can imagine, I was devastated. But I suppose it just made me appreciate the experience that much more when I got to run it in 2012 with my husband at my side as my guide!

As we get set for Boston 2013 (this will be my 8^th marathon) and NYC 2013, I am reminded not to count my chickens before they hatch. MS can be cruel and unpredictable. And while it is not always easy, I try not to focus on what MS has taken away from me (or might one day take). Instead, I try to focus on what it has given me. I am especially grateful to all the people that helped me through some challenging times – my husband, my two beautiful kids, my mom and my family and friends. And I am touched by the kindness and support of so many others who generously supported our cause. Since 2005, we have raised over $75,000 for MS research. We will continue to do what we can to promote awareness for this disease and raise money for even better treatment options and hopefully soon, a cure!

Here is my fundraising page – your support is very much appreciated!

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If you, or someone you know, is Running for a Reason, please send your story to webeditor@irun.ca and we might feature it right here on this blog!