M. Suzanne Terry

Posed during amphibious walk (thus the shoe choice. Do not run in these. /psa). When actually walking, view from the top should look more like right foot than left. Watch your knees!

Once you have the right gear, you are ready to hit the road safely. Sort of. First, let’s talk about form. How you run is just as important as how much and how often you run. When it comes to running safely, there are four main things to look out for – your alignment, your cadence, your foot strike, and your breathing.

Almost every aspect of good running form begins and ends with alignment. Alignment basically means that every body part stacks and lands where it’s supposed to during an activity. For those of you who are dancers, you know how vital proper alignment is not only to execute a move correctly but also to do so without hurting yourself. Running is no different. As in dancing, it starts with your core. Keep your stomach muscles engaged to protect your back and guide your hips. When your foot strikes the ground, everything should line up. The hips should be over the knee, and the knee should be over your foot.

Your arms can also help you with this. Arms should stay at a 90-degree angle by your side, and hands should be loose. Keep swinging arms by your side, and avoid crossing your arms in front (i.e., don’t cross the zipper line), because this can knock the rest of your body off course.

When runners decide they want to get faster, many will lengthen their stride. This is a mistake. Unless you have extraordinarily developed hip flexors (and let’s presume that, unless you are a pretty serious dancer or runner, you don’t), you are setting yourself up for injury. A safer and more effective way to increase your speed is simply by speeding up your cadence (total number of foot strikes per minute).

Some experts will say that it doesn’t matter how your foot hits the ground, but a heel strike inevitably slows down your cadence, because since you don’t push off with your heel, your foot then has to roll to a push-off position. If you strike and push in the same position, you can increase speed more easily.

Heel strikes also increase the chance of injury, especially for beginners or those with knee issues. Until running with proper alignment is second nature to you, you should avoid a heel strike. When you land on your heel, your hips tend to hang back to prevent you from falling, which means that your hips, knees, and foot aren’t aligned when your foot strikes the ground. I can personally attest that a heel strike makes it super easy to hyper-extend your knee.

Practice running barefoot through grass to get used to a natural heel strike. You’ll probably notice that in this natural state, your body doesn’t land on the heel or, if it happens to, it doesn’t feel good. That’s not an accident. Listen to your body. It knows what works best for it.

Finally, remember to breathe. Of course, breathing is important to keep your body fueled with the oxygen it needs. But how you breathe is important, too. Many experts, including my junior high running coach, suggest inhaling for three steps and exhaling for two. This pattern is not arbitrary. Remember those core muscles that keep your body aligned? When you exhale, your diaphragm relaxes, and so do the core muscles surrounding it. When this happens, other muscle groups in action will compensate for the lost support. By inhaling for an odd number of steps and exhaling for an even number, you alternate the side of your body that’s compensating for that initial exhalation release. This spreads the work evenly and helps prevent injury that might occur if one side gets overworked.

In the next post, we will talk about what to do when you’re out on the road to keep yourself safe.

I’m spending 31 days running wild.