I wasn't engaging my glutes (bum) muscles and I was overloading my quads and calves. I hiked up my right hip, which caused imbalance and instability.
Instead of swinging my arms straight forwards and back, I swung them with excessive torso motion, causing my arms and legs to cross my body's midline. That in turn was wasting energy and overloaded my back muscles and knee joints.
Due to my narrow running base, which encourages upper body motion, I had poor stability.
Kate's aim was to reduce my excessive torso rotation and forward/sideways lean, to prevent arms and legs crossing the body midline and encourage core stability. She's also going to help me to engage arm swing to encourage momentum and reduce body rotation.
Weeks ago I thought I'd do a 5km walk-run to get a sort of baseline to work from. Forty-five horrendous minutes later I dragged myself back up my driveway praying to the almighty Running Gods that I had some anti-inflammatory cream in the medicine cabinet for my aching knees.
Last week I did another 5km run that I completed pain-free in just under 34 minutes. That's absolutely thanks to Kate's coaching and the last assessment of me running proves it.
In terms of my gait, I now have "good hip extension, good kick back, shorter strides with increased flight phase". My hips are more stable and my hip hike, while still evident, is reduced.
My shoulder-arm swing is spot on and I have minimal torso motion. My arms still cross my body occasionally but that is much improved. My running base still narrow but it has improved to a more stable base.
Lynsey and I are training twice a week together - once to do a run down by the river and another to work on strength training. We're each getting in another couple of runs on our own each week.
I reckon we're bound to be able to get our time to under 30 minutes when we take part in the 5km event on October 2.
We've set up a Facebook page for those who are keen to join us on the day as part of the combined Advance Wellness and Hamilton News teams participating.
You can, of course, take part in any one of the events here at www.hamiltonhalfmarathon.org.nz.
As part of our participation, we're also fundraising for Waikato Family Centre.
If you'd like to donate head to givealittle.co.nz/fundraiser/runforwaikatofamilycentre. Our Facebook page is where you can have discussions about your training progress, organise training runs with other group members and find out how you can be part of the fundraising drive for a very worthy cause!
Search 'Running for Waikato Family Centre' on Facebook.
Advance Wellness Centre is at 711 Victoria Street. For more information about the services they offer see www.advancephysio.co.nz
