A guide to unlocking free speed with perfect running form.

1. 1
Created by Coach Andrew Simmons at Lifelong Endurance
Table of Contents
Upper Body Mechanics ..................................................................................................................................... 2
Lower Body Mechanics ..................................................................................................................................... 3
Posture/ Lean/ Queues..................................................................................................................................... 4
Landing/ Foot Position/ Cadence...................................................................................................................... 5
Drills + Skills ...................................................................................................................................................... 6
References: ....................................................................................................................................................... 7

2. 2
Upper Body Mechanics
Your arms are one of your most powerful tools in running – providing balance for technical downhills,
engaging your kick, and driving you uphill. Most runners don’t use their arms nearly enough and hold them
too high with minimal swing when they run which robs them of power. Finding your perfect arm swing can be
difficult at first because it feels awkward. In time, practice a good swing as part of your drills and being
conscious of it during your runs, it will come naturally and allow you to easily unlock free speed.
Swing, Swing
When you’re running you should focus on closing the angle between your bicep and forearm at the top of
your arm swing and opening the angle as you bring your elbow back and end the swing. The ‘amplitude’ or
how large the angle created from shoulder to elbow depends on how fast you’re going and indicates how
much power you’re trying to put out. When you’re sprinting or running hard uphill increasing your arm swing
and amplitude so that your hands clear your back side and come underneath you chin is proper form keeping
a smaller and efficient cycle is best for aerobic and easy running. When you’re running easy, you don’t need
nearly the amplitude because you don’t need to produce that much power.
What do I do with my hands?
You can tell a regular runner from a casual runner many ways but the quickest way I’ve found is to look at
their hands, if you see an engaged wrist with hands parallel to each other, and thumbs up you know you’re
looking at someone who logs regular mileage. Keep your thumbs at 12 o’clock - this position will naturally
bring in your elbows and help avoid rotation of your shoulders. You should pretend you’re holding a potato
chip in your hands with a light c-shape. Clenched fists result in a needless loss of energy – relaxed is fast!
Stop the Twist
Any movement that is generated across the centerline of the body will induce rotation which will create
needless energy loss. Running with wide elbows while having your hands and forearms cross your centerline
you’re sending your force and energy side to side, add in a shoulder twist and you’re getting more of a core
workout than you are running. Bring your elbows in and ensure that your arms are driving forward.
Hip to what?
Many athletes struggle with “opening and closing the gap” as well as driving from the elbow. When you’re out
for an easy run – your hands should move from your mid-chest at the top of the swing and end around the
front of your hip. This is easily remembered as running “hip to nip”. When you want to run faster you need
open up that swing! As you bring your wrist from your chest to your hip the elbow angle should increase up to
about 90-105 degrees while at the top it should be tighter and closer to 20-35 degrees.
Strength
Consider working on increasing your shoulder and upper back strength if you feel like you lack power in your
arms. Add in Pushups with elbows close to chest, Lat pull downs, overhead presses. Add in Paloff Presses and
counter rotation core exercises to prevent your twist.

3. 3
Lower Body Mechanics
You can split the lower body gait cycle into 3 distinct phases: Knee Drive, Landing, and Heel Return. There is a
lot happening as we propel ourselves forward. Heel Return and Knee Drive are not mutually exclusive and as
you work on your form you will find that when you focus on one element, the other will follow. At the end of
this document you will find a Skills and Drills section that will help you work on your Knee Drive and Heel
Return.
Heel Return
Most runners hardly pick up their feet when they run and it can look more like a shuffle than a run. As you
speed up (faster than easy aerobic pace) your heels should come up towards your butt and ultimately help
drive the knee forward. Failing to bring the heel towards your glutes will result in a shorter and inefficient
stride. To get greater heel return you’ll want to do butt kick drills, cone drills, and banded exercises that focus
on your hamstrings. Pulling your heel closer to your butt requires an concentric contraction of your hamstring
so yoga ball curls, glute ham raise, glute bridges (single/ double leg), banded heel drags on your back (heels to
glutes) and deadlifts are some exercises you can integrate to build hamstring strength.
Knee Drive
The greater the knee drive, the greater the power, the longer your stride can be. Having good strength in your
hip flexors and lower abdominals is essential to good knee drive. For aerobic running – you shouldn’t expect
significant knee drive or heel return but you need to have some. Runners often try to increase speed by
accelerating their lower leg in a fast shuffle – to truly create good running economy, you need to drive from
your knee up and forward. If you’re feeling it in your glutes, you’re doing it right! You should think of good
knee drive as creating room for a big stride.
Stride
A great stride is an economical stride that feels almost like perpetual motion – a strong knee drive is assisted
by the heel returning towards the butt and drive the knee before landing and propelling you forward. At first,
you may think bigger is better and that’s true to a certain point. When Jack Daniels looked at runners in the
1984 Olympics he found that Female Distance Runners averaged strides of 58 inches, and 80 inches for female
sprinters. Male Distance Runners averaged 74 inches and Sprinters at 93. For men that’s 22,400 strides for a
marathon and 28,600 for females. The perfect stride isn’t a magic number- in fact so much goes in to your
stride length – hip mobility, age, and leg length to name a few. Don’t try to seek a perfect number, seek a
stride that is controlled that doesn’t feel like you’re reaching with every step.
Mobility is Everything
The lower extremity kinetic chain has numerous moving joints that work best when they are aligned and
mobile. Joints that can’t achieve full range of motion can often be problematic and painful to run on. Poor
mobility can result in absorbing impact through a leg that is compromised resulting in forces that can cause
significant pain. When you combine low hip mobility and stability it’s easy to understand how IT Band
Syndrome, Runner’s Knee, or an enflamed piriformis can hold you back from going longer and faster. Mobile
hips and supple joints can be achieved through stretching but are best achieved through a focused strength
training program. Lifelong Endurance has built one just for runners that focuses on strength, mobility, and
running form called The Robust Runner

4. 4
Posture/ Lean/ Queues
Sit up straight! Don’t Slouch! Pull your shoulders back! Many of you probably just sat up a little straighter in
your chair as you read that. Some of these queues hold true for running and unless you’re running through my
neighborhood, you won’t have anyone yelling out to remind you. When we get tired, we revert back to our
lowest level of neuromuscular – this is a fancy way of saying that you fall back on what you train your body to
do. Pro Runners are just as tired as you are at mile 20, they are more efficient at Mile 20 because they have
had their form meticulously picked apart over years of training. Letting your posture degrade over the
duration of your event has many factors but it’s one that most people ignore in training.
The Core of Everything
If I could give only one exercise to a runner it would be a plank. It requires a strong lower back, strong
abdominals, powerful shoulders, and a perfect line from ear to heel. It’s everything a runner needs to be from
the gun to tape, and it’s a great way to practice building your base level neuromuscular strength. A strong core
isn’t just a six pack, your hip flexors, iliopsoas, and obliques help you drive your knees upward, stabilize you,
and provide structure as you navigate the changing surface beneath you. Integrating Planks, Dead Bugs, and
counter rotation movements to build a strong core.
Lean In
The perfect lean is something you know when you feel, it’s a
sensation of falling and letting gravity give you a gentle nudge
forward. To take full advantage of your lean you need great hip
extension and flexion, as well as a great stride with good
landing mechanics. A great way to find that perfect lean is to
start with one arm up and one leg up (left arm, right leg and
vice versa) and leaning forward right until you feel like your
falling. Just as you fall accelerate for 3 strides. This fall drill will
help you get a sense of leaning forward.
Queues
You should think about leaning from your ankles. Avoid the urge to stick your neck out and bend at the waste,
that only robs you of more hip mobility.
You should run proud with shoulders neutral and a focused gaze 10-15 feet ahead of you.
You should be driving your arms forward and feeling a drive in your elbows – opening and closing the “gap”
between your bicep and forearm.
What to avoid: pulling your neck back and squeezing your shoulder blades together. This will push your
elbows outward and encourage rotation across your body.

5. 5
Landing/ Foot Position/ Cadence
Let’s settle this debate once and for all. No, heel striking isn’t bad. No mid-foot stride isn’t perfect. How the
foot hits the ground doesn’t matter quite as much as where it hits the ground. When we run with
overextended stride a heel strike that lands in front of your body will return 6-7x your body weight. This
extended heel strike will cause you to momentarily come to a stop before your body returns to forward
motion – this is some aggressive physics you’re putting your muscles through! With your leg fully extended
you’re effectively compressing your joints from the ankle to the knee to the hip and after a while it sure
doesn’t feel good. We can fix those mechanics but you have to think more about where your foot is landing –
is it ahead of you or is it under you?
Centered with Gravity
If you integrate a significant knee drive, good heel return, with a foot in dorsiflexion you will find overstriding
very difficult. Driving from the knee instead of the ankle/lower leg will force you to land underneath your
center of mass and propel you forward. When you lean forward your center of gravity moves away from your
body this allows you to drive your knees, extend your hips, return your heels and move forward. This will
naturally feel more like a midfoot strike but what you feel and what’s actually going on are hidden by some
pretty fancy shoe technology. When you land in full contact with the ground, you want your foot to make full
contact directly underneath your body – this allows your joints to move efficiently, absorb force as they are
designed, and ultimately avoid unnecessary loss of momentum. When you land mid stance directly
underneath your body you’re able to transition quickly to propulsion and make your next stride.
The 3 Phases
When we walk we naturally go through contact, midstance, and propulsion. The same is true for running
mechanics – if you’re a skeptic, I want you to take off your socks. Grab your hose and get your feet wet, go run
down a cool cement driveway and you’ll see a full foot print. This is because we go through all 3 phases very
quickly. You may not feel like your heel ever kisses the ground; your shoes are designed to hide a good bit of
the contact phase. Landing on your heel, midfoot, or forefoot is a matter of comfort and personal mechanics.
Cadence
Steps per minute is the measure and the mark for many is 180 steps per minute(spm). This mark is roughly
correct as a general average for smooth flat ground at aerobic pace, when we consider an increase in speed
(high cadence, high power) or hill running (lower cadence, high power) this range generally lands between
200spm and 170 spm and still be considered efficient. In general, the higher cadence you can hold while also
minimizing your ground contact time the less likely you are to incur an impact loading injury. A good
metronome will help you train yourself to become more comfortable with a higher cadence rate. It’s
important to note that you should focus on being able to run your slow aerobic pace to just under tempo pace
at close to 180 spm – slower pace should not mean slower cadence. If your goal is to increase your cadence,
don’t jump directly to 180spm, work up in 3-4 step increases every 2 weeks. Changing your cadence takes
diligent focus and effort before it becomes natural and comfortable.

6. 6
Drills + Skills
Changing your running mechanics takes time, patience, and a diligent focus on small details. Drills alongside
skill development are just one part of the picture. Once you have started to learn a new skill, you have to build
the structural support to help these changes “stick”. Teaching yourself how to move well is the majority of the
battle – alongside these drills we’ve built a runners strength training program that can help enhance your skill
development, prevent injury, and make you more durable for whatever your next race throws at you.
Ladder Drills
A speed ladder is a great way to build lateral strength and teaching yourself to engage your brain, build good
patterns and rhythms. Integrating a speed ladder into your winter training or as part of your speed session
warm ups is a great way to ‘turn on’ your brain and get it primed and ready to work.
• High Knee Straight run – one foot per box
• In, In, Out, Out
• Icky Shuffle
• Lateral Switch (one foot each square)
• In and Out Hop
• Straight Hops
• Lightning Bolt Shuffle
• 2 Feet – Inside/ Outside (Hopscotch)
12-18 Inch Hurdle Drills
Using short 12-18 inch hurdles great way to increase your stride length and knee drive. These drills are often
used by sprinters and power-based athletes to sharpen their skills to produce force and build lateral strength
and stability. Drills listed here are best completed as 2-legged drills until you grow more confident and can
progress to a single leg drill. Completing these in a barefoot friendly grass area will help you double down on
your lower leg and foot strength. Assume that hurdles are all set up roughly 3 feet apart, 4-5ft for sprint drills.
• Two Legged Hops (Stop +Load)
• Two Legged Hops (Continuous)
• High Knees Over (High Cadence)
• Single Leg Hops (Stop + Load)
• Single Leg (Continuous)
• Single Leg (Switch Landing Leg)
• Lateral High Knees
Basic Strength
Most runners see strength training as a high intensity, high weight, bulk building exercise. At Lifelong
Endurance we’re focused on building a more durable athlete that is very physically literate. We program
movements that increase your mobility and range of motion, we believe that it helps prevent injury, and
allows you to trust your form when it matters most. We know that without an integrated strength training
program runner’s cannot achieve their full potential. Strength training is parallel to form work because
strength training is skill based and weight based – we believe that these movements are a great place to start.
• Lateral Band Walks
• Bench or Box Step-Ups
• Small Box Plyometrics
• Push-Press
• Planks
• Counter-Rotation Movements
• Banded Squats
• Single Leg Squats/ Split Squats

7. 7
Drills + Skills (Cont’d)
Cone Drill
This is a drill to practice your cadence and build faster foot speed for lighter landing and learning how to not
reach out in front of your body. There is no magic number with this drill, it’s all about getting a few more
strides and learning how a high turnover feels. This is a great warm up or cool down practice that you can
integrate into strides.
Description
Set 2 cones about 10-15m apart. You’ll want to start far enough back from the first cone so you can build up to
about 5K-10K pace between the cones. Your focus is to count each foot fall between the first and second cone.
Complete this drill 3 times to find your average number of strides, you shouldn’t have a variance greater than
1-2 strides. Your goal is to maintain speed and increase the number of strides between cones by 3-5 Strides.
Play with knee drive, heel return, and cadence so you can increase your # of strides without losing or gaining
too much speed.
Videos and Links
Robust Runner Strength Program for Runners: https://www.lifelongendurance.com/virtualstrength
Running Form Basics – Posture and Cues: https://youtu.be/-XGVCptqcGQ
Running Form Basics – Upper Body and Arm Mechanics: https://youtu.be/oGjdDRFvDjQ
Running Form Basics – Lower Body Mechanics: https://youtu.be/X3n87325moY

8. 8
References:
Neuromuscular Adaptation to Training, Injury and passive interventions: Implications for Running Economy
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/19827859/
Influence of Stride Frequency and Length on Running Mechanics
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC4000471/
Cadence/ Vertical Oscillation – Effects on Running Related Injuries
https://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC6088121/
Adjustments with running speed reveal neuromuscular adaptations during landing associated with high
mileage running training
https://journals.physiology.org/doi/full/10.1152/japplphysiol.00801.2016
Effect of Speed Endurance and Strength Training on Performance, Running Economy and Muscular
Adaptations in Endurance-Trained Runners
https://pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/27179795/