A COMPLETE LIST OF FOCUSES AND REMINDERS

From ChiRunning, pages 92-93.

Below is a checklist of all the focuses. Whenever you’re practicing a focus, Body Sense it. As you get increasingly proficient with the focuses, you’ll be able to sense when some part of your running form doesn’t feel quite right, then engage the appropriate focus to correct it.

POSTURE

• Straighten your upper body with your hands. Look for your shoelaces.
• Keep your legs vertical, not sloped.
• Do the “vertical crunch.” Lift your pelvis up in front; flatten your lower back slightly.
• Tuck your chin and keep your neck in line with your spine. Use the three-finger tripod.
• Use the image of a Column—always straight. Connect the dots: shoulders, hips, ankles.
• Feel your feet at the bottom of your Column.

LEAN

• Keep your column straight at all times.
• Lean from your ankles, with your whole body as one unit.
• Feel yourself falling forward.
• Be sure your upper body is in front of your foot strike.
• Your lean is your gas pedal. To go faster, lean more.
• Your upper body is extended out front while your legs swing out to the back.

LEGS AND ARMS: LOWER BODY

• Pick up your feet.
• Keep your lower legs limp.
• Swing your legs to the rear.
• Bend your knees and let your heels float up behind you.
• Remember, soft foot strike, loose ankles. Don’t push off with your toes. Run quietly and lightly, as if you’re trying to sneak up on someone.
• Don’t pronate. Run along a tightrope, leading with your knees.
• Loosen your hips.
• Keep your cadence between 85 and 90 strides per minute.

LEGS AND ARMS: UPPER BODY

• Swing your elbows to the rear, keeping them bent at a constant right angle.
• Don’t pump your arms.
• Don’t cross your centerline with your hands.
• Relax your hands, as if you’re holding a butterfly.
• Keep your shoulders low and relaxed.
• Use your arm swing to set your cadence.

GENERAL RUNNING TIPS

This is a quick reference list of focuses to remember when you’re starting your runs. The best way to get familiar with the focuses is to pick one or two and work with them until you can clearly Body Sense each one. Then, on a subsequent run, pick two different ones. Work your way through the list, and when you finish, start at the top of the list… ad infinitium.

• Keep your stride length short as you take off. Let it lengthen gradually as you lean more.
• Keep your lower legs limp.
• Pick your foot up over your opposite ankle, and don’t push off with your toes.
• Remember the wheel. Pretend you’re pedaling a small bicycle.
• Lean from your ankles by tilting your Column forward.
• Let your feet hit at the bottom of your Column. Your upper body should always be ahead of your foot strike.
• Land midfoot, just behind the balls of your feet, not on your heels.
• Swing your arms and legs to the rear.
• Let gravity pull you. Use the bungee-cord image.
• Keep your shoulders relaxed and low.
• Keep your knees down and your heels up.
• Look for that gentle twist along your spine. Let your hip be pulled to the rear as your leg extends behind you.
• Keep your cadence between 85 and 90 strides per minute.
• When you get tired, shorten your stride length and come back up on your lean slightly.
• Smile!

Grated, it’s a lot to think about… but so is a car when you first learn to drive. You don’t have to learn this by next week. In fact, you have the rest of your life to master these focuses, so don’t pressure yourself to learn it all at once. Just take it in small increments one day at a time and you’ll be a happy runner.