Cool Running Ramblings : 22 Feb 2010
Running like a girl
After getting knee knack after about 8½ miles of last Sunday’s run it’s been another week of no training and the associated insufferable levels of guilt. With a view to getting to the bottom of my gammy knee I asked my good friend Mr Google if he knew of anyone who could perform some video analysis of what my body does whilst I’m running that causes my knee to complain so vociferously. I found plenty of places that were happy to analyse my gait but only whilst standing still. I also found a few sports shops who offered video analysis before recommending trainers, but as I’d visited one of those shortly before my last episode of knee knack I felt that I wanted someone with a more medical bent to be the other side of the camera. And then I found StrideUK operating out of Studio 57 in Hove who appeared to do exactly what I was looking for, video running gait analysis performed by an expert in bio-mechanics and sports injuries.
On arrival I was warmly greeted by Mitchell Phillips, who showed me through to a room containing a state of the art slatted running machine with several cameras trained on it, a big screen on the wall and a workstation. Mitchell enthusiastically walked through what we would be doing in the session before sending me off to get changed into running shorts. Once I was back he proceeded to tape up my shorts so they looked like a sort of running nappy and then draw strange lines all over my legs in black marker pen and stick little fluorescent yellow dots onto both me and my trainers before filming me on the running machine, first in my trainers and then barefoot.
The running and filming was all over in about fifteen minutes and by the time I had wiped off most of the pen marks from my legs and got changed back into my normal clothes Mitchell had already begun his analysis of my gait. He then spent a truly fascinating hour and a half taking me through the footage in passionate detail and explaining what was going on with me in terms of my biomechanics. He pointed out two key muscle tightness issues in my quads and particularly in my right glut as being the root cause of my knee knack and gave me a personally tailored stretching program that would resolve the problem. The computer analysis also suggested that I run in quite a narrow channel with my feet occasionally brushing one another as I run which apparently is more common in female runners. In other words, I’d paid £115 to find out that I’m a tight arse who runs like a girl. Nice.
I was initially slightly sceptical about what I would get out of this visit but I have to say that I would now happily recommend it to anyone who wanted to better understand and improve their running style. To have such an enthusiastic and personable expert in the field of bio-mechanics spend two hours giving you a one to one consultation was, I think, fantastic value for money.
So having spent two days diligently performing my prescribed stretching exercises I lined up at the start of the Sussex Beacon Half Marathon, shivering in the rain, wondering whether my gammy knee would last the distance or not. Well despite the best efforts of the driving rain and winter temperatures I did make it to the finish running most of the way, but as I only had two days of stretching to cure the underlying problem with my knee it still feels pretty sore. I finished about halfway down the list of nearly six thousand finishers with a chip time of 2:00:53 but as there was a queue at the finish which stopped me crossing it for a good minute I’m claiming two hours dead.
So having completed a half marathon did I feel like I could have done another one straight after it? Definitely not! There’s clearly still a lot of training to do and it all starts again in earnest on Tuesday. When will it end???!!
Happy running everyone!
