Posture

As I write this I am sitting on a new desk chair...

I cannot imagine a more boring sentence to open an post. It is of absolutely no interest to anybody else whether I am sitting on an orange crate or reclining on the sofa, but to me it is important. It is related to something I increasingly consider important – posture.

In the old twirly, leany-backy office chair, I used to be half reclining when using the computer; it was an illusory comfort. The new chair is plain, fairly firm, with no moving parts and it forces me to sit upright. My back is straighter and I feel more alert. To say I have been working towards this for a couple of months is not quite true. I haven't had a training programme of sitting a little better each day until I achieved a goal of sitting upright – that would be daft. But I have been working for a couple of months on strengthening my core muscles and trying to improve my posture.

It stems from a realisation that to run properly, with good economy whilst minimising the strain on my body, I need good posture. This cannot be switched on when I laced up my trainers and neglected for everything else, it has to be applied all the time. I have to be constantly aware of how I am holding myself because it is easy to slump, especially when feeling weary.

I have a book of yoga exercises for runners where the mountain pose is highlighted as a key pose. It looks really simple, as it does not involve any contortions or stretching, it is simply a matter of standing upright, balanced and relaxed. It is good to do at odd moments throughout the day as it makes you aware of how you are standing and it recalibrates your posture. A few moments of awareness of the body. It has changed the way I do some exercises. For example when doing lunges I stand in the mountain pose for a short while, do a few lunges on one leg, go back to the mountain pose and then do a few more lunges on the other leg. Yesterday, when walking down the street, became aware of being a little straighter, looking forward rather than slightly down. These are little things, small moments but they make you feel better balanced.

I am sure this is good for running . Everything I have read about good form says you should be erect but relaxed, but how you run is not merely a matter of what you do on a run it's a matter of what you do throughout the day.

Elasticity

I might have mentioned before that I have a lot of admiration for Windsurfin' Susie and the dedicated, rational approach she has to running. She not only studies the physiology of running, she puts theory into practice and then passes on what she has learnt to others. She, and those like her, are the backbone of the sport in this country.

Her latest post is a clear exposition of why running fast is not the best training if you are planning to run long. I'm sure she is right with the underlying message of keeping your goal in mind and being specific in your training. I read it soon after I had posted about my current regime, which involves fairly short bursts of faster running amid other exercises for general strength and flexibility - a completely different approach. So How can I hold onto this this contradiction, i.e. believing Susie is right, yet doing the opposite?

Well actually it is quite easy - because there is no contradiction. There is a wonderful variety of reasons for running and a whole range of aspirations. Susie is a serious athlete, with a target, which I am sure she will attain, of running a 3 hours 15 minute marathon. My current aim is more vague and subjective (and is probably totally unrealistic given my age) and so I have a different plan.

It became clear to me, as these things sometimes do, when looking at a woman. I was watching some sort of aerobic, kickboxing, dance, exercise class, which involved rather complicated moves to music. My attention was caught by someone who could not get the sequence quite right. There was a bounce and elasticity to her movement and she could do all the components of the routine with ease, but she messed up the timings and because of that she was laughing and exercising. Somehow she just seemed full of life.

I thought about my running and how I felt when I was doing it and realised that although it gave me a sense of contentment and sparked all sorts of thoughts and feelings, the actual movement felt a little limited - a bit ploddy, a bit like always going along a line. There was no sense of flexibility and elasticity. In other words, to try to regain that sense of aliveness, I had to try to put more snap into what I was doing and try to exercise the whole body.

So here I am, concentrating more on form than distance, trying to run with a higher cadence with more spring, working the core to improve posture and trying to stretch out some of those gnarled muscles. Part of me thinks I am being a little ridiculous because I will never recapture the elasticity of youth but as I am writing this I am sitting up straighter and in some small way that might show that something is working.