Iron Man Champ Jasper Blake teaches Dr. M about Running

With Spring right around the corner, running season has begun. This is the time of year I tend to see a variety of running related injuries flow into the clinic.

Rather than give you my take on running and running injuries, I thought I would go to a professional and ask them a number of questions about how they coach running!  

Meet Jasper Blake!  A former Iron Man Champion, triathlete and founder of the training company B78! 

***Most people don't think twice about running.  They just put on runners and head out the door, and wonder why they are sore or injured later on.  As a running coach, what do you tell your athletes to focus on?  Are there specific techniques?  Or do you just let them run with their own style?

The biggest thing people forget about running is how much impact there is. You take all of your body weight, throw it up in the air and then land on one foot. Your aerobic fitness is one thing but the ability to handle impact is another thing entirely and it's usually the one that gets people in the most trouble. 

Technically I focus on a few key areas:

1. Landing midfoot (or landing with your foot right underneath your body...not out in front, not behind)- the foot is a natural shock absorber not your heal. Land mid foot and you use your body as it was intended for running

2. Stand tall- proud posture- stack your bones. Often you will see people hunched over in various places which means they have to be engaged muscularly to hold themselves up. Standing tall allows the use of your skeleton for support

3. Slight forward lean (without hinging at the waist) allows you to use gravity for acceleration. 

4. Quick "light" cadence- be light or soft on impact and keep cadence on the higher side meaning don't lope around

Put it all together and you end up with good running technique. One really important thing to add is that in order to remains stable during impact we need great core and hip stability especially in longer events when the body starts to break down physically. All runners should have core and hip stability work in their program on a regular basis.

***What is/are the most common injury/injuries you see with running? 

Injuries that usually have to do with impact or tightness in certain areas. IT band issues are a big one and repetitive strain injuries like stress fractures are also a big one. One fairly common and odd one is when one of the small foot bones slides out of place- it's relatively easy to fix but really painful

***Is there a benefit to strength training (resistance training) to improve running outcomes (ie. would a runner benefit from going to the gym?)  Are there exercises that a runner can do that would help prevent injury?

Yes most definitely. I am a huge proponent of gym work. As mentioned above, core and hip stability is really important. I think it's also good to incorporate exercises that promote proper tracking of the knee (so lunges for example where knee tracking over big toe and not going side to side is promoted). I also like athletes to work on any imbalances and learn to move laterally with competence. Running and most endurance sports are very linear and that can cause weakness outside of linear movements which I feel puts athletes at risk of injury so I like working muscle groups that take an athlete out of linear plane.

***If you are looking to improve efficiency, should a runner try to increase stride length (decrease cadence) or decrease stride length (increase cadence)  

This is not a simple question to answer as there is so much at play but yes these are the two primary factors as it relates to speed and efficiency. Increasing stride length beyond your range of motion in terms of flexibility and muscular strength and coordination is not a good thing. So I would look first to increase cadence but I don't think that needs to go hand in hand with consciously decreasing stride length. Often when athletes try to deliberately increase stride length things get ugly because foot strike happens too far in front of the body (not underneath) and cadence decreases which is not always good. I think "efficient" stride length and cadence are on a sliding scale- when you are going slower, both will usually be on the lower end. As you increase speed both usually increase but only to a point. Eventually stride length will reach an optimal place or a place beyond which the athlete cannot coordinate or generate muscular force or cannot land on their foot properly. Likewise, cadence will increase to a rate beyond which the athlete cannot coordinate or even maintain that rate.

Balancing cadence and length to optimize what's best for each individual is the key- while maintaining the critical technical aspects that can help keep you injury free. 

***There are always questions about shoes?  I know there is no "one shoe that fits all" but what is your take on the technology of shoes?  What do you think about "pronation/motion" control shoes?  What do you think about "minimalist" or barefoot shoes? 

I think the number one goal of shoe companies is to sell you shoes so as much as they innovate they also need to keep throwing out new stuff so people buy shoes. Hence the movement from overbuilt shoes to minimal shoes now to Hooka type shoes- it all goes round and round and round and it's a bit ridiculous. 

There is no one size fits all- I think people who grow up in overbuilt shoes usually end up with issues- I believe barefoot kids are a good thing. But i've never been overly sold on barefoot adults on pavement- we may have been born to run in bare feet but pavement is relatively new. 

I personally like a neutral shoe that is not over built and without any posting. Then if you have issues you see a foot specialist for an appropriate orthotic and use a neutral shoe with it. 

I like my shoes uncomplicated- I use a Saucony Kinvara- it's light, neutral, no bells or whistles, just simple and I love it. However, if my run volume starts to get really high like in Ironman training I sometimes needed a bit of support or the muscles in my feet started to go a bit and I would get a bone that slid out of place which caused problems so sometimes an orthotic would help curb this.

I believe in rotating shoes so you are creating slightly different stress loads from time to time

I believe in running off road on varied terrain a great deal so you work yourself laterally and build some overall strength

I think the single greatest cause of injury is not shoes but inappropriate training or run mileage increases that don't respect ones ability to tolerate impact. If you build people up in a way that allows for adequate recovery between sessions and you do it progressively over time you can avoid many types of injuries  

***If you had one tip for an amateur runner (say training for 10km), what would it be?  

Respect the impact- build your mileage and intensity intelligently.

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Thanks to Jasper Blake for taking the time to answer my questions!

To find out more about Jasper Blake and what he can do for you, please visit : 

http://www.b78.is/jasper/

http://www.b78.is/2015/03/jasper-blake/