What seemingly small change made the biggest difference in your performance?

Finance Bro wrote:

I'll start: hip mobility work. My stride is much longer now.

How much did it improve your actual performance?

Stride length isn't performance unless it also results in faster times.

What sort of hip mobility exercises would you do?

A while back when I was crawling my way out of a year long pit of depression I picked up running again. I wasn't running much, just going to the park run every Saturday and going for a jog with a mate usually on a Wednesday. My park run times were maybe around 26 mins.

Started lifting weights and within maybe a month of starting on the weights my 5km time just got better week on week. Don't get me wrong, I'm definitely not a fast 5km runner, but seeing the times drop from 26ish mins to sub 23 was a very good feeling at the time.

When I first started marathoning, once I added a mid-week longish run my times dropped.

On my first crack at the distance I did the typical starter plan, which is normal running all week with an increasing long run every Sat.

On the second shot I would do a run of 10-15 miles mid week, then a run of 16-22 on the weekend.

Finally to really do it right, every other long run would include some kind of work out aspect other than just the "time on your feet" aspect. It would be something like a fast finish long run, wave tempo, progression run.

EZ10Miler wrote:

When I first started marathoning, once I added a mid-week longish run my times dropped.

On my first crack at the distance I did the typical starter plan, which is normal running all week with an increasing long run every Sat.

On the second shot I would do a run of 10-15 miles mid week, then a run of 16-22 on the weekend.

Finally to really do it right, every other long run would include some kind of work out aspect other than just the "time on your feet" aspect. It would be something like a fast finish long run, wave tempo, progression run.

Every post except the first has been about training. Even the first was "only" about stretching.

So no one has made a significant, but simple, form change adjustment that lead to running much faster?

Really?

Malodorous wrote:

EZ10Miler wrote:

When I first started marathoning, once I added a mid-week longish run my times dropped.

On my first crack at the distance I did the typical starter plan, which is normal running all week with an increasing long run every Sat.

On the second shot I would do a run of 10-15 miles mid week, then a run of 16-22 on the weekend.

Finally to really do it right, every other long run would include some kind of work out aspect other than just the "time on your feet" aspect. It would be something like a fast finish long run, wave tempo, progression run.

Every post except the first has been about training. Even the first was "only" about stretching.

So no one has made a significant, but simple, form change adjustment that lead to running much faster?

Really?

The thread is new so who knows what will turn up. But in over 50 years of following the sport I have never heard of anyone making a simple adjustment that lead to much faster running other than Cathal Lombard taking EPO. Improvement comes from training more, or in few cases less if you were training too much, maybe finding partners who push you. Changing your arm carriage is fine but it's not going to do much.

Changing how I breathe.

Great idea man thanks keep it up all the time. am very happy to see your standard.

fisky wrote:

Changing how I breathe.

Care to go into detail? I’m curious!

fisky wrote:

Changing how I breathe.

Breathing through your mouth instead of your ass?

Malodorous wrote:

So no one has made a significant, but simple, form change adjustment that lead to running much faster?

Really?

Yeah, duh! No one in running has ever made a small adjustment like that and gotten a performance anywhere near what untrained and undertrained athletes get from increasing training volume. That’s a no brainer.

supragraf wrote:

fisky wrote:

Changing how I breathe.

Care to go into detail? I’m curious!

About twenty years ago, I read John Douillard's Body, Mind and Sport. He advocates nasal and diaphragmatic breathing, explaining that it helps top athletes get into "the zone." Bottom line: You forcefully breathe out through the nose, making a Darth Vader sound at first until you learn how to do it. Then, you allow the air to flow back into your lungs through the mouth and nose without making an effort to breathe in. Your chest barely moves. Instead, your belly moves in and out with each breath. To practice, lay on your back with a hand on your stomach and a hand on your chest. Breathe in and out. Your belly should move up and down. Your chest should barely move at all. Then, try contracting the abs to force the air out quickly. Relax and let it flow back in.

BTW, diaphragmatic breathing, in my opinion, is not the correct term. You actually breathe out by contracting the abs hard, forcing the diaphragm up into the lungs, whiches forces the air out. It's really abdominal breathing.

At first, I would get dizzy because I was breathing in too much air. Obviously, it was working, but I needed to only use it when I needed more air, like in racing the 800m. Finally, I devised a system based on cadence. When racing the 800m, I'd breathe on a 1/3 ratio, breathing out forcefully in one step almost entirely through the nose while allowing air to come back in naturally without forcing it over the next three steps. So it would be Left foot: OUT hard! Right, left, right: Allowing air to come back into my lungs. And repeat. At first, I could only do this for maybe 100 meters. I practiced it when doing intervals. I'd practice for 20 seconds or so when running trails, then stop because longer would make me dizzy. I did this for months.

Gradually, my abs got stronger and I could hold the pattern longer, but it still made me dizzy at slow paces.

Later, I realized that I could slow the pattern and do Ab breathing with a six-step pattern during my normal trail runs. Breathing out pretty hard for 1 1/2 steps and allowing air to come in naturally over the next 4 1/2 steps. This allowed me to strengthen my abs to the point that I could hold the 1 to 3 pattern for the entire 800m.

About five years ago, I tried a new pattern... 1/2. I would breathe out in one step and breathe in for two steps. I'd have to pull air in a little, but from years of practice, I could do this pattern for 150m or so. Once again, I would get so much air, it would make me dizzy, but I figured that more air at the end of the 800m was exactly what I needed.

Now, I start the 800m with a few deep breaths before toeing the line and then immediately go into the 1 to 3 pattern after the first few seconds. I hold the 1 to 3 pattern until about 200m to go, I'd switch to the 1 to 2 pattern. By then, I'm oxygen-deprived so the extra air is amazing! In 17 years of racing the 800m, I've never been passed in the last 200m.

But if you’re always in last place with 200m to go, of course nobody will pass you. Just kidding - sorry I couldn’t help myself.

Thanks for sharing. Very interesting.

I have two in my career.

The first was back in high school XC when my team got a new coach who had us run through various basic form drills. This was impactful to me because it was never something I thought about or even had heard of before. Something as simple as focusing on improving cadence, landing mid/forefoot, and having a slight forward lean greatly improved my times without much of a change in fitness or training volume/intensity.

The second was adding a couple sets of strides or windsprints after easy days. I think it both improved my form and kept me from losing turnover. Also I probably had a low enough level of base fitness (<40mpw) that there might have been some actual training stimulus to something like a 6-8*100m at the end of an easy 8 or 10k.

Pretty obvious things for people who have some experience in the sport, but they definitely helped me improve from "slow" to "slightly less slow". To see real improvement past newbie gains though, the excerpt "the secret is, there is no secret" comes to mind.

I stopped taking the sport too seriously, drank whiskey amd partied every weekend and my performances got significantly better. Took the edge off.

I'm a hobby jogger so this might not be that interesting, but my largest challenge by far is to prioritize training over work, other hobbies, family, sitting on LetsRun etc etc etc.

I could invest in new shoes, finding fancy workout plans, doing stretches - but lets face it - actually training as much as I should will have a lot more impact for me.

One simple trick is that I start visualizing the next workout a day or two before. I Think through whatever intervals there is, the paces I am going to hit, how my feeling will be during the workout, will it be hard or not, then think about and visualize the route I am going to run. I also may think about what I want out of that session. It may sound like a lot but its basically just daydreaming about my session when I need a break at work.

When time comes I'm already so invested in the session I won't prioritize the couch or a meaningless task at work instead of executing as planned. Also helps me sticking with the plan and not overdoing the workout.

I have two.

1. Started training and did not worry about getting hurt. Sounds dumb but after a year of consistent injuries and worrying about it, I finally said F@ck it and just trained normally. Obviously did pre-hab and stretches to prevent injury but the anxiety of something to come disappeared.

2. Speed development, 30-60m flying sprints weekly exponentially increased my top speed ability. Shaved a lot of seconds off my 400-mile PR's.

My small adjustment was walking into Drake Stadium as a 13 year old. Watched Steve Scott run 3:55, Randy wilson and Mike Boit battle it out, Herschel Walker run the 100 and lose to Mel Lattany, Merlene Ottey run like a Goddess on a 200 leg of a relay etc... I left the stadium and my lerformances began to improve immediately. Call it a neck up adjustment.