How can I improve my running style?

ARunning isn’t all about form, dear reader. Witness Mrs Guru, who runs like someone has filled the heels of her trainers with scalding drawing pin soup. She’s still out there pounding the streets. Guru himself has been likened to a startled elephant, both in terms of his clumpy gait and the trumpeting noise he makes on the move.

You, on the other hand? You want to get faster, more efficient. You want to push harder and stronger and longer. That’s what GaGu loves about you. So, of course, you’ve already got yourself a smart watch that can monitor your heart rate. But are you going far enough? Have you put down £470 on a Garmin Forerunner 935, complete with a pair of heart-rate monitors? You should: it’s the perfect way to keep tabs not only on what your body is doing now, but also on what it’s done before. You can set yourself up to race against a spooky ghost version of yourself, meaning that you can concentrate on improving your pace rather than desperately lurching for that finish line in an attempt to best your overall time. You can also really see what running is doing for your body, comparing your heart rate between different outings. It’s all very neat.

If you want to kick more efficiently and pep up your posture, the Arion smart soles (around £230 for a pair, because running with just one wouldn’t make much sense) analyse the interaction between your foot and the ground, giving you tips as to how precisely you’re mucking it up. GaGu has, in the past, scoffed at the idea of smart shoes. However, it turns out that, unbelievably, he was dead wrong. These are clever, work with just about any trainer, and his pro running buddies reckon the time is approaching when they’re going to be indispensable.