DO RUN DRILLS!

The Running School’s Mike Antionades, who’s worked with Olympic gold medallists, shows you how to improve your strike pattern

Run technique is affected by the length of the preceding bike ride. The longer the ride, the longer the triathlete will use their quads and hip flexors to drive them forward. That’s why when triathletes come off the bike, their legs feel like lead and they begin running with this distinct shuffle. In turn, they’re utilising the front muscle groups, rather than including glutes and hamstrings into the whole running equation.

And that’s one of biggest issues triathletes face – they tend to overuse the quadriceps and hip flexors, which is why they experience tight IT (iliotibial) bands. You then see the physio who might say your glutes aren’t working. Well, they are working, but just not in the right sequence. If they weren’t working, you’d fall down!

So, you need to activate muscles that are responsible for that movement of propelling us forward. To achieve this activation is heavily dependent on where your foot lands, with a forefoot landing the ideal. The ‘ideal’ also sees arms pumping back and forth from the elbow and your legs running in a cycling motion that should see your heels flick up behind you. This is a sure sign you’re activating hamstrings and glutes.

Then again, there’s no perfect run technique with ‘ideal’ individual style based on fitness, shape, size, previous injury and training regime. Some elite runners also have different landing techniques for the track, road and marathon, switching between forefoot, midfoot and heel landing.

But drills like the one featured in The Session box, below right, are more about glute and hamstring activation rather than landing. To transform run technique, you should practise relevant drills at least 30mins a day, three times a week, for six to eight weeks. More at