As a runner, I am saddened by these images that suggest that pain is an integral part of running and that the only way to become a better runner is to suffer. As a coach, I couldn’t disagree more with this message.

I propose a new perspective about pain: If it hurts, stop!

As a coach, I advise my clients that pain is a message from your body that something is wrong. This is basically the take-home message from all of my coaching sessions. If the current statistics are true, that up to 80% of runners are injured every year (Gent, Br J Sports Med, 2007), I believe that a considerable contributing factor in such a high percentage is the pervasive idea that one should run through pain.

When I say ‘pain’, I do not mean the soreness or fatigue of muscles that are being well used. I mean a sharp pain or dull ache that persists while running.

Some of the consequences that can result from running in pain include (but are most certainly not limited to):

• Causing an injury resulting in a necessary break from running in order to heal
• Exacerbating an existing injury resulting in an extended healing time
• A change in gait to avoid the pain resulting in a compensation injury
• Compensation that can become a new muscle memory reducing skillfull running
• Failure to reach running goals of distance, speed, etc. because of forced time away from running
• Perhaps most importantly: It is simply not fun to run in pain!

I encourage anyone, no matter what activity they’re doing, to stop if it hurts. If you’re running and experiencing pain, start walking. If it hurts a few hours later or the next day (and again, not the kind of soreness experienced from well used muscles), you likely ran too far for your body’s current level of strength and/or skill. Reduce your distance and/or speed, and assess your current skill level. If you need help assessing your running skill, we have an Online Coaching option that can help you with that.

1. Posture

If you’re body is bent at the waist and your foot lands on a slippery terrain, you can feel off-balance and potentially fall. The same is true if you’re trying to lean slightly forward, whether it’s from the ankles or the waist. To improve your running posture, you can try running with the same upright body positioning as when you stand or walk. If you’re outside, you can look at your shadow beside you to see what your body positioning looks like.

2. Landing

If your foot lands ahead of your centre of gravity and the surface is slick, your leg could slide out in front of you. However, if you land under your centre of gravity, there’s much less chance your foot will slip as there’s no force pushing it in any direction but down into the ground. Taking short strides, helps ensure a closer landing to your center of gravity.

3. Foot Strike

Landing on your heel results in a very small initial contact area with the ground. If that small area is slippery, there’s a greater chance of your foot sliding out from under you. Landing on your forefoot is a greater contact area with the ground, maximizing the chance that there may be some non-slippery surface under your foot for better traction. To land on your forefoot while running, try to remember where you land on your foot while you jump in place, and try to recreate that landing feeling.

4. Pushing Off

If you push your foot off the ground to take the next running stride and there’s no traction under foot, your leg might slide out behind you. Rather than pushing off, if you lift your foot directly up from the ground, no slide is initiated before your foot leaves the ground. To minimize pushing off, you can try to lift your foot off the ground by lifting your heel as close to under your hip as possible, rather than pushing your foot behind you.

These tips work just as well on any slippery surface, it doesn’t have to be snow or ice, it could be mud or even wet tile. If you find that your feet are sliding out from under you, you can try working on any of these tips, albeit one at a time. In addition, it’s much easier to change your form running at slower speeds than faster speeds, not to mention somewhat safer on slippery surfaces.

Thanks Flint for the opportunity to share Natural Running with your readers and for giving me a chance to answer some excellent questions along the way.

For links to the first two articles Flint wrote, you can check out the interview of me HERE and Flint’s article on Natural Running Technique HERE.

He was a GREAT sport and excellent student participating in the group coaching session. He’s generously offered to write a Series on Natural Running and Lee Saxby’s Running Method. Flint has completed the first article, an Interview with Natural Running Coach Tina Dubois. In this article, I answer questions about my running background and how Lee’s running method changed my running. He has posted it on his own site as well as Run Smiley and is inviting anyone with questions or feedback to leave comments on his blog. Flint and I will be answering questions as they come in.

I’ll share the links to Flint’s Series as they get posted. The next article will present the Natural Running method and his own running form analysis including video and pictures.

The flight from Calgary to Toronto on Sunday was thankfully uneventful as was the taxi ride from the airport to the hotel. It was warm, sunny, and a whole lot more humid than I’m used to in my somewhat desert-like Calgary area. I hung out at the hotel, reviewed my coaching presentations, and went to bed early that night to get as much rest as I could before the busy schedule for the following days.

On Monday, I woke up bright and early and met my hosts for the week, Benoit and Trish from In-Sport Fashions. We shared a lovely breakfast at the hotel before heading out to Red Point Ventures for our first coaching event. There we met Christine, our Toronto host, and set up the showroom with the TV and treadmill for that morning’s event. In Toronto, the Introduction to Natural Running presentation audience included representatives from Adventure Guide, Sojourn Outdoors, as well as the editor-in-chief and gear editor for Canadian Running Magazine. After the presentation, we had a lovely volunteer demonstrate her running form on the treadmill (thank you Shannon) and we all practiced our barefoot walking skills. They were an excellent group who asked thoughtful questions throughout the presentation. After the presentation, we packed up the van and headed out to Kingston for the second of the day’s coaching events.

In Kingston, we attended the Trailhead Kingston Barefoot Night for staff and consumers. I quickly went through some theory on the biomechanics of running, foot anatomy, and the common forms of their running and their common injuries. The audience had a wide range of backgrounds from new runners, experienced runners new to minimalist footwear, and experienced minimalist runners. Everyone was given the opportunity to try on a VIVOBAREFOOT Evo for the night and we all headed out to Skeleton Park to practice some Natural Running skills and exercises. There we practiced walking, jumping, and Natural Running. We finished the night with a discussion on how to transition to Natural Running slowly and safely. They were a fun and keen group who were a pleasure to coach.

Here are some pictures from the Trailhead Kingston Barefoot Night:

The next morning, we had some time to do a little personal coaching. Benoit, Trish, and Christine were excellent students who each achieved Natural Running form in less than an hour of coaching. It’s always interesting to me how within small groups, each person will have their own aspect of form they need to focus on. For some it may be a specific aspect of their posture, using hamstrings vs hip flexors, or relaxing a certain area of their body where they hold tension. It is a fun element of coaching to pick up on what skill each person needs to develop and to figure out an exercise that will help them improve it. Thank you Benoit, Trish, and Christine for being such great sports and fabulous students.

After our personal coaching session, we said goodbye to Christine and headed towards Ottawa for our third coaching event of the trip. We had lots of time so had a leisurely lunch in the sun on a patio beside a number of changing busking musicians. Our Ottawa coaching event was at Sports4 for a staff presentation on an Introduction to Natural Running. Alongside their extensive selection of running shoes and impressive array of minimalist footwear options, that presentation was less formal than the previous day’s as the staff was all very well versed in running technique. At the end, we discussed some of the finer points of coaching and the differences between some of the various minimalist footwear brands. Following the Sports4 coaching event, we headed out on the road again that night to Montreal.

Wednesday was a full day of coaching at the In-Sport Fashions office. In the morning, I was introduced to the wonderful staff and immediately felt like part of the family. We set up the TV and treadmill again for the morning’s presentation and group coaching event. In addition to the In-Sport staff, the group included two special guests, Martin and Francois, who are both extremely accomplished Montreal runners. After the Introduction to Natural Running presentation, I videoed 6 volunteers for their ‘before coaching’ running form. As a group, we then practiced our posture skills with barefoot walking and squatting, rhythm skills with jumping, and then I worked individually with the volunteers on the treadmill. They were all eager and excellent students. After the personal coaching, I demonstrated different speeds in Natural Running from 8.5 mph/13 kph to 14 mph/22.5 kph (which is the fastest I’ve run on a treadmill yet during that demonstration and somewhat surprised myself). The whole day was fabulously fun spent with a wonderful group of people who made me feel like family.

Here are some pictures from the In-Sport Fashions Coaching Event:

The schedule was busy but the whole trip was a wonderful experience. Thank you Benoit and Trish for everything and thank you again In-Sport for making the trip possible.

July 22

• Fly from Calgary to Toronto

July 23

• Morning presentation with Adventure Guide at In-Sport Fashions in Toronto
• Drive to Kingston
• Consumer event at Trailhead Kingston

July 24

• Drive to Ottawa
• Evening presentation for Sports 4 in Ottawa
• Drive to Montreal

July 25

• Coaching event for In-Sport Fashions in Montreal
• Afternoon presentation for Quebec retailers

July 26

• Fly from Montreal back to Calgary

Click on the image below for a route of the kilometres the trip will take. In addition, I wanted to thank In-Sport Fashions for making the trip possible and for the opportunity of taking Natural Running Coaching across the country. Thank you!

Stay tuned for a trip recap when I get back home.

I arrived Monday morning to beautiful sunshine, which apparently is a real treat in Vancouver this time of year. My lovely host, Jennifer from Precious Guise, picked me up from the airport and we headed to their showroom and offices, where I met James Precious, the president and founder of the company. We immediately dove into the material. James and Jennifer were eager listeners and fast learners. We spent the afternoon talking about minimal footwear and the evolution of the minimal footwear industry. It was great for me to share some of the topics that I’m so very passionate about.

In the evening, we travelled to Runner’s Den in Port Moody for a staff presentation on Natural Running. Everyone was keen to learn and they asked excellent questions. I demonstrated natural walking and explained how minimal footwear can benefit runners, not only while running, but also while walking in their daily lives to strengthen the muscles of their feet and increase proprioception. The staff at Runner’s Den clearly care about their customers’ overall well-being and health.

The next morning I spent catching up on coaching clients scheduling (One-on-One coaching sessions are extremely popular right now!) before the coaching events of the afternoon and evening. In the afternoon, I did some personal coaching with James and Jennifer who were both rockstar runners and learned Natural Running extremely fast. Their energy, eagerness, and enthusiasm made them easy students to coach.

In the evening, we travelled to Distance Runwear for an on-track, large group coaching event (you might notice on their website a couple of posts in regards to said coaching event on June 13 and June 20, 2012). It was my first event of this kind as my large group coaching is usually a presentation rather than an interactive, on-track running session but, after the initial jitters, I think it went really well. I talked about the biomechanics and skills of running as well as some of the causes of runners’ injuries based on the form they run with. A couple of the audience members were great sports for demonstrating two common forms of running. We all participated in practicing natural walking, jumping at 180 BPM, and then Natural Running. It was such a treat for me to see such a large group of runners all running with great form down the track! They were an excellent group of runners who asked great questions throughout and were so much fun for me coach.

I wanted to especially thank James and Jennifer for being most excellent hosts and making the trip so wonderful for me. It was a truly memorable and worthwhile trip. Thank you!

Here are some pictures from the on-track coaching event on June 19, 2012:

Footstock is Western Canada’s Premier Race Weekend. It is held at the foot of the Canadian Rockies in beautiful Cochrane, Alberta. Footstock races include a 5 km, 10 km, half marathon, duathlon, and kids triathlon. Check out the Foostock website for more details and to register!

Some of the topics included in the presentation include:

• Why we call it ‘natural running’
• An introduction to foot anatomy
• The biomechanics and skills of running
• An explanation of common injuries associated with frequently seen running form
• Sample videos to show you in detail the most biomechanically efficient and healthy form of running
• Tips to help make a change in form transition smooth and safe

We answer any questions the audience may have and, if time and space allow, we encourage audience participation to practice some exercises that help develop running skills.

To register for the Clinic, click on the Event in our Event Calendar or click HERE to go directly to the registration page.

Tri It Multisport is Calgary and Western Canada’s best source for all things triathlon! They are located at: 2640 Parkdale Boulevard NW Calgary, Alberta and can be reached at 403-270-7776.