free running clinic

i went to a free running clinic last week and they might as well start calling them free humiliation clinics. the clinics are through an awesome locally-owned running store downtown and they fill up months in advance. having waited awhile to "get in" and having never had formal instruction in running, i thought it would be a great opportunity.

i assumed my form was way off and would need correcting, but how bad could it be? it's running - can you really mess up one of your body's natural movements that much? so when the clinic started and we were told we'd have to run for a bit and be filmed running so they could critique our form, i was ready to roll with it. of the 15 people in attendance, no one wanted to go first so i stepped up and went first and just did my thing.

after everyone finished and the instructor had all the footage (pun intended) he needed, we went back inside and he discussed proper running form. he estimates that with all of the marathons and 50 and 100 milers he has done in his 30 years of running, that he has run around planet earth more than three times. whoa.

i took notes, like i always do. i couldn't believe how much the girl beside me, who looked incredibly athletic, was sweating it out about the video clips of us running and kept whispering that she didn't want anyone to see it. i wasn't worried, because again - how bad could it be? and they'll throw in something positive to balance out all the negative, so just focus on that.

as it turns out, really bad. and i forgot that sports people are not all about throwing in a positive to balance out all the negative. that's only in sports movies and that's why i have always liked sports movies much more than actual team sports.

the lecture ended and he started to roll the clips. mine was first and he started chuckling and asked the group to point out things that were wrong. only one chump was ticking off problem after problem with my form, before turning around and saying to me, "well at least you give us a really good picture of everything we shouldn't do!" to which i oh-so-maturely rolled my eyes and glared. (that had not been the one positive thrown into the negative that i was hoping for.)

the instructor continued to critique everything about my form ... and the video was still paused in the first frame. before i had even covered any ground. sheesh. "now it's not that i'm picking on you chelsea," he said. "it's just that you went first." 

well, what the hell. apparently everyone else knew that was the way this clinic worked and that's why they refused to go first.

as he played the rest of the clips, instead of pausing and dissecting every last detail he'd just say, "okay yeah, same things ..." 

the nervous girl next to me changed her whispering tune to, "i'm so glad i didn't go first."

maybe everyone else had already bought shoes from his store, so the instructor didn't feel the need to throw in a smart comment about their shoes - just mine. (although i doubt it because one woman was in heels and some others had underarmour sneakers, which i know his shop doesn't sell.)

"now the shoes chelsea's wearing, they're very  stylish, probably why they were chosen, but they're not good because ..." blah blah blah, i am on criticism overload and don't even hear you anymore, mister. i chose them because they are designed for crossfit. and they work great for crossfit. and yes i chose the pink ones because i like the color pink - so sue me.

when i asked him a few questions afterward, he was perfectly kind to me. he did not, however, have answers for my questions, which was redeeming. (when i had bad/mean teachers in school i thrived on asking questions they couldn't answer. i'm sure all of my elaborate "why"s and creative-right-brained-base questions to my high school math teachers were always much appreciated.)

the handout he gave us is one of the first things to come up on a google search of "good running form" ... feel free to learn from it and from my mistakes, and be prepared to not go first if you find yourself at a running clinic in the future.

in spite of the humiliation factor, the clinic was super helpful and i learned a ton. he said it will take months and months to apply everything that we learned. for now i'm trying to concentrate on working from my midfoot (instead of coming down on my heels), not locking my knees, and watching how i swing my arms.