Shaping Your Runs

So you started running, you quickly find out that going out for a run isn't as easy as just putting on a pair of shoes and leaving your house. Quickly learning that there is proper running form, different types of foot strikes, how to breathe the most efficient way and what cadence to keep. How can you keep all of these things straight in your head while running? It is all so overwhelming to remember to do a midsole foot strike, relax your arms and shoulders, breathe in for 4 steps and breathe out for 4 steps, don't over or under rotate your hips, keep proper spinal alignment but don't be too stiff and so many more things. To think running is supposed to be the easiest form of exercise.

Thankfully using shaping, a way to reinforce closer and closer aproximations to your final goal, all the crazy things you have to think about when running becomes easier. For example you can first think about how you are landing on your foot when you run, is it a heel strike or a midsole strike, if you are already doing the foot strike that is correct for you the start moving up your legs. If not then you can start to shape where you strike your foot. If you are moving to a midsole foot strike from a heel strike start by focusing on your foot strike for the first minute of your run. Then when after you have successfully been able to use a midsole foot strike for a minute increase that time to maybe 5 minutes and so on until you are continuously and successfully using a midsole foot strike.

By allowing yourself to shape different parts of running, you create a lasting behavior that has been successfully and continuously reinforced over many runs. After doing this over many different runs, you end up just doing this without even thinking. Running takes time, consistency and motivation which can get tiring and frustrating, but by being able to break up running into small parts like only focusing on one thing at time for small amounts of time you can help keep running fun.