Are you a runner who regularly runs?

Then let me ask you one simple question: What is the proper running technique for long-

distance runners?

In other words, what is the most important thing for running long distances

fast?

Forefoot strike? Or midfoot strike?

Leaning forward like Kenyan runners?

Making big motions like sprinters?

Lifting your knees as high as possible?

Actually, all of them are wrong.

Then what is the right running technique for long-distance runners?

Running style that causes the least fatigue at a given pace.

What? You didn’t hear me? OK, I’ll tell you one more time, so listen carefully.

Running style that causes the least fatigue at a given pace.

That’s all. Very often, people try to make a big impact on the ground by changing their

running style. But it’s impossible - how much power you can sustain doesn’t depend on your

running style, but on your metabolism.

The biggest determining factor of your race results, or how fast you can run over long

distances, is how much energy you can produce in a minute and how long you can sustain it.

In other words, the biggest factor in your performance is your metabolism.

What is metabolism?

Metabolism is a chemical process in life. We need to produce energy not only for running but

also for living. Just like how fast a car can go depends on the engine’s ability, how fast we

can run depends on our engine ability. A car, of course, has only one or several engines,

and energy is produced there. Our bodies have approximately one quadrillion engines.

That’s an astronomical number, right?

These engines in our bodies are called mitochondria. You might have already heard that

word in school (I don’t know your country’s curriculum though).

With training, these mitochondria improve. You can produce more energy per minute,

sustain it for longer, and improve your time. Roughly speaking, 90-95% of your physical

improvement in long-distance running comes from improvement in your metabolism -

especially the mitochondria.

So then, how does our running style affect our performance?

First of all, you need to run a lot to improve your metabolism. Do you know an English man

named Jake Barraclough who ran a half marathon in 63 minutes, a full marathon in 2:14,

and has 70,000 subscribers on YouTube? He always says, “Train harder, not smarter.” Of

course, we need both. But he’s partially right. We need to gradually increase the external

training load. That means you need to run more than others if you want to beat them. But at

the same time, you need to avoid fatigue and reduce injury risk as much as possible. So you

need proper running technique to avoid fatigue and injuries. This is the first reason you need

proper technique.

Secondly, you need to convert the energy your metabolism produces into forward motion as

efficiently as possible. That means it’s also very important not to waste energy. Very often,

runners move upward instead of forward, make their motions too big, brake unknowingly, or

waste energy by creating too much tension just to hold a given pace. (Here I mean physical

tension. But mental tension causes physical tension too. So proper technique often requires

mental control as well.)

Physiologically speaking, there’s a concept called running economy. Running economy

refers to how much oxygen you use at a given pace. More oxygen use probably means more

energy consumption. So running economy shows how much energy you need to maintain

that pace.

If you can maintain the same pace using less oxygen, it means you need less energy to hold

that pace. That means your running economy has improved.

Again, proper running technique is what helps you reduce fatigue and injury risk, and allows

you to maintain pace with less energy.

What kind of running style achieves these things?

The direct answer is: a running style that is close to walking. I’ll explain more below.

First of all, what’s the difference between walking and sprinting?

The answer is as follows.

When your foot hits the ground, your center of gravity is almost directly above your foot. The

basic motion is forefoot striking.

Only one foot is on the ground, or you’re airborne.

Your elbows are bent and your arms swing fast, leading your legs.

The main leg motion is up and down, so you need to lift your knees high.

When your foot hits the ground (or I would say, when you step on the ground), your center of

gravity is still far behind your foot. Your heel hits the ground first, and your weight shifts from

heel to toe.

Both feet are on the ground, or at least one foot is.

Your elbows are straight and you barely swing your arms. Your legs move first, and your

arms follow naturally. The arms move just a little bit, unconsciously.

The main motion of your legs is back and forth, so you hardly lift your knees.

The proper running technique is closer to walking than sprinting. However, there are also

two main differences between running and walking.

First, since running is faster, you don’t have time to put both feet on the ground. So you’re

either on one foot or in the air.

Second, your elbows should be bent to swing your arms faster—because running is faster

than walking. However, the relationship between legs and arms is still the same: your legs

move, and your arms follow to balance timing and rhythm.

Proper running technique includes both of these factors and is still closer to walking than

sprinting.

So, how can we learn this technique?

I learned it in high school through one drill called “walk-jog.” At the time, we weren’t the best

team. But we were 19th out of 5,000 schools in our first year, 11th in the second year, and

18th in the third year. I ran 5,000m in 14:43. I don’t know how you would assess those

results, but one thing I can say is: we weren’t bad, right?

We usually trained twice a day. In the first 5–10 minutes of every session, we did walk-jog

for technique and warm-up. Every day, we repeated walk-jog again and again like Japanese

monks. (In fact, our high school was located in a famous temple called Toji. If you Google

“Toji Temple,” you’ll find beautiful pictures. But we hardly saw those scenes. What we saw in

our high school days were harsh teachers and strict senior students. We hardly even talked

to girls.)

How to do it is very simple.

You just walk with straight arms. Then you bend your elbows, increase your speed like race

walking, and when you can’t go any faster while walking, you smoothly transition into a jog.

Jog with the same feeling as if you're still walking. In this drill, we just jog a little bit, then

return to walking with straight arms (normal walking in daily life). We repeated this for 5-10

minutes at the beginning of every session.

Theoretically speaking, you should be able to increase your pace while maintaining the

same feeling, even up to race pace. I’ve run 3:00/km pace with the feeling of “I’m just

walking.” Of course, it’s not easy for me because my half marathon PB is 63:09 (2:59/km),

so 3:00/km is not easy. But I want you to think about this:

Can you sprint a half marathon?

Many amateur male runners can run 1,000m in 3 minutes. All my high school boys can. The fastest among them can run under 2:40. But sustaining that pace is hard. So you need to run 3:00/km with as little effort as possible. In other words,you should run like you’re walking.

Maybe you don’t aim for a 63-minute half marathon. But the idea is the same.

Actually, if your goal race pace is slower than 3:00/km, walk-jog is even more helpful. The slower your

pace, the closer it is to walking—so your running style should be closer to walking too.

That’s all about walk-jog. But since it’s hard to understand this drill through text alone, I’m

going to hold two events in Kyoto and Nagoya, Japan.

20th September (Saturday), 4:00–6:30pm at Meijo Park

27th September (Saturday), 4:00–6:30pm at Nishikyogoku Athletics Park

Maximum: 50 runners

We start with rhythm exercises for warming up, led by our great instructor Syoko. She is an

expert in core training and Zumba, a type of aerobic dance. She even trained the Japanese

high school girls' 400m champion and the junior high school boys' 1000m champion. She’s

in charge of core and rhythm exercises for runners. This takes about 10 minutes.

Then, I’ll teach you walk-jog. You’ll try it, I’ll watch, and if anything’s wrong, I’ll give feedback.

This part takes about one hour. After that, we’ll run 10km at your own pace. The purpose of

this event is not training, but learning proper running technique. So I don’t recommend

running hard. Getting faster at the end is fine, but I want you to try running like you’re

walking. Easy to moderate effort is best, because if you go hard, you won’t be able to focus

100% on technique.

However, I understand some of you may want to run fast. These days, most running events in Japan

have pacemakers. Runners push each other and run hard, and they’re satisfied after that. I

understand that.

But again, the purpose of this event is not hard training - it’s learning technique. If you understand this and still want me to push you, let me know. I’ll push you with physical punishment and yelling. I can do that, if you want me to.

But normally, I try to be polite and smile. Please understand that too.

Also, the vice president of my company, Tetsuya Fukazawa, will join and teach. He graduated from the same high school as me, so he also did walk-jog. He still runs and last year, he ran the Kobe Marathon in 2:29. He also coached the Japanese junior high school boys' champion last year. That boy now runs 1500m in 3:52 at age 15, and he’s also part of our high school’s athletics team.

The special guest is Moa Stahlberg. She’s a beautiful amateur runner who ran a 1:21 half

marathon last year, and co-founder of Nordic Tigon, a running gear brand. She will run with

you too.

The cost is only 15 US dollars. Whether you ask for punishment or not, it’s the same price.

Finally, if you’re a middle-distance runner, this event is not for you. The proper running form

for long-distance runners is something between walking and sprinting. For middle-distance,

it’s between long-distance running and sprinting. So this is not for you.

But if you are a long-distance runner, even if I’m only half right, you won't regret it. The only

regret you’ll have is not starting walk-jog three years ago. Sounds fair enough?

Meijo Park – 20th September (Saturday)

Nishikyogoku Athletics Park – 27th September (Saturday)