October: Form

   You were probably surprised the first time you saw a videotape of yourself running or glimpsed your bobbing form in the mirror while on a treadmill. The image you cut likely defied the ways you imagined your foot to drop, the poise of your launch, the ways your shoulders heaved with the weight of each step. Some runners are downright furious with the careening, bounding clown act they see. Yet they may be excellent runners. Will changes to your form make you faster or stronger?

   In all likelihood, no. Track coaches have tinkered with their athletes' running forms for decades - with little to show for it, Exercise physiologists joined the search for the perfect form in the mid-198Os, hoping to scientifically extrapolate the ideal from the cloud of data in biomechanics. Their efforts have overwhelmingly failed. Runners with high bounce in their steps, shorter than average stride, or a meager toe launch often win gold medals over runners with more efficient running forms. It drives academics crazy.

   This is because there's more to efficiency than meets the eye, and your body has a peculiar genius for finding it, regardless of the exotic dance it presents to the world. Crucial to efficient running, for example, is how much oxygen your heart can pump to muscles. Training improves this, but your unique heart faces unique limitations. The best trained athletes will eventually have to find speed and endurance from other body parts. Graciously, your body works out the details.

   This doesn't mean that you should ignore your running form. Quite the opposite: watch the videos; stare at yourself. These images pour light into the changes training brings to your body. Injury, for example, often forces supporting muscles to compensate. Even as your injury heals, these muscles have overdeveloped, which may bring new inefficiencies to the way you run. Also, your form changes - not only over the years, but over the course of a workout or a race. Learning to keep your head up when fatigue sets in straightens your posture and ensures your lungs are getting adequate air, which forestalls collapse. Moving your arms forward and back at 9O-degree angles (rather than cutting across your chest) conserves energy. When you hear your feet slapping on the pavement, muscle fatigue is making itself at home. It's time to knock off for the day.

   The best way to maintain flawless form, however, is to mix up your workouts. Hill charges, sprints, high-stepping intervals, bounding (as if you were leaping from rock to rock), stadium stairs, skipping - yes, skipping-and trail running all put demands on muscles that tend to do subsidiary work in your normal workouts. Your body will wrench speed and strength from the crazy commotion. Over time, it will adapt your form to make the most of the challenge at hand. Training is ultimately about willful change to our bodies (and to who we are). It only makes sense that we should let our bodies have a say in these things.