88.3 - Form Check!

Miles Run: 88.3
Hours Left: 20
Beer Assists: 76

Route: http://www.gmap-pedometer.com/?r=3690543

Katie had to postpone until later today, so Kate stepped up and joined me for a lunch-time 5.4 miler.

This has been a good learning experience for me form-wise. As I have spent the majority of these miles running in the 'tired zone', it's given me plenty of time to analyze how my form goes to junk.

One main struggle has been keeping my form on downhills. I find that I tend to lean back, probably in an unconcious effort to reduce leg impacts and to maintain balance. This is of course the exact opposite thing I should do, and in fact increases the impact and risks overextending the leg. I can usually catch myself on this and correct, but this is something I'll have to focus on for the rest of this challenge and also in future runs/races.

The second thing I've noticed is that, near the end of these runs, my arms (mainly my forearms) start swinging from side to side. Instead of right leg forward, left arm swing, the arms are swinging to the same side as the forward leg. My best guess is that my back/shoulders are tired, and thus don't want to let swing my arms forward. I imagine that to compensate balance-wise, I swing my arms to the same side to shift weight. I'll have to work on this, because, more importantly than being really inefficient, it surely makes me look like an idiot.