RUNNING EFFICIENCY
Team NAM focuses on running efficiency, form, speed/pace control, fuel management, psychology of running, injury prevention and management, and knowledge of risks associated with endurance training, all of which are basic to running good marathons.
The impact that running efficiency and form have on performance can not be emphasized enough, and this program offers a very special and unique approach based on principles of physics to teach runners how to optimize performance. Nonetheless, it is up to the participants to implement what is taught and to train their bodies to move in the most efficient way and form possible.
Team NAM focuses on maximization of the frequency of steps, as the ability to maintain a high stride rate is intricately tied to the speed and frequency of arm swing. The Team encourages members to increase to (or maintain) a stride rate of 180 steps per minute…and to exceed 200 steps per minute when possible and if able, with direct coaching and assistance.
| Left to right: Slowest – inertia from hand weight results in slowest pendulum natural frequency of oscillation Slow – straight arm for walking Fast – bent elbow for running Fastest – arm swing represented by tether supported hand for inertia reduction which leads to fastest arm movement, thus the corresponding strides |
The draft of the book Efficient Marathon Basic Elements offers greater insights to the above video and provides the basis of this training program's approach to running efficiency. It is based on physics and applied mechanics to quantify running efficiency and to show how to run faster and farther while using the least amount of energy.