I run like a hippo and have the backside to match!

Man running on the treadmill with head cut off - very arty!

WATCHING the video re-run closely, the guy running on the treadmill looked ridiculous. Fat backside wobbling all over the shop like a firm blancmange, hips swaying with the running style of a waddling hippopotamus.

That couldn't be me, surely. But it was!!

I felt embarrassed watching myself being put through my paces by Paul Bartlett; small in stature but a whippet-like runner who can rattle off 10km in 34 minutes. Paul is the lead coach and manager of Running School Southampton, whose office is situated in a room at the back of the Sweatshop store in the town centre.

The Running School franchise promises to help runners stay injury-free, improve running technique and increase your speed whatever the sport.

So it was last weekend while I was helping out at the Stubbington 10k road race that I bumped into a running colleague who had read this blog about the trial I'm planning to make of the minimalist Mizuno shoe, the Evo.

My friend warned how I might need to consider a transition before trying the shoe because of the issues it might bring to my running.

After struggling with injury himself for the past couple of years, he said he had come to the conclusion after reading various pieces of literature, and speaking to both his podiatrist and physio, that it's running form and technique which are the most important things for running efficiently and avoiding injury.

But before then, why not get down to the Running School and get your gait analysed, he suggested.

So there I was on Friday afternoon with Paul who put me on the treadmill, set it up for 11 kilometres an hour and then videoed me running. It was a very self conscious thing to do as he used his camera to take different angles of my running/waddle on the treadmill.

We then examined the footage on his laptop, and it was clear that I have some major running issues which I need to consider when I embark on trialling this new shoe.

Using screen graphics to draw various lines across the screen as he slowed the film down, Paul demonstrated how I was using my calves too much and not my hamstring or glutes enough. This was down, he said to the office-based working lifestyle I was leading, sitting at a computer for most of the day.

Paul Bartlett spots a common running complaint
known as the hippopotamus bottom wobble!

The calves are a small muscle which should not be used primarily for running because they will become tight. I could also sustain an injury, Paul warned, and I will certainly not get any faster. Whereas, by primarily using the hamstrings and glutes for the power, these muscles take a lot longer to tire while running and yet will generate more speed.

As the camera moved to look at my feet, Paul spotted how I was overstriding, in other words placing one foot way in front of a centre of gravity.

"This will cause a braking force and you will lose one inch per stride," he explained. "Take a marathon, for example, but if you lose one inch per stride than means you have already lost about 10 minutes.

"This style of running also carries a lot of injury risks because of the force which hits the legs each time. Again, using the marathon as an example, you will take on average 44,000 steps and that is going to hurt somewhere eventually."

I wasn't feeling very confident by this stage. In fact, I was wondering how had I ever managed to reel off 50 plus half marathons, scores of races or completed three marathons during a rather inauspicious running career.

The hippopotamus running style wasn't missed either. Cruelly, Paul honed right in there by pointing out the bobbing hip movement which he explained was wasting a lot of energy. "It also means your glutes are inactive so when your hips drop as you land this puts a strain on your legs and lower back."

Any more good news?!! Oh, go on then.

"Your arms are not going forward," Paul added. "They come back fine, so storing lots of energy up, but they are the not using it. It's like playing golf and stopping before you hit the ball. The arms propel the body forwards and what they do will impact on everything else."

Well, no wonder I don't play golf!

Right, so I might as well give up running and take up backgammon I reckoned. My running style was laughable, the injury potential was extreme - retire now while you can walk and have got your dignity intact

Paul said that there was a solution and the way they do this at the Running School was to re-model the running style to become more efficient by stimulating your nervous system. "The way you are running at the moment is habit.

"This is because that system is predicting what is going to happen, so you need to change this over six weeks because any habit in the body takes six weeks to be broken. Anything less is ineffective and you will go straight back to what you did before. It is the same for everyone, no matter how long you have been doing it, whether you are one-year-old or 100!!"

To be fair, Paul kept his counsel about running in minimalist shoes, but I could sense he wasn't convinced. He reckoned that because I rely on my calves to do the majoriy of my running, the new shoes will put ever more strain on them. However, if I could get my hamstrings and glutes working well, especially with the forefoot landing, these would suit minimal shoes. 

Paul has offered me a six week course to arrest this ruinous running raggedness. It's not cheap - we're talking over £200 even with a discount, but I have a feeling it may be worth giving it a try.

Paul Barlett from the Running School Southampton (left) with some guy who wears
 his tracksuit bottoms as high as Simon Cowell! Call the fashion police!!