The London Marathon was held on Sunday. If you saw the race, you would have seen the world?s best marathon runners finishing at a 5-minute-per-mile pace with apparent ease. A lesson to be learnt watching elite athletes in action is efficient running style. This week, we?ll look at some common mistakes in technique and how to overcome them to improve efficiency. That means finishing easier (it will never be easy!) and with a better time.

Most recreational runners are guilty of Over-Striding. If your foot lands in front of your centre of gravity, you are over-striding. This causes you to slow down because your foot hitting the ground is effectively a braking movement. Energy is wasted with every stride. That equates to 30,000 to 40,000 braking movements in a marathon!

You know that you are over-striding if your foot lands in front of the knee (foot-strike) or if you land on your heel (heel-strike). The tendency for those who over-stride is to run very upright and not leaning forward.

How should you run then? The power of your run should come from the back foot, when you push off from the ground. You should feel a slight stretch in your ankle and Achilles tendon area. You should feel you are pushing, not pulling, yourself along. The forward foot striking the ground should be directly under the knee. You should have a forward lean in the upper body: not a bend at the waist, but a slight lean from feet to head, which creates a feeling of falling forwards. The power from the back foot, plus the speed that you bring the knee and leg through, determines the stride length and running speed.

Practise this posture over short distances (100-200m), gradually increasing distance. Focus on one of the corrective aspects during runs, changing specific points every few minutes to maintain focus.

Eliminating over-striding should increase stride frequency (or ?cadence?). This is very individual, but, as a rule of thumb, cadence should be 90 steps per minute or more (counted for one foot only). Practise the same cadence on slower paced runs as well. This will avoid the feeling of plodding along and, by building stride frequency, will lead to a more efficient, faster running style.

You are seated running if you are running with hips pushed back and bottom sticking out, often with a forward lean that wrongly comes from the waist. This often arises as a fault from practising forward lean running. At its most extreme, this posture can feel as if the full body weight is in front of the feet. Seated running is very energy consuming. Try straightening your torso, consciously push your hips into a more forward position and feel your centre of gravity move backwards. You should feel much lighter on your feet.

Uneven arm movement. An uneven swing suggests the torso may be twisting, giving a sideways motion detracting from forward movement. Check lower back tightness: sit on the floor with legs extended in front, feet about 8-inches apart. Take a deep breath and as you exhale, reach forward with your hands together, bending from the waist (not curling the shoulders forward). If unable to reach your heels, regular stretching exercises are recommended. If done for a few weeks, your arm movement should improve as the back and hamstrings reach a greater range of motion.

Tight shoulders: Keep the upper body relaxed. Tension in the upper body increases energy consumption leaving less energy for running. Signs are an appearance of having no neck when running, or feeling the shoulders tensing and rising up as you become tired. Once the shoulders tense, the tendency is for a less fluid arm swing that leads to a shorter, less productive running stride. Maintaining a loose feel to the lower jaw tends to help relax the upper body.

Head position: Focus your eyes on the ground about 15 metres ahead. While you need to make sure your next steps will be safe ones, don?t forget to look around to take in the view!

Breathing: Shallow breathing is associated with a feeling of breathing from the chest area and short breaths. Shorter breathing patterns tend to lead to tightening up and tension. Aim for a feeling of breathing from the belly with a much deeper, stronger movement involving a long exhalation. This style of breathing makes proper use of the diaphragm, between the chest and abdomen. Work on belly breathing on all runs to build endurance of all muscles involved. It will become easier to maintain when breathing becomes heavier during more intense exercise.

Everyone has his/her own running style, good or bad. Even with poor running technique most runners can finish a marathon. The more adept you become at correcting technique, the more economical you will be.