...(or Queen)!

At NURVV we LOVE running communities.

BIG. Small. Formal. Informal.

Crews. Clubs. Collectives and Squads.

There’s a rich tapestry of groups out there and every time we turn up to a community run we are bowled away by the enthusiasm, dedication and warm welcome we receive. There’s no doubt that run communities are a huge part of the running eco-system and wherever we go we aim to try and hook up with a local club or two - to spread the NURVV word but also to get in those all important work outs.

In past weeks we’ve been running with Advent Running in London, Gilbert's Gazelles in Austin, Texas, Runished in Las Vegas, Nevada and most recently Team Faulkner in NYC. While each and every community has it’s own identity, we’ve begun to have familiar conversations around running technique. Here are five points that regularly come up in conversation:

1. Speed = Stride Length x Cadence. It’s that simple. Working on these two factors is the key to being a faster runner. Lots of people haven’t thought about the relationship between these two components. Have you?
2. Run better, not harder. Most runners know that to get quicker they need to do one or two harder workouts each week but few runners think about optimising their running technique. There’s tonnes of resources online detailing tempo, track and interval sessions but far fewer on how to modify running form - so it’s not really surprising. Some small tweaks to cadence and stride length can make improvements to run economy. 
3. Gait Analysis Isn’t Gospel. Lots of runners get gait analysis at a running store when they buy their shoes. This is a great place to start but treadmills provide an artificial environment for running - the action of the belt pulls the foot underneath the body - and its not uncommon for a running gait to be quite different on the road.
4. It’s OK to be Different. There isn’t a one size fits all approach to running. In text books there is this idolised mid foot strike with a cadence of 180 foot strikes per minute. In the real world there is huge variation in what works and you only need to watch an elite running race to see diversity at the highest level. That said, knowing how you run gives you knowledge to make changes should you wish to. Do you know your running style?
5. Everyone Wants to Avoid Injuries. Once you get the running bug the only thing that can stop you is injury. But how do you do that. Most runners know about stretching after runs, not increasing the frequency or distance of runs too quickly and doing some strength and conditioning exercises. But how do you know how much is too much? How do you know if running form changes over time? These questions (and many more) have historically been hard to answer and often a runner finds out what too much looks like when they have an injury.

We’ve been working on NURVV Run for more than three years with the aim of providing runners of all abilities with a better understanding of how they run. NURVV Run gives insights into cadence, stride length and pronation based on real life running and it works on the treadmill, track or road. Not only does it capture thousands of bits of data per second but it analyses it to give real time coaching.

We’re excited to have a product that provides solutions to so many of the questions that are continual asked at community runs. The great news is that we’re entering a new age of knowing - not guessing - and we can’t wait to continue meeting up with run communities across the world to show how improvements to run technique can make them better, less injury prone runners.