Cruice To Your Fastest Finish With Running Advice From The Pros

You’ve done the training. Now steal the tricks pros use to cruise to your fastest finish.

- Carly Graf

DO A MENTAL PRE-GAME

Before you walk out the door, spend a minute in front of a mirror. “Get into a power stance: chest lifted, head held high and arms either on hips or crossed – whatever makes you feel as if you’re going to crush it,” says Joe Holder, a Nike+ Run Club coach in New York City. “It’s a fast way to fire up your confidence and calm pre-race nerves.”

WEAR SHADES

You’ll look flashy in your race photos and you’ll relax your upper body. Squinting contracts your face muscles, and that tension moves down your neck to your shoulders, says Andrew Kastor, the head coach of the ASICS Mammoth Track Club in the US. “Even slight stiffness in your upper body messes with your form. You don’t stride as long or as powerfully,” he notes. “And tight muscles require more fuel than relaxed ones, so you’re wasting energy with every step.”

HUG THE CURVES