Jogging form and Trail Running Event Training

Question
Dear Alden,

I have a question about jogging form and trail running training.

I am 50 years old, a beginner, 5'8" 170 lbs.  The form question is about my hips.  When I job, should I try to keep my hips from rotating?  I try to make heel to toe contact, keep my upper body upright and relaxed, and to breathe deeply.  But I don't know if I should rotate my hips, e.g. when my right leg goes out, then my right hip should go out too?  Or should I try to keep my hips together and just do the heel to toe part with my legs as best I can?

The farthest I have jogged without stopping is 2 miles and it took my 20 minutes last weekend.  4 months ago it took me 25 minutes so I increased my speed by about 5 minutes.  But I also lost about 50 lbs during that time too.  I want to train for a 10 km Trail Run which has a lot of up and down hills on it.  The event is in about 4 months.  I don't care about winning as I know I never will win because of my genetics (poor), but I would like to do the best I can.  Can you recommend how I might train for this 10 km up and down race?

Thank you.
Mike

Answer
Dear Michael,

It sounds like you are getting a good start.  Continue to increase your distance as it feels good, and don't push yourself to stress at all until you are fully warmed up and feel up to it.  After you have achieved a 10k distance, simply begin timing the run and improving your time.  It would be a good idea to train on a course that includes uphill and downhill, because it takes exclusive training on that type of course to gain that type of fitness.

On rotating your hips, each runner has his particular style.  You just need to be light on your feet and concentrate on covering the distance efficiently.  Taking smaller steps a little faster when jogging actually uses less energy because there is much less up and down motion and less impact.  If your hips want to rotate and do naturally then I wouldn't worry about it.

Best of luck to you, and take care

Alden