I’ve always had lousy posture, even standing still. Jogging up hills I find myself really leaning into the hill, bent at the hips. Not good. So I work on this constantly.

I work on keeping my head up. It only makes sense to keep your airway as open as possible right?   I also try to throw my shoulders back, push them back, whatever it takes. I’m not a physiologist but it only makes sense that you give your lungs as much room to work efficiently as possible right? Another peculiarity I have (among many) is hunching my shoulders. I’ve noticed it just down-climbing a trail, even if that trail isn’t especially steep. I’ll suddenly catch myself with my shoulders all bunched up. On occasion, the most ried muscles I have the day after a climb or jog are in my shoulders. What’s up with that anyway? To combat this bad habit, I’ve tried lowering my hands to hip level as I jog, instead of carrying them higher. Speaking of hand position and arm swing as you run, here’s a tip for the ladies. Not to be sexist, merely an observation, something women seem to do more than men. Often I’ve been able to discern the gender of a runner approaching me from a quarter mile away, just by their movement. I call it the washing machine. Picture the movement of the agitator in a washing machine, back and forth, back and forth, the machine sometimes moving from side to side I see the same wasted motion in beginning skiers. Some runners move with their arms swaying from side to side, as if they were snapping their fingers to some calypso beat. This is really inefficient. As Danny Dreyer suggests in his book “Chi Running,” pushing the elbows straight back helps create a little forward momentum. “For every action, there is an equal and opposite reaction,” right? It may be a slight advantage but it’s something. So if, during the Ascent, if you should pass me and I’m all hunched over, please, feel free to scream in my ear “Stand up straight!”