Staying In Line

I learned a few things today in regard to keeping the body in line for efficiency both in swimming and running, and I thought they were interesting enough to share. 
So I started thinking about this the other day after Jay told me I should put my head down some more while swimming at masters.  With swimming open water and sighting a lot over the summer, I think I got into the habit of keeping my head up higher.  Basically looking straight ahead rather than down.  So this morning I was really trying to focus on keeping a neutral head position and realized how unnatural it seemed since I have gotten out of the habit.  I also did some floating drills after practice:  Go from standing in the water to a float with both hands at your sides, keeping the head neutral and looking down.  Then slowly begin to look forward, changing the head position and you will notice that your legs and trunk begin to sink.  This is because the body is out of alignment just from that slight head movement.  In swimming, the center of mass is around the pubis, but the center of buoyancy is at the sternum, and keeping a neutral head position allows the body to be more aligned and reduce drag.  I also found while doing those floating drills, keeping the core engaged as well as sort of pressing down through the sternum/chest/shoulder region adds buoyancy.

So today while I was running, I was trying to focus on more of a forward lean in order to get my feet more in line with my center of gravity when they land.  The fastest/most efficient runners land (whether midfoot, toes, or heel) below their center of gravity, and in line with the hips.  So as I was running and thinking about that slight forward lean, I thought back to swimming this morning and I dropped my chin some, just like I did while I was floating, and I could totally feel the difference!  The slight chin drop got my head into a neutral position and the forward lean just naturally followed.  This also brought on the urge to increase my turn over and run quicker.  I am hoping that if I continue to work on the body alignment, I will adapt to a quick stride and be faster with less effort!