Running on your toes, fater? More efficient?

run on the balls of your feet. i think that's what he means by running on your toes. i used to heel strike, but made a conscious decision to change my form. it worked. smoother stride and i got faster...but i'm not sure it was the change in form that did it.

he probably is faster than you

coach cocky wrote:

he probably is faster than you

What's your point?

x does not cause y

True, it isn't necessarily causal. I want to say that either salazar or shorter ran on his heels, but i can't remember which. When you run a race in flats or spikes, do you still land on your heels? Just curious.

hello achilles problem.

snap.

Thanks for the replies,

*Keep them coming.

Switching to toe running is a tricky proposition. I've know people who have dedicated entire seasons to it, later to consider those seasons wasted.

I can say from personal experience that it has been faster for me. I was a toe-runner my entire career. The race distance didn't matter (100 meters to marathon) - I was always on my toes (well, balls of my feet). I had pretty good range on the track (10.9, 22.0, 47.8, 1:48, 2:22-1k, 3:51-1500, 8:33-3k) - primarily, I believe, due to toe running.

However, I ran on my toes, because the muscles in my calves developed in a manner conducive to toe running at a very early age. I have a brother that's 2 years younger than me. He was taller than me by the time I was 5 and he was 3. In my attempt to remain the big brother, I walked on my toes for the next few years. My parents couldn't stand it. Now, I think it's responsible for me taking to toe running naturally, and giving me a speed advantage I otherwise wouldn't have had.

I guess my point in all this is that, toe running, for some reason, leads to faster running. But trying to make the switch to it after many years of established muscle memory can be tricky. In my experience, it depends on your natural propensity to it. How to figure that out? Your guess is as good as mine.

It took me about 2 years to switch from a heel plant to a forefoot (balls) plant, but it helped greatly, mainly because of an increase in stride rate at harder paces.

landing on your heel is bad.

its just plain bad news.

i dont want to hear any more of this.

I may be missing something, but isn't running with a midfoot or forefoot strike the most biomechanically efficient way to run? I'm definitely not a physiology student, so if someone knows better, let me know, but doesn't landing on your heel just cause the shock of the strike shoot through your body? I always heard that the point of the forefoot landing was to allow your calves to act as shock absorbers, like a spring, then propel you forward. From a personal perspective, I find it alot easier to run this way then if I try to pound on my heels.

I am a recreational coach for under ten girls. I have begun to encourage movement (running, dribbling, control, etc) on the ball (toes) of the feet instead of flat footed or heel. Does anyone have any advise or xpertise in this area?

I have a background in Biology and Physiology. I was a heel striker until just after I turned 20. It took me about 4-5 months to make the transition successfully starting during CC.

Without a dramatic increase in mileage, I went from the following times in one year as a heel striker:

400m - 58

800m - 2:02

1500m - 4:03

5000m - 15:25

10000m - 32:21

to the following as a forefoot striker:

400m - 52

800m - 1:55

1500m - 3:53

3000m - 8:19

5000m - 14:16

10000m - 29:47

The first few times I raced forefoot, my calves killed me afterwards, but it got better quickly. I became much more efficient. I will say it is not for everyone and I did get beat by more than a few heel strikers at nationals, but I'm glad I made the switch.

I'm a heal striker..big time. I've run some pretty fast times running the way I run.

I do think that running on your toes can allow one to "sprint" faster, but does it also help for entire races?

What I fear about changing my running form, is creating injury.

In some runners I've heard that landing on your toes can lead to significiant compartment syndrome (in the calves).

Is it better to run how you naturally land?

these seem like ridiculous claims

correct me if I am wrong but don't you save that for your kick, i.e u go on your toes when u are ready to sprint. Geb's been quote as "toe" runner up to 10K, when we started marathoning I remember saying he plan to switch.

As a highschool runner I was fat and slow until I began running on my toes.

In highschool I ran

100m - 12.8

400m - 62.7

800m - 2:11.3

mile - 5:06

5000 - 16:17

I heard about this incredible breakthrough in running technique right before it swept the nation so I feel like I did it first. After Highschool but before I went to college I ran the following times, all on the track, by myself, after running on my toes for a summer.

After

100m - 8.8

400m - 39.1

800m - 1:40.7

mile - 3:13

5000 - 12:00.8

I realize these were all world records but since no one saw me run them I really didn't want to brag.

Shortly after these I fell off my skateboard and hurt my knee. I started cycling after I heard about this revolutionary way to pedal....

Bronco

From personal experience, I don't think that running on your toes is better for you than landing on your midfoot. In highschool, I ran way up on my toes, every run- no particular reason why. I was terribly slow. In college, I started landing more toward my midfoot, especially on slower recovery runs. I realized that my posture had been very stiff and tense and needlessly tiring on my calves, but because I had always run that way, I hadn't realized it. The season after I stopped running on my toes, I set PR's in almost every distance- of course there were other factors involved, but I'm sure that my better form also contributed.

Instead of trying to change the way you land on your feet, work on increasing your foot turnover instead.

I think some of you might be mixing up forefoot running with midfoot running. The faster you are running the more up on your toes you should be (less time spent on the ground) but this should happen naturally. I used to be a big over-strider when I was in high school (I.e. meaning I reached forward with my stride and thus would land on my heels). If you heel strike (no matter how slow you run) you will be spending a lot more time on the ground than somebody who strikes midfoot to forefoot. If you strike on your heel you have to impact the ground, roll through your midfoot to your toes and then finally push off the ground. The goal should be to spend as little time as possible on the ground, both for increased speed and decreased impact. I first time I tried to transition to a forefoot strike by consciously landing on my toes I really screwed myself up (knee injury) because I was still reaching out with my stride. So, I was kind of pointing my toes down to meet the ground and thus hyperextending the tendons in my knee. When I tried the second time I realized that a proper midfoot/forefoot strike was due to one's foot striking the ground underneath one's center of gravity (not ahead of one's self). So, I stopped trying to reach out with my stride and instead simply focused on getting off the ground as quickly as possible. I asked myself, "what if running shoes were never invented and I had to run on concrete without shoes?" My conclusiong was that I would never hit the concrete with my heel, as I would probably have two broken heels by the end of the block. Rather, my instinct would be to simply get my foot off the damaging surface. Like a previous poster said, the result was an increased stride rate. For me this meant no more stress fractures, an ability to run higher mileage, and yes, faster race times. I don't care if such-and-such elite runner was a heel-striker and he ran such-and-such. All that means to me is that he/she could have been even faster. Oh, one more thing. I can run over a thousand miles in Mizuno Precisions and not feel like the midsoles are worn out. When I finally retire them there is no heel wear. It is usually the disintegration of the upper or holes in the toe of the outsole that drives me to it. So, think about running barefoot on hot coals, broken glass, hard concrete etc. Good luck.