You better hurry, the Olympics are only 3 years away!
You better hurry, the Olympics are only 3 years away!
i managed to change from heel to midfoot/forefoot in two weeks. just practice landing on your toes more and it will become natural. although be warned, i got a small stress fracture on my foot and had to stop running for about 2 weeks before it semi-healed. then i could run again. i believe i got the stress fracture because i did semi-high mileage when i first started running on my forefoot. word of advice is to take it really easy on your training when you practice running on your forefoot. like about 1 month.
FWIW, I run mostly forefoot, sometimes mid foot, where my foot lands flat, such as on a slight bust very fast downhill, and sometimes my heel touches first, when I run down a steep hill.
I also run barefoot sometimes, and when conditions are right, there is nothing as good as barefoot.
i know wrote:
run faster
Elegantly simple. Footstrike is a function velocity.
er...."of" velocity.
Be like me. Toes on left foot and heel on right foot. That's what happens from twisting your ankle pretty badly.
u r right wrote:
i know wrote:run faster
Elegantly simple. Footstrike is a function velocity.
Only to a point.
Many fast runners midfoot strike even during easy runs.
SImilarly, there are many recreational runners who heel strike even when sprinting.
alummm wrote:
u r right wrote:Elegantly simple. Footstrike is a function velocity.
Only to a point.
Many fast runners midfoot strike even during easy runs.
SImilarly, there are many recreational runners who heel strike even when sprinting.
Yeah this is my problem I think when i start to run fast I still land on my heel(I think). I dont mind landing on my heel on my easy days. But when I do interval and faster stuff, I think it would benefit me to land on my forefoot. I tried landing on just my toes and it felt really wierd.
This heel striking vs. forefoot striking and efficiency vs. inefficiency crap is just that...crap.
The best way to run is the way that feels most natural to you. Distance runners ALL heel strike until they are in a sprint mode at the end of the race. To say otherwise is not to know. I posted pictures of Salazar and Ritzenhein clearly heel striking earlier, and I could find those pictures and tons more of elite runners running that way.
There's a name for someone who goes out for a 10-mile run and runs on his toes the whole way; that word is "idiot".
Flagpole wrote:
This heel striking vs. forefoot striking and efficiency vs. inefficiency crap is just that...crap.
The best way to run is the way that feels most natural to you. Distance runners ALL heel strike until they are in a sprint mode at the end of the race. To say otherwise is not to know. I posted pictures of Salazar and Ritzenhein clearly heel striking earlier, and I could find those pictures and tons more of elite runners running that way.
There's a name for someone who goes out for a 10-mile run and runs on his toes the whole way; that word is "idiot".
So at what pace would someone be running to be on their toes/midfoot. Around 5k/3k pace or 1500 meter pace? Cause I was running my workouts at those paces and my friend said i was heel striking.
want to get fasterrr wrote:
Flagpole wrote:This heel striking vs. forefoot striking and efficiency vs. inefficiency crap is just that...crap.
The best way to run is the way that feels most natural to you. Distance runners ALL heel strike until they are in a sprint mode at the end of the race. To say otherwise is not to know. I posted pictures of Salazar and Ritzenhein clearly heel striking earlier, and I could find those pictures and tons more of elite runners running that way.
There's a name for someone who goes out for a 10-mile run and runs on his toes the whole way; that word is "idiot".
So at what pace would someone be running to be on their toes/midfoot. Around 5k/3k pace or 1500 meter pace? Cause I was running my workouts at those paces and my friend said i was heel striking.
Pace is not what matters. IF when you go into your sprint you make a concerted effort to get up on your toes, then you do...some people sprint and still stay heel striking. But, the issue of heel striking comes up here from time to time, (one thread even said heel strikers were joggers and forefoot strikers were runners...BOGUS! ALL distance runners, even elite runners heel strike -- that's how people run. Go to Google and start looking for photos of some runners...it takes a while because it is just a brief time when they land, but they ALL land heel first...all of them.
did Michael Johnson heel stike? How about Tyson Gay? See any 800m runners on their heels with the foot stuck out in front either in the middle of the race, or when tired?
Yes there are a few outliers at 10k and marathon, but when biomechanically efficient and when running at good velocity, heel striking doesn't happen.
Heel striking is overpronounced with your 180 dollar Brooks Beasts that look like some moon boot with the amount of material between your actual heel and the earth.
and i've read the study. and i think the definition of heel needs to be clearly looked at.
Running up on your toes with a plantar flexed foot that colapses upon impact is just as wrong as sticking your foot out in front of you excessively to have an over pronounced heel strike.
"leg stiffness" at ankle, hip and knee are great indicators of velocity and efficiency. and excessive colapsing (as caused by sticking the foot out in front and waiting for the ground causing knee over flexion upon contact)eliminated the bodies natural stretch reflec of free and efficient energy for propulsion. Sprinters hips rise and fall in a sinusoidal curve when running. (yes you can be too bouncy as a distance runner too) but heel strking causes a flat path of the hips and little elastic movement.
efficient running involves actively striking the gound which is inversely related to velocity. by actively driving the thigh towards the ground, the hinges and levers of the body will have the foot traveling backwards as it approaches the ground. YOU DON'T ACTIVELY PULL THE FOOT BACK, it just happens because of the levers.
the heel of the shoe creates an illusion and if there is heel touch down it is usually on the outer part of the foot and not at the complete back of the heel as the foot naturally rolls towards the big toe at take off.
if heel strike is defined as any part of the foot behind the arch, then i may tend to agree. but barefoot analysis or taking into consideration the heel even in a marathon racing shoe will show those results to be different in the study
.............................. wrote:
did Michael Johnson heel stike? How about Tyson Gay? See any 800m runners on their heels with the foot stuck out in front either in the middle of the race, or when tired?
Yes there are a few outliers at 10k and marathon, but when biomechanically efficient and when running at good velocity, heel striking doesn't happen.
Heel striking is overpronounced with your 180 dollar Brooks Beasts that look like some moon boot with the amount of material between your actual heel and the earth.
1) Go read my posts. I clearly mentioned DISTANCE runners. And YES, they all heel strike unless they are in a sprint mode at the end of the race, and even then SOME of them still heel strike.
2) You're wrong about heel striking not happening at "good velocity". Salazar and Ritzenhein are faster at their average pace for the marathon than most here can even run 2 miles, and yet they heel strike.
It is difficult to find a photo with the exact moment of footstrike, but doesn't look like these guys are running in their toes.
Re: Radcliffe. Maybe she hasn't. Look how many times she has been injured and forced to drop or do badly in a marathon. Julie Brown was another marathoner who ran on her toes and, I believe, quit running because of injuries. She of the l984 olympics era - finished either second or third in the Trials, if I am right on this.
i run entirely on my forefoot but used to be a heel striker. It just takes about 6 months or weights, and less mileage. Your calves will be really sore and you'll only be able to run a couple miles at a time. start small, but you'll get there. Then again, the reason I did, was because I was training for a 1500, so have a reason to do it.
One thing I did notice was I was unable to run my longer workouts as fast, but my speed increased dramatically.
if you look at a picture of a sprinter you will see the exact same position before foot touch down, a toe up and a HEEL LEAD, but the heel doesn't hit first because the foot is moving backwards.
what do you notice about both ritz and salazar. they did not have great posture because heel striking leads to colapse at ankle knee and hip. salazar looked dead on his feet when he ran and NO ONE would hold him up as a technical model. do we want his times, yes, do we want his technique NO.
There are outliers. but the best post of all is that foot contact patterns are a result of velocity.
i'd like that study to look at 1500 or 5k on a track in a track spike and let's see if the results change.
So to remain topical, if you are a 16 min 5k guy and you are on your daily run you will likely strike on your heel.
and all is fine.
if the same guy spikes up to run 200m reps and still heel strikes because that is the only technique the body knows how to produce, then that is TROUBLE.
you wouldn't take a knife to gun fight, and you shouldn't heel strike when running at certain velocities.
In fact, even sprint drills, taught CORRECTLY, should be FLAT FOOTED with the heel making contact because there is no horizontal velocity involved. If you are doing sprint drill on your toes, the only way to do it is to force plantar flexion which is the EXACT opposite of what you want in actual running
Here is Makau again.
http://www.letsrun.com/photos/2009/kidney09/imagepages/image5.html
It doesn't look like he's running on his forefoot here either, but I guess you could argue that he's going to switch to forefoot strike just before his foot hits the ground.
What about the guy on the right?
He looks a bit better than a hobby jogger on his daily run.
Lots of heel strike going on the world half marathon championships too.
http://www.photorun.net/index.php?content=photodisplay&id=966&event=World_Half_Marathon
Both the men...
and the women...
Not trying to argue that heel strike is better... just that people have become a bit obsessed with the idea that you have to change to forefoot strike to run faster and there seems to be a myth that all the fast runners are forefoot strikers.
