Elite distance runners foot strike question

guessing game wrote:

it's almost impossible to run a sub-5 pace while heel striking. sometimes the heel looks like it's striking first, or going to strike first, then at the last possible moment the forefoot actually hits first and takes the majority of the force (while the heel of the shoe follows through and also makes contact). photos can be very misleading because it happens so quickly.

i've noticed this in running photos of myself when i was definitely making forefoot contact but it looks like i'm going to hit heel first until the last possible moment. i've observed the same thing in elites.

Sub 5 pace? Come on. I must have been a freak of nature then, as must many of my teammates, training buddies, and competitors. I think even George Malley has come on here and said he was a heel striker when competing (1:01 half guy).

guessing game wrote:

it's almost impossible to run a sub-5 pace while heel striking. sometimes the heel looks like it's striking first, or going to strike first, then at the last possible moment the forefoot actually hits first and takes the majority of the force (while the heel of the shoe follows through and also makes contact). photos can be very misleading because it happens so quickly.

i've noticed this in running photos of myself when i was definitely making forefoot contact but it looks like i'm going to hit heel first until the last possible moment. i've observed the same thing in elites.

I agree that photos can often be deceptive, and in other threads, I have pointed out instances like you describe. But it is very possible to run sub-5 pace while heel striking. Those photos in the link of the 10,000 runners from the first page are NOT deceptive because they were extracted from slow motion video and were selected because they were the frames at the time of initial contact. All of them were certainly going sub-5 pace.

Here is the slow motion video from which some of phose photos were extracted. Among others, you can clearly see the heel strike of Girma Mecheso on his way to a 28:38 10,000.

Thanks for providing some incredible footage there (no pun intended!). It counted about two-thirds of them clearly heel striking. The question I'd love the answer to is, what was the forward velocity of the foot relative to the ground at impact for each of those athletes? I think that is the most important parameter of good vs. bad technical foot strike (best being the lowest, of course).

Impossible to heel strike at sub five pace? How do you come up with this garbage?

I was heelstriking at 4:28 pace recently.

Sure some people look like they are going to heelstrike and then don't but most of them DO if it really looks like they are going to.

Someone else's garbage, not mine.

strike the heel wrote:

Impossible to heel strike at sub five pace? How do you come up with this garbage?

I was heelstriking at 4:28 pace recently.

Sure some people look like they are going to heelstrike and then don't but most of them DO if it really looks like they are going to.

Just wow... wrote:

Someone else's garbage, not mine.

]

Directed at him, not you.

Check out the dude on the right. I suppose he hit forefoot first and rocked back?

:

It's impossible to run fast while heel striking

http://community.runnersworld.com/fileSendAction/fcType/0/fcOid/125858395819692389/filePointer/127688041817910036/fodoid/127688041817910026/imageType/LARGE/inlineImage/true/blobid0.png

Pre must be doing 5:01 pace.

gilded mg wrote:

It's impossible to run fast while heel striking

http://community.runnersworld.com/fileSendAction/fcType/0/fcOid/125858395819692389/filePointer/127688041817910036/fodoid/127688041817910026/imageType/LARGE/inlineImage/true/blobid0.png

Check out the dude standing on the side of the track just in front of his knee. Cam Levins' father?