GoodStart wrote:
Responding to some posts about Jenna's "shuffling stride"...
I agree. I noticed it as well.
I think unless she's trained to get up on the balls of her feet and PUSH off the ground and have a longer stride with a back heel kick, she'll never go sub-15:00 5k in her career.
However, if she wants to be a marathoner? Game on... She's super fast and super efficient.
I agree about the "shuffling stride" myself. Watched the race in person and reviewed the video. Counting her cadence, I see she is constantly doing 220 steps per minute, regardless if she is going uphill or downhill. The 220 cadence is at every mile, barely changing within a range of +/- 2 steps per minute.
Everything I have read about cadence says that sprinters will usually hit that cadence plus a few steps per minute extra. How is she able to keep that cadence up for 5K? She didn't even look winded crossing the finish line, while the Colorado girls looked winded to me. Even the 4th or 5th place runner from Colorado (i couldn't tell which one crossed first) fell 4 or 5 times within 20 meters of the finish line, and she still finished with a time of 17:16.
I'm totally perplexed about her cadence.