How did I fix my form?

Run faster.

noheellift wrote:

How do I fix my lack of a heel lift? I have more of a lazy stride, where I kind of drag my feet instead of lifting my heels back. I'm not sure if I've always had this issue, but if so it explains why I've never reached my potential.

Any suggestions?

1. Hill sprints

2. Plyometrics

But mostly hills

Hill sprints or hill repeats?

don't fix it. It's your running style.

Hill sprints and hill repeats are the same thing.

Try to touch on your top end speed more often and make sure you don’t have any issues with your hamstring/glute flexibility.

The more you run the more your body will learn to use it’s most efficient form. Once I started running more than 50 mpw and doing strides 2-3 times a week my form cleaned up rather quickly and my economy improved a lot.

Do you do your strides as all out sprints?

noheellift wrote:

Do you do your strides as all out sprints?

No but I build into a very fast pace by the end of a stride session.

I like to start out at slower than 800m pace and work my way up to around 400m pace.

I typically do 5-6x150m with the first 150m being at about 4:00-4:10 pace and the last 150m being about 3:20 pace. My top end speed is about 2:50 pace with my 800m pace being about 3:50 pace for reference.

When you do your strides focus on having very short ground contact time and you’re form will naturally build a more fluid, energy efficient stride.

So then what's the point of workouts like 400s and 200s my coach makes me do ? Aren't they for form and efficiency too?

noheellift wrote:

So then what's the point of workouts like 400s and 200s my coach makes me do ? Aren't they for form and efficiency too?

200s and 400s are for getting your body used to sustaining a faster pace for a longer duration of time.

To be a good middle distance runner, (800-2 miles) you need to build good speed, and endurance and then teach your body to combine the two.

Doing intervals like 200-400-800m repeats is a good way of being able to move your legs at a fast pace while still improving endurance. At the top levels, 800 and mile runners are running at a pace that most would consider sprinting.

When it comes down to it, in my head, I see middle distance training requiring 3 goals to be successful.

Train myself to sprint faster - (hill sprints, strides, lifting, plyo)

Train myself to sprint longer - (200-800m repeats, fartleks, interval workouts)

Train myself to have better endurance - (mileage, tempo runs, long runs)

The faster pace all will lift the heel more. But a low heel is also a natural consequence of landing too much in front of you and not getting enough over and in front of your feet in the strides.

Hill sprints will make this much harder and force better running form. So I support the advice. But observe how well you can land under your body and not trying to move the legs to cover ground, but rather trying to fly or jump long. You might want to feel heel lift but forcing it has no value. It is a consequence of good form nad speed

I break it down this way:

You need strength, endurance, speed. Strength consists of 800s, 1ks, 1200s, miles, and tempos. Speed can be broken down into two sub-groups, top speed and speed. Top speed is the strides done after something larger. While speed (ie fast but not top speed) are more of actual workouts like 200s, 300s, and 400s.

General endurance is just obtained from mileage on non workout days. This includes a long run too.

Thoughts?

I break it down this way:

You need strength, endurance, speed. Strength consists of 800s, 1ks, 1200s, miles, and tempos. Speed can be broken down into two sub-groups, top speed and speed. Top speed is the strides done after something larger. While speed (ie fast but not top speed) are more of actual workouts like 200s, 300s, and 400s.

General endurance is just obtained from mileage on non workout days. This includes a long run too.

Thoughts?

noheellift wrote:

I break it down this way:

You need strength, endurance, speed. Strength consists of 800s, 1ks, 1200s, miles, and tempos. Speed can be broken down into two sub-groups, top speed and speed. Top speed is the strides done after something larger. While speed (ie fast but not top speed) are more of actual workouts like 200s, 300s, and 400s.

General endurance is just obtained from mileage on non workout days. This includes a long run too.

Thoughts?

What you call top speed is about the neural activation and coordination of muscles to run very fast, and about the lactic power. It is about fast twitch muscles and how well they work. I would say that max work from 10-60s covers this. The faster the more activation, the longer, the more lactic power. I do 10s hill sprints max to activate and train absolute power. I train 30s sprints (with long rest) to get to my top speed for distance and to train high lactic power. I could go on for 40-50sec, but then the legs would flush with lactate and the workout be so much harder (and less activation of fast muscle fibres). I do 40s hill reps with jog down to train more power endurance.

I agree about the "strength", but I call it aerobic power, from threshold work to CV and even 5k work. But what happens then is that the lactate is increasing a lot for the fastest and faster work. But also short rep, short rest workouts like 15/15, 30/15, 30/30, 45/15, 45/30, and so on are very efficient in building speed, strength and may need less recovery. Research show they are efficient in increasing performance.

Aerobic long endurance is trained from all work from 10k pace and slower. Slower gives more volume and less recovery needed.

To fix the lazy heel, focus on learning better mechanics from high speed short work without too much lactate (and need of recovery)