Over the past few years, I have struggled to transition my footstrike away from heelstriking. It clearly impacts my running significantly, [pr of 15:04 in the 5k, yet haven't broken 60 in a 400 in 4 years] and will take any advice I can get at this point.
Find turf or something and run barefoot, work up slowly to maybe a mile. Then try running "not" on your heels for 5K or so. Also, wear a softer shoe that has minimal to no outsole, and a drop of no more than 8. Kinvara, Atreyu, whatever.
Start out with shorter strides, both barefoot and in shoes, and try to have your foot fall under your knee, not in front.
HsernoFS wrote:
Over the past few years, I have struggled to transition my footstrike away from heelstriking. It clearly impacts my running significantly, [pr of 15:04 in the 5k, yet haven't broken 60 in a 400 in 4 years] and will take any advice I can get at this point.
Newsflash: It's okay to heel strike. Look it up.
I think that maybe it is bc of your heelstriking, maybe it is not bc of that. There's a lot of talk about form and so on, and I'm not sure the "common knowledge" about form and running economy coaches and we fans spread is actually correct
Maybe it is bc of not enough work in your raw speed or not lifting or..
My 2cents
heelstriking doesn't matter whatsoever. as long as you're just using your natural running form you'll be good. i've read so many posts of people either hurting themselves, or slowing down when they switch footstrikes.
i remember in one of owen anderson's books (even though that guy is pretty questionable), he says that arm form only accounts for around 1% of improvement hence zatopek's arm form. my point is, big for athletes, but kinda worthless for non pro. that's arms after all, heelstriking is even less of an issue since its PERFECTLY fine. unless youre trying to be a 100m runner, don't change it.
I had pretty severe heel growth plate pain my freshman year of high school during track season. I only raced twice and was on crutches for a while. That was when I decided to stop (or at least reduce the amount of) heelstriking. Running barefoot helps a lot. A big mistake many people make is trying to transition to running on the balls of their feet. I recommend a midfoot strike instead. Saves energy and is more efficient for distance runners. When I started trying to change my form I would only work at it a few days per week. The other days I would just run without thinking about my form. As midfoot striking became more natural I would focus on my form throughout the week. Eventually it became habitual.
Perhaps the most important thing is to only mess with your form in an off season. You can do some serious damage trying to switch in the middle of the season.