So I had terrible form, but now I have decent form. I started running barefoot a little in addition to my training. I ran like 11:35 for the 2 mile, and now I ran a 12 for the 3k (13:10 for the 2 mile). Should my time have slowed down like that? That was in track and now I am in summer training, but the 2 other people on my team ran 11:10 for the 3k, a week before me. So would that be expected while I change my form?
You shouldn't slow down from improved form. I would challenge your assertion that your form was "terrible" and is now "decent."
Perhaps you tried to change your form and actually made yourself less efficient. Scratch that, you clearly did, or else you stopped training and only changed your form, just making yourself in worse shape.
Improvements in form should take seasons, not weeks, to improve. If you "improve" your form faster than this, you probably haven't actually improved yet, you are just forcing yourself to run differently, in what may or may not be better form, but if you are forcing it you are probably tight and inefficient.
Sometimes as a coach, I get athletes who try to "learn" on their own with youtube and such. The result is usually that they learned somewhat of a caricature of the correct technique and actually get slower, injured, or both.
Consult your coach on your form. If your coach is bad, this won't help, in which case, good luck.
You also don't have many details in your post. More information could be helpful. Maybe you're going through a growth spurt, which can temporarily slow you down, maybe you are fasting for ramadan, which can temporarily slow you down (or temporarily speed you up if you are playing with anaerexia), maybe you are coming off an injury, which is what prompted the change in form, maybe you haven't been running much and your teammates have, maybe you're actually a robot and one of your wheels fell off. You leave us guessing the answers. My answer is the best I could come up with given the information you just barely let peak through onto the internet.
Yeah, don't try too hard to change your form; do more drills and don't try to adopt a trendy footstrike. Your best form will be your natural form supplemented with countless miles of running.
Thanks for the response! My coach is the greatest coach so...
What I mean by my form was terrible, I heal struck really badly, which caused me to slow down. I read "born to run", and I thought barefoot running seemed like a good idea to try, and it really helped me out for form, my coach said that my form has improved. I watched videos and stuff and my coach helped me. I had to take a week off because I spilled boiling water on my foot. My coach told me not to worry about my time for the time trial, since I had only been back running for a week after I took a week off. I am 6 foot, and 15 years old, my older brother is 6 foot 6 inches, so I've still got some to grow, but i haven't gone through a huge growth spurt recently. No fasting for me, my diet is good. No change there. One of my teammates gets screwed up every night after practice and he is doing fine with his training. We all do the same workouts. I did track and one of them didn't, but he was able to stick with the other one. My question was, is it normal if someone is changing their form to slow down, maybe because I am using different muscles?
Natural, right, so the way I would run without shoes.. Thats what I have been trying to do. Should I expect to be slower?
FASTASDUCK wrote:
Natural, right, so the way I would run without shoes.. Thats what I have been trying to do. Should I expect to be slower?
I think you should give yourself a few weeks of running with your new form to be able judge whether you're getting faster or slower.
50 State Challenge:
https://dannyharitan.wordpress.com/If you make major form changes, you will slow down because you are using new muscles that are weak and neural pathways that are not yet efficient. Keep at it and it will get better with time.
My senior year of cross country I usually did a mile every other day barefoot on the track at the end of my runs. Definitely helped with a lot of things, but being honest I didn't really feel a huge difference until my freshman year of college (summer preseason) when I started running more miles and had been practicing my form for almost a year. That's when everything felt more efficient, people told me my stride was really good, etc.
So yeah work on it, do some short barefoot runs and barefoot strides, but don't be annoyed when it takes a year and a lot of miles. Also try some altras or something where you can take the big fat, good-for-nothing heel out of your shoe.
https://itunes.apple.com/us/podcast/pr78-dr.-nick-campitelli-minimalist/id620260669?i=313097856&mt=2
here's a podiatrist talking about this sort of thing. Very good listen.
thanks