Best way to transition to forefoot striking?

I'd say think less about the heel and more about the lower leg. On landing, make sure its perpendicular to the ground, and not have the foot at a forward angle. It may help to visualise leading with the knee, with the ankles etc not forced.

Increased cadence will help, if particularly slow. Ignore the nutters who say it's a product of speed etc, of course none of it is in isolation, but if you have a low cadence when running fast, it may be something to look at.

Cadence is via speed. The "Heel striking is bad" is a bunch of pseudoscience. Read this thread:

https://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3842535

foreheel wrote:

Ignore the nutters who say it's a product of speed etc, of course none of it is in isolation, but if you have a low cadence when running fast, it may be something to look at.

So mo Farah should take more step per minute? Why?

well,, wrote:

1) Forefoot striking without 180 cadence is not ideal - make sure you also get the cadence up, that's what's gonna drastically decrease the impact on your joints, muscles and tendons.

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Complete nonsense. Cadence changes with speed. I´ve seen Mo Farah, as much forefoot striker as anyone else, having 155 on his long runs. Tyson Gay has 260 at top speed.

Mo Farah is extremely talented, has insane amount of lifetime mileage and can handle big mileage week with plenty of intensity. He can run at his natural cadence at any pace, without having to artificially adjust it to reduce impact.

OP (and many others) is a recreational runner who has been dealing with injuries. The impact on a LR of cadence 180 compared to 155 on the joints, muscles, bones tendons, ligaments and sinews is significantly higher at the same pace.

You can also increase speed with stride length. Many elites do this, keeping their cadence around 180-200 but dramatically increase stride length during their kick.

Cadence 180 can be achieved by any runner, and it has plenty of benefits primarily in terms of injury prevention and reduction of impact from all that pounding.

Lydiard Cerutty wrote:

foreheel wrote:

Ignore the nutters who say it's a product of speed etc, of course none of it is in isolation, but if you have a low cadence when running fast, it may be something to look at.

So mo Farah should take more step per minute? Why?

Mo doesn't need to, as he is not trying to transition his strike like the OP, plus anyway, I wouldn't say is cadence is low. Depends what distance he is running and where he is at in the race.

I have no idea how any elite runner lands on their heel. For me, the evolution of becoming a better runner goes hand in hand with being light on your feet and reducing your ground contact time.

FYI - I'm now a mid-foot striker, as i think that's a happy medium.

Anyway, I went about transitioning by literally trying to run like bambi... practically running on my tip toes. Then, when I would try and mentally go back to how i used to run, i just found that my foot strike had naturally shifted forward.

Can't say its a tried and trusted method, but it worked for me!

Run barefoot on the road or hard packed dirt. Trying to land naturally wearing shoes is like trying to play darts with a blind fold on.

remove the heels from your shoes

Lead pack in the 2018 London marathon, at mile 14:

https://m.youtube.com/watch?feature=youtu.be&v=h_10nlUeupk

2 out of the 4 runners are landing heel first.

This is one of the few things I can comment on as I transitioned to forefoot striking about 3 years ago.

For background, I'm no great runner, started @ age 45 and am now 62. About 5 years ago I started having recurring knee problems & my ortho doc recommended that I stop running which did not appeal to me. I read some and decided to try forefoot striking instead. My 'technique' was just landing a bit on the ball of my feet as long as I could during each run. If any new pain I went back to mid strike. If any knee pain I walked. After about 3 months I could do my normal runs entirely. I *think* my foot is absorbing more/some of the impact as opposed to my heel/knee. Knees are pain free.

Try to concentrate on being "light" on your feet. No Matter which part lands first. Oh and just run more.

Make sure you wear 4% shoes and prance around like Galen Rupp, so you know what is meant by "PF."

ididthis wrote:

This is one of the few things I can comment on as I transitioned to forefoot striking about 3 years ago.

For background, I'm no great runner, started @ age 45 and am now 62. About 5 years ago I started having recurring knee problems & my ortho doc recommended that I stop running which did not appeal to me. I read some and decided to try forefoot striking instead. My 'technique' was just landing a bit on the ball of my feet as long as I could during each run. If any new pain I went back to mid strike. If any knee pain I walked. After about 3 months I could do my normal runs entirely. I *think* my foot is absorbing more/some of the impact as opposed to my heel/knee. Knees are pain free.

I'm slowly, very slowly, almost naturally, moving to forefoot striking, as I'm becoming faster... I'm natural mid-foot striker so I never had any serious knee or foot problems... Running my speed and tempo runs feels faster and easier when forefoot striking, very natural. I don't even focus where my feet land, just raise my knees a little higher and focus on strong kickoff... With a proper cadence, I can easily maintain 180+, it feels so much easier and efficient... I'm also getting faster given the same effort, so my running economy is improving... I just need to build my endurance to be able to do it over the whole marathon... Now, I'm able to do it for about 15K-10 miles... It'll take time but I'm in no rush... BTW, the first few months my calfs and glutes hurt AF after every workout session. But I recovered during my days of easy runs...

I feel like forefoot striking distributes the forces more efficiently over leg muscles, utilizes the Achilles tendons properly, which heel-strikers never use, and doesn't just loads up quads and hamstrings but also calfs and glutes... As somebody who used to be reduced to a speed "shuffle" in the last 3-5 miles of a marathon heel-striking on my way to a finish line, I can tell you that anybody proclaiming heel striking is fine, has never learned how to run properly... BTW, just because some elites heel-strike that doesn't automatically stamp it as approved... Just saying...

3hr-marathoner wrote:

theJeff wrote:

Run barefoot.

Pull a tire.

Do these, and your body will learn to run on your forefoot without much conscious effort.

Haven't tried the tire but, yes, barefoot is the only way to go, like actually barefoot not "barefoot shoes" and just not on grass, hard surfaces too.

theJeff wrote:

The question of whether or not transitioning is beneficial at this point is another matter.

+1 Remember the rash of stress fractures in the barefoot running boom? If you are going to do this, build up slowly and make sure you are getting enough calcium. Also, forefoot running doesn't mean you heel should never touch the ground. It just means that the ball of your foot hits first. You'll shred your achilles tendons if you just bounce on your forefoot.

Like literally?

Nothing wrong with heel striking. It's overstriding thats bad. Whether you land heel, mid, or fore.

This forefoot strike heel strike stuff is too vague.

-Its ok to "touch" at first with forefoot or heel.

-But "impact" with the whole foot so you don't needlessly shred your achilles. Be mindful of keeping your foot in a non collapsed position during impact.

-Keep your weight shifted forward by leaning forward over the forefoot to make use of gravity and to keep yourself from overstriding. You can do this by leaning from the ankles. Your heel should still be on the ground but most of the weight will be shifted over the forefoot. Like you are about to fall forward. To speed up lean forward more. To slow down be more erect. The body is forced to run faster the further you lean to avoid falling over.

-Focus on driving the knee down and back with your hips (butt and hammies). Let the lower leg relax into whips.

-Relax the torso and let it twist as much as it wants to throw power into the hips and compensate with the arms for the back kick. Spine should be straight and the whole body tipped forward over the forefoot.

Running. So simple.