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Gordon Pirie Book
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As a beginner to the sport it really does surprise me that running form isn't addressed more often, my belief is that the heal strike is an easier action to adopt, especially if like me you enter the sport a bit out of condition, but that doesn't necessarily mean it is the correct approach!
I also think that if like me you are on the heavier side (16st) and you run with a heel strike you should definitely wear the appropriately cushioned/supportive shoe. But as I am now down to 7min miling for 10k can I get away with a racing shoe, if I change my style? Where are the experts??
All I can suggest is going to a couple of different running shops in person. Ensure that they give you a fresh opinion rather than just assuming you pronate excessively because you said so on entering the shop or produced a pair of Motion Control shoes. How about the shops that have the Adidas footscan? And if you get video analysis make sure they crank it up to 7 m/mile pace before judging!
Mark
I used a footscan thing in the Boots stall at the pre-London Marathon event and it seemed fairly sophisticated. I'd hope it was designed to cope with a forefoot strike as well. As far as I can see, the initial forefoot strike seems to be more to do with absorbing the landing shock. The heel does then still touch the ground prior to the toe-off so the whole thing becomes more of a ball-heel-ball-toe type motion (if I am understanding Gordon Pirie correctly). Therefore the actual propulsive phase will still consist of some heel to ball movement.
Does this make any sense? Ultimately a sports podiatrist should probably be on hand to interpret the results but you won't be finding that in a shop.
p.s. When Pirie refers to a race Seb Coe ran where he got beat by Steve Cram, it's so unbelievably embarrassing. He reprimands 'Mr Coe' for not sticking to Cram in the early part of the race. Since Seb Coe is probably our greatest ever middle ditance runner I think Pirie's comments were way off-line. But he certainly provokes debate !
As for the book - I think it was written in an engaging and refreshing style - it is full passion if nothing else - and I've just started to read through it again. I've been running for 18 years and used to be reasonably useful (31 mins for 10k) - yet I've never come across this forefoot running idea. I've always been a heel striker, and to be fair I've never suffered any major injuries, but the book has certainly got me thinking.
Now, back to the book...
Anyway I tried again this morning using these shoes and its a big improvement. I can now strike forefoot first reliably although it takes a bit of concentration. I find you can tell when you're doing it right because your footfall is almost silent.
My routes are very hilly (that can't be helped where I live) and I've noticed that going steeply uphill the technique is no different to what I was doing previously. Downhill its a real effort to keep on the forefoot because the heel is obviously much closer to the ground. On the flat I've noticed the biggest improvement - just by keeping on the toes seems to give a real speed boost without any particular extra effort.
My feet are aching slightly afterwards - they seem to be doing more work than merely just flopping on the ground as before.
The only problem is my left calf feels a bit tight today but I guess it's working properley for the first time for ages. I'll keep working at it.
if you're getting pain in your Achilles, you might possibly be over-compensating and running on your toes, which is not recommended as it's a different route to injury. see Liz McColgan above.
Thanks for the advice, and I think I can confirm for periods of time I was propably up on my toes as opposed to a ball to heel strike. When doing this it is also important to make sure you keep the point of impact under your centre of gravity.
A link to Liz Mccolgan didn't come through, could you please try and type it as text.
One other thing I think is important and I don't know if you guys are trying, is Pirie's point about fast turnover (stride rate/cadence, call it what you will). I think that it's much easier and safer to to the forefoot strike thing if your turnover is good and fast - even when you are running relatively slowly! - and much harder and possibly more damaging to do if you're rate is too slow.
One perverse thing in my case: I checked my old shoes, including a 1996 vintage pair of Saucony Procyon long relegated to gardening duty, and realised I'd been forfoot striking all my running life. The only thing the built up heels were doing was getting in the way and probably contributing to the occasional tumble. Even my ordinary day shoes always wear through the ball of the foot - somehow I'd never put two and two together.
The main difference is that Bob believes that not all runners can be forefoot strikers and he makes no connection between the high heel wedge in most running shoes and what Gordon sees as the consequent enforced heel-strike. I tried it out last night in a pair of Mizuno Wave Mavericks which I like a lot for slower heel strike type running and found it very difficult to really force a forefoot strike as you might expect.
Would trying a short stretch of barefoot running on grass be ok?
I personally wouldn't run bare foot outside my garden!!
my point was that runners with a slow stride rate tend in my experience to be the heaviest heel-strikers and vice versa. a quick stride rate is much more efficient, you avoid the wasteful and damaging "bouncy" stride that you tend to see a lot of where you spend too long in the air and land with a braking action, and you inevitably don't pound the ground so much.
my suggestion would be that perhaps the easiest way to achieve better running form, which coincidentally is more likely to make you a forefoot striker, is to work on a quick stride rate - 180 steps per minute or even faster. this will definitely help to make your running "smooth and flowing" which is not only more efficient but also the best way to ward off injury.
in my youth we used to run in plimsolls/plimsoles which were wafer thin throughout and pretty close to running in bare feet - do they still make them? I remember they used to wear out pretty quickly though. oh dear, I feel so old coming out with this. I'll shut up.
Browsing the local shops for suitable shoes I actually saw a pair of Dunlop Green Flash tennis shoes - I guess they'd been on the shelf for a long while. They were what I upgraded to from the plimsolls and the height of luxury by comparison. Sometimes they might last as long as three weeks...
My only serious injury in 50 years, a Beckham type stress fracture happened whilst training for London in 1987 whilst wearing expensive Reebok shoes.
The Pirie book reminded me of the running style I used as a young man which was forefoot striking. Today on a 10 mile time trial on road I reverted to that style and ran a PB by 2 minutes and felt to be 'flying'.
I think I lapsed into the heelstrike style in the 1980s when the marathon became my main distance. As I write I feel no ill-effects from today's run, however, that may have changed when I wake up tomorrow, I hope not.
Seemed to work really well last night although a bad session in that a) it was supposed to be my rest day b) if I did go out it should have been 30 mins easy, but I felt so good in the shoes that I knocked 3.5 minutes off my best time this year on a route of a little over 5km. (Nothing too impressive in my case - I only started again in January after a loooong lay off).
Lawrence, what style of shoe did you run your 10m in?
I had a go at forefoot striking a bit more seriously last night whilst doing a track session. It's very difficult to concentrate on what for me is a slightly shorter stride and higher cadence, however it was one of the fastest sessions i've ever done & am feeling no ill effects now. The Fila Flow shoes I wore are meant to be lightweight racer/trainers so still have slightly more heel cushioning than forefoot, however for the first time I could see why they got reviews for feeling quick. Might try the Fila Racer next!
http://www.posetech.com
It looks like some guy is trying to make some money out of preaching the same message as Gordon.
The section about developing their own shoe sounds interesting though.
Interesting to see they recommend New Balance racing shoes though including one for long road races. Might have a look...
However,after reading his book I must ask with the gteatest respect,how did he manage to run so fast whilst living up his own bottom at the same time?
I draw attention to at least two occasions in the book where Gordon describes particular training sessions and speculates that they would "kill a jogger".Maybe so but why alienate proberbly 99% of your readership?