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Gordon Pirie Book
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However,the majority of readers will almost certainly be of a lower standard.
If only 'serious'/elite athletes purchased this type of book then the revenue wouldn't even cover publication costs.
Most of us aspire towards better performance.This is illustrated by the number of people on this forum willing to radically alter their foot strike in order to maybe gain that little extra(possibly a little extra couple of months of physio too!).
Perhaps i'm wrong but the book just read as a rather unmodest description of his track career.
As a commercial book it wouldn't have a hope in hell of making a profit and in any case the stuff on intervals and diet is probably well out of date even if it did work for him.
Having said that though we need to remember that he wrote in less politically correct times when people were far less concerned about being competitive and elitist. There was a long thread on this forum about what constituted a "jogger" as opposed to a "runner" and I simply suspect that Gordon's view tended toward one end of that spectrum.
I like(!!)the bit where he says that he told the guy not to run less than 2 hours after a meal,'the knobhead was dead in the woods,choked on his own vomit'.This has been para-phrased in a Roy Keane kind of way.
I don't wish to labour a point, but you must remember that GP was running times 50 years ago that few British athletes are capable of today, so he has some justification to be arrogant.
I did find the book interesting but just found it tobe a bit of an ego trip.
For true inspiration try to catch the programme about Zatopek on Eurosport.I was out running within 20 minutes.
When is the Zatopek thing on - or have I missed it?
The guy won three gold medals in a week and ended up working in a salt mine for 10 years! How nice of the Soviets.
I'll come clean and admit I've decided to give it a go and have been doing so for a few weeks now. I haven't been injured (yet). I don't think I was ever a particularly heavy heel striker so it is not a radical change I am making, so far my only observation is that it seems harder to maintain forefoot striking below a certain pace.
Why am I giving it a go ? Well if the top boys run that way it's good enough for me. I suppose I am one of those people that have to try things for themselves to be convinced. My plan is to train and run a half marathon in November using forefoot striking and lighter shoes (not plimsolls - I am not that brave) than my usual and evaluate it from there. Yes my motivation is to get faster but also to cut down on injuries and long term wear and tear - on paper this seems like a way of doing that and the only way to find out is to try it.
Having been a decentish schoolboy runner (4.08 - 1500m, 35.00 - 10k) I am currently running three or four times a week averaging around 20-25 miles per week. Most of this is at 7-8min mile pace although I do try to do one faster session a week (eg 4 x 1mile in 6.40). I have however picked up several injuries in the process - shins, achilles & hamstring. Most of these have occured after purchasing specialist running shoes (Adidas Supernova & Saucony Grid Trigon).
As a schoolboy runner I trained in Hi-Tec Silver Shadow and had little or no injury problems over 5-6 years. Whilst I am heavier now than then and also, if I'm honest, have probably been a little too keen to build up the mileage I can't help thinking that the specialist shoes (forcing a heelstrike) also play a part in my injuries.
I would be interested to hear updates from the contributors to this thread as to how they have progressed with forefoot striking since their posts and any further advice on shoes that aid a forefoot strike (I am 6ft & 13st so am not convinced that I should be training in racing flats just yet!)
Thanks and I look forward to rekindling the debate!
Making the switch to racing flats was the key, though, I found it virtually impossible to do ball-heel in my previous Asics Nimbus shoes.
I've long ago stopped being paranoid about being a fore-foot striker thanks to Gordon among others, and over the last few months I've spent much more training time in my Mizuno Wave Phantom racing shoes and unquestionably run better and smoother and more enjoyably in them than anything else. and no injuries for nine months either. even my Wave Precision "performance trainers" feel awkward and clumpy now.
I haven't been brave enough to go for all-out racing flats, let alone barefoot, but I'm starting to be convinced that conventional trainers are not conducive to good running form and consequently more liable to get you injured. I've never run injury-free for anything like that long before.
good luck all Pirie-ites out there.
hmmmm.
I reckon you'll get a lot longer out of them because you're not bothered about the cushioning going just about them physically falling apart.
I haven't managed to read all this thread but a lot of what I've seen rings a lot of bells.
When I started running it was in plimsols and my first serious running shoes didn't have the huge amounts of heel lift and shock absorbtion that is built in now.
I do believe that when you are younger you can develop protective reflexes and a running style which doesn't cause massive impact damage when you hit the road.
Modern advertising concentrates heavily on the number of tons of impact which the average runner has to endure when running a marathon.
Running shoes are designed to protect runners from their excessive weight and poor running style and hence they encourage poor technique and inappropriate excessive mileage.
They also produce shoes which wear out all too quickly as they are compensating for bad technique instead of merely protecting the sole of the foot from the ground.
Once they are worn out (after 300-500 miles) they are actually more likely to cause damage than more basic shoes which allow you to run more naturally.
I don't run with a forefoot strike but I do run with a very light heel strike which rolls very rapidly to the fore foot.
As a result I very rarely suffered from bruised heels while being able to wear light and flexible racing shoes and similar trainers.
I ran my first marathon in Asics Tiger marathon shoes which had a uniform sole of about a quarter of an inch of hard rubber for the whole length of the sole. I was pretty sore afterwards and lost a few toenails as the shoes were a shade too small but as my average mileage for the previous year had only been 35 miles per week I couldn't really complain. Since then shoes have inexorably got heavier and stiffer and more cushioned.
My favourite racers were three pairs of Nike Terras which I managed to pick up in the States in 1982. I kept them going for years with the help of ShoeGoo but since they fell apart so has my running.
Any pointers to good lightweight longlasting racers or trainers would be like manna from heaven. Any manufacturer who was prepared to produce shoes which would last more than 3 months would get my loyalty for life.
I haven't tried the New Balance RC240, but note that the RW report says that "while the rearfoot offers the kind of cushioning you’d expect in a marathon racer, the forefoot doesn’t." this would seem to me to suggest that it's not ideal for Pirie-recommended forefoot striking.
as I say, I really like my Mizunos (especially the Phantoms) because they have the least heel of any mainstream shoe that I've encountered - so much so that when you first try them on it feels like you're being rocked back on your heels, so little is the heel "built-up" in relation to the forefoot. and what cushioning there is doesn't have that horrible soft, squidgy feel that seems to be the key selling-point on most running shoes.
Now do all my shorter training runs in these and have far fewer injuries than previously. Just waiting for the calves level of strength to catch up with the quads and I'll be using them for longer runs as well.
If only I could find a shop that stocks them. When my current shoes are ready for changing, I'll ask my local shop to order some in.