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Chaging from heel strike to forefoot landing
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I am sorry as I clearly did not make what I was trying to say easily understood.
At the 32 K mark of Greater Manchester Marathon 93% were heelstriking 0% forefoot. At 10K mark 87.8% were heel striking. I just think that if you look carefully you will see that most of the leading runners heel strike. I am in Thailand. Here because shoes are a novelty everyone runs on the ball of their foot but it has not made many fast Thai runners. Having said that 7 Thais were in front of me in my age group in my last Marathon but I am not a fast runner. Ed Whitlock does not run on his toes. Strike rate and stride length are the important factors as far as I am concerned. There is photographic evidence for the Manchester marathon figures and I believe it was a sample of over 800 runners.
The article you sent is from a sales pitch for some new sort of running.
Andrew
Running on the ball of your foot doesn't turn you into an elite runner. Running form is one of many important factors that make a fast runner run fast.
Many fast runners that land on their heel are doing so inspite of being able to run fast, not because of it. And anyway, they still may land close to under their hips with that heel strike.
70% of people in out country are overweight or obese, but that isn't validation that their lifestyle is the ideal.
With regard to the Pose Method running -it isn't a reinvention of running and nor is it a style of running per se -it's just a way to tech people how to run efficiently.
Understood.
I'm currently in the process of changing to a mid-foot strike and also trying to shorten my stride. I have been doing this for about 3 months or so (on and off due to an ITB injury) and started my runs by landing on my mid-foot for the first mile and then continuing the rest of the run with my normal stride. I would only mid-foot land on 1 of my runs each week and each time I would increase by about 0.2 miles, I am currently up to 3 miles of mid-foot running. After every run I have been giving my calves a good stretch and in the last few weeks they have been ok with no aching at all (I have also been strethcing them on a fairly regular basis). However, in the last couple of weeks I have been getting a pain under my foot, in the middle, and in the last week the pain has been focussed on the outside of the underneath of my foot. For some reason the pain is only in one of my feet but it isnt bad enough to stop me from running short distances of up to 5 miles. When I run with a mid-foot strike it feels that I am overpronating whereas when heel striking I have a 'normal' landing. Could this change to mid-foot be causing the pain under my foot ? Is it likely to be PF or could it be something else ?
Sorry that should have been - 'many runners run fast inspite of landing on their heels, not because of it.'
PS, can't seem to work out the quote system on this forum, most bizzare I've ever seen on a forum.
I changed from heel to mid-foot strike in 2008 and have suffered from plantar faciitis in my left foot to varying degrees ever since. I've found that regular stretching of the calfs and hamstrings and rolling a golf ball under the sole to have helped.
Earlier this year I tried out a pair of minimalist shoes which aggravated the PF and brought on symptons in my right foot too so had to put a stop to that experiment.
I've cut down on the mileage prefering to concentrate on 5k and 10k distance this summer. Regular shoes are currently Inov8 Road-X 233.
When I started out the conversion to mid-foot striking I made the mistake of trying hard to land on my the balls of my feet which wrecked the shins. I think the key for me was to shorten the stride and quicken the leg turnover rate while trying to be light on my feet. I'd go out with the idea of running with a "butt kick action". After a few minor niggles I switched to running entirely in racing flat type shoes which made things much easier as the big shoe heel was removed. Trail running is good as you are forced to shorten stride and lighten foot strike to be able to react to ever changing under foot conditions.
Nowadays mid-foot striking to mostly done subconsciously though I'm always wanting to improve technique as I'm doing more lactate threshold and tempo running these days. I'm entirely self taught and probably have much to improve. I'm sure I sometimes land on my heel especially when I overstride when doing a final kick in a time trial. Technique for running up and down hill is another learning experience.