Like most runners, I’m a natural heel striker, but decided to try a little experiment at the weekend. I made the effort to run a couple of km on the treadmill by striking mid foot. Using a bit of concentration it didn’t take long to find a nice rhythm, and I was going pretty comfortably at about 5min/km pace at about 175 cadence. It actually felt quite nice. I did just over 2k but decided not to push my luck as I know it can add extra strain on the calves. Anyway, the next morning my calves were really sore, and I mean really sore! Nothing pulled, just felt like I’d done a long hard race. My question is this - has anyone else successfully managed to transition to mid foot running, and if so, how long did it take before the agony went away?
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^^^ this. Took ages to feel 100% natural and for the calves to adjust, maybe a year or so? But now if I heel strike it feels heavy and slow, so no going back for me. 5 or 6 years on, running is much easier and I just don't get the same niggles I used to get. I understand that lots of people strain their calves / Achilles during this transition, so just take it easy - you're asking different muscles to take the load of running and they're not used it. Don't over-do it, in a way you're starting from scratch again.
The other thing that is talked about now is that it doesn't really matter which part of your foot you land on, just where it is in relation to your body i.e. feet underneath body, underneath head.
I have since reverted to running in a relaxed manner focusing on running tall. I have noticed that I have a VERY slight heel strike when running slower than 10 min/mile pace and a mid-foot strike when running anything faster. I don't know if this is because of the work I did trying to change or what... All I would say is to run relaxed.