Heel Strikers Unite! (Page 2)

Question - did changing your length of stride force you to speed up your cadence, or no?

Obviously Bernard should answer for himself, but I'll say that in general, changing from overstriding to striking under one's c.o.g. does not require shortening the stride.  Instead, one lengthens 'out the back' instead of 'reaching up front'.  I.e., stride length can stay the same.  

Interesting.  This sounds like me, but it was my achilles.  Back to my trusty dusty asics and my "heel striking", and I feel much better.  

^^^^^^^This was me. Man, I gotta remember to check that my wife has logged out!

^^^ YES

I think this is the deal.  My son is 14 and fast.....he got the same gift many in my family got...and can run a sub 5:00 mile (just barely) at 14.  As much as he loves to run, I won't let him do anything right now but hill repeats...very short, pretty steep, repeats.  He's a heel striker.  I was/am not.  He's faster than I was at his age....but his gate is all about "putting on the brakes" as he's already 6 foot tall and has gotten very gangly and out of wack with his stride as he hit a major growth spurt.

My point is that he illustrates (inadvertently) much of what we call wrong about our strides.  I'm working hard with him to get him to lengthen his "out the back" stride as I think it's the big fix....no matter where you land.

I found Brain Training For Runners to have a lot of great tips for visualizing and becoming more deliberate about realizing what your body mechanics are doing. My approach did shorten the reach of my lead leg considerably. That was done mostly by focusing on my center of gravity and my turnover. So I did incorporate cadence work ... but it wasn't to gain speed. It was to find more efficiency. The first time I counted my cadence, I recall it being at 147. That was due to a ridiculous amount of over striding. I slowly reigned it in from there. I haven't counted in a while, but I'm consistently in the high 170s now. On my recovery days, that has me shuffling along almost comically.

I agree that I could do a lot more work out the back. I should become more mindful of what's going on back there. I haven't paid attention to it for some time, but tight hamstrings definitely have impacted my ability to be as smooth as I'd like to be off the back.

He's not sure yet Shane.  He's only in 8th grade and will run the Youth Elite ITU series this summer.  He also swims a 500 in 5:30 and did a 6 mile TT on a computrainer last week in 15:30 with 240 Watt Avg.   He is 6' tall and weighs 130.  I'm not letting him run much right now as he's in a major growth spurt.  He's working with a couple of coaches as well. 

I'm not one of those "dads". I don't push......I just enjoy working out with him and watching him eat everything that isn't bolted down..  I was a miler in college many moons ago, and that type of speed runs in my family....between me, my brother, and my cousins there are quite a few sub 4:10 miles and 1:50 800's.  He's the first to swim and bike....I'll let him make the decisions on what he wants to do, but right now he's ate up with triathlon.  He says he wants to run cross country and swim in High School. 

Alot will depend, I would say, on how much he grows.  He's got a grandfather who was 6'7" and his 12 year old check-up with the doctor had him at 6'4" to 6'8" based on his height at that time.  If he ends up on that upper end, I would think some doors will close, while others open.....we'll see. I may start holding back on some food.

Heel striking is like doing open turns. You can do it, but real triathletes wouldn't...

And most of you are doing it wrong anyhow.

x2. I got caught in the whole mid foot, chi...bla bla bla and ended up with achilles injuries. Went back to what my body decided to do and feel much better

But i am focusing on  90 cadence per leg run, synchronized with 90 cadence bike, syncronized with 90 strokes per 100m swim, since a study said that I won't win Kona unless I do

The conversation here seems to be very astute.

I want to draw an important distinction that I think you and someone else here don't make (or don't state correctly IMO).

It's a distinction between the heel (or any part of the foot) touching the ground in front of the center of mass in a good way and in a bad way.

You can define overstriding as either or both, but since it's a pejorative term I prefer to use it to describe only the 'bad' way of landing in front of your COG.  And that's by tensing it when it lands such that it transmits braking forces back to you.

There are a few things to clarify.  First, the center of gravity can mean 2 things.  The static or dynamic center of gravity.  The static center of gravity is meaningless as you are moving forward.  You can and should touch down in front of the static center of gravity to be most efficient.  The dynamic center of gravity is that spot in front of you (depending on speed) that you can most efficiently touch down.  I would propose that it's something more along the lines of the term 'Instance Center' (google it).

But that definition aside, the foot can very well touch down ahead of THAT point and not be detrimental as long as the leg is still relaxed and hasn't yet taken up the body weight.  It will be a passive lever at that point and not rob you of any forward momentum.

Therefore the difference between overstriding or not, is going to be something mostly invisible to the naked eye....but one astute poster mentioned looking for a shock wave rippling up the runner's legs.