It came to me this morning during my run, Somewhat of an epiphany. After my rather heavy and laborious run of two days ago ( blogged about here in my “back to sneakers ohhh dear” post) in sneakers and then cruising through the exact same run barely out of breath and feeling no tiredness in the legs, running in my Merrell Trail Gloves. It came to me. It’s all about EFFICIENCY!
I have been really focusing on my barefoot running form and that’s going pretty well. It occurred to me when i am wearing my Merrell’s, several things happen. My stride shortens as i concentrate on landing on the mid-foot and in doing so find my stride landing below my body. Now I am no expert and as you can see from the video below i may still be slightly over stepping. I welcome your opinion on this. I have read that ideally I should be trying to land “behind” me.
This shortening of my stride must in turn be allowing me to better use the natural elasticity in my ligaments, in an overall more efficient running form. Noticeably so. I don’t know but i need to pick up a pedometer so i can check my stride timing. I must be closer to the optimal 180bpm running barefoot. Two days ago for the same run my legs felt tired and heavy, it was not an enjoyable run. Today felt fantastic as i cruised home effortlessly and could have gone on much further had my Achilles and calves been stronger.
I shot a short video of my form running in traditional running shoes as a comparison below.
My run today is here http://runkeeper.com/user/simonjcole/activity/60972499
Related articles
- Back to sneakers today, ohh dear (barefeat.wordpress.com)
- Why you should run barefoot (gazaliahmad.com)
- Barefoot running: an overview of the science | Guardian Sport Network (guardian.co.uk)
- Running Barefoot: The First Steps (onlineshoes.com)
barefeat 
November 28th, 2011 at 9:52 am
he he. me again. your right leg seems to have a flatter landing, your left leg more of a forefoot strike. this prob impacts elsewhere on your gait. Get someone to see if your shoulders &/or hips are horizontal….if not get a physio to recommend stretching to balance that out.
your arms swing a lot. again wasted energy. run almost as if you hand touches your shoulder (of the same arm)
You should be looking to raise your knee more (with training), this will in itself also cause heel flick. both of these combined shorten your effective leg length. This in itself makes you run faster! Combine this with a pair of really light race shoes and you’ll be off like a shot.
all this natural running…. on an unnatural surface 🙂
November 28th, 2011 at 10:09 am
Great info thanks Verity. As for my arm swing, are you saying bend it more? or swing it more diagonally across my chest?
Thats great information on building my speed. Thats my next step as the foot striking becomes more natural i want to build speed
November 28th, 2011 at 10:37 am
with each hand almost touch your thumb on the shoulder of the same arm. Leave both there and off you go…then basically each arm is half its length…do not swing across body.
(i exaggerate the arm position but aim much more for that than what you are doing)