The Art of Running
Leave it to me to do more research on a topic before actually diving in. I’m signed up for three running events in the next 3 months and I’ve barely got off my butt. Instead, I’ve been sitting in front of my screen trying to figure out how to get faster and become less injured as I run. I think I’ve come up with a couple of things:
- Cadence (Stride Rate) matters. Most amateur runners vary their cadence according to terrain conditions. Professionals vary their stride length. Nearly all professional runners/sprinters maintain a cadence rate of 180 steps per minute, and only vary their stride length. So they take shorter strides going up a hill, and take longer strides going down a hill. A very interesting discovery. Most amateurs have a cadence that’s far too low, some 20% slower than that of pro athletes. Instead of floating and gliding over the ground, they end up bouncing over the ground, decreasing their efficiency and promoting injury (IMO). Some people even advocate running to a metronome.
- How your foot lands matters just as much. We’ve been conditioned since the 70’s (when Nike first appeared) to run in cushioned shoes, which promote a heel to forefoot motion. We should be striving for a midfoot/forefoot strike instead. Our feet weren’t created to land on the heel. Which brings us to…
- Shoes. We wrap our feet up because we think it’ll decrease injury. (IMO) It causes our very complicated foot to atrophy and weaken, especially in the support areas like the arch. So that’s why our running injuries are increasing even as our shoes get fancier. There’s been a new movement around that is striving to minimize the amount of cushion and just as importantly the amount of heel lift (the different between the height of the heel and the fore-section of the shoe). When we run barefoot, our nerves give us tons of feedback and we adapt our running style to minimize pain. Try running on a bare floor. After a few steps, you’ll soon learn to stop striking with the heel and landing on the mid/forefoot instead.
With all that said, I’m going to try it out for a few months and report back on the results.