How to improve as a runner

[Sweder]

Curious comments re: heel striking. Christopher McDougall explores the biomechanics of running in the third quarter of his excellent (if at times over-exuberant) 'Born To Run', an engaging book on ultra running deep in the canyons of Mexico. The counter-arguments are fascinating. Nike swore blind against barefoot running for ten years before finally releasing the Nike Free range. It's a shoe Jim, but not as we know it.

McDougall lets the scientists speak directly to us from his pages. Much of it is beyond me and I'll have to revisit these chapters more than once (as soon as I get my copy back from EG). Basically the argument against heel striking is this. When landing on a forward stride on the run we plant our heel down before us. This has the effect of a mini-brake; our entire forward momentum is momentarily halted as our body weight times a factor of forward motion crushed down through our foreleg and into the ground through that heel. I'm not brain surgeon but that can't be good. Our momentum carries us on through that braking action and we lurch into the next stride to repeat the exercise, over and over again. Wearing heavily padded running shoes allows us to repeat this action without inflicting terrible pain. Try it in bare feet and you'll see what I mean.

I won't bang on (as if!). The arguments, like those on last night's political Muppet Show, are well-rehearsed. There's no end to the advocates from both sides lining up to decry the wrong-thinkers across the 'divide'. Once again it comes back to Mr Sheehan's insightful adage about singular experiments.

For me it's fairly simple. I'll try to change my gait by using the Five Fingers (apparently there's a new robust version with a tyre-like tread for those of us who love dirt & rock) offroad. When it comes to tarmac I'll revert to road shoes to save my battered knees and joints. A triumph for expediency over principal as it must be for the rank amateur.

One thing I am increasingly convinced of. In order to improve in road races I need to mix up my terrain a little. The long, rambling shuffles I started out on at the end of March seem to be ideal cross-terrain training, being mostly off road but with front and back section miles on the hard-top. For these I'll wear the less-cushioned off-road shoes (Mizuno Wave Harrier 2s).

Rest well.