Running Form Part 2 - Foot Strike

I talked about this last time, but I thought it would be a good idea to paint a more detailed picture. Here are some more points about the foot strike.

It is desirable to have your foot strike as far back as possible because you don't propel yourself forward much until just before your foot leaves the ground. The rest of the time your foot spends on the ground is basically just to get to that point.

It is desirable to have your toes come down first because of the way your foot naturally lands. To optimize shock absorption, the pinky toe should touch down first. From there, the outside edge of the foot touches down and at the same time the foot rolls medially so that the big toe touches down. This allows the big toe to apply pressure at toe off.

As the foot lands, the bones flatten out (to model this, take your hand, cupped, and put it on the desk, pinky first; when your hand (foot) lands, flatten your hand). This deformation is a major part of your body's natural shock absorber. It is also one that has been ruined by cushioned heels and stiff soles of modern shoes. It is possible to strengthen these muscles lots of different ways, but spending time in minimalistic footwear is a good way.

Fortunately, the above two points go together hand in hand, so you can work on them at the same time. Here are some more points:

Land with your foot under or behind you knee. This can limit overstriding and keeps you from braking upon foot strike.

Pick up your feet. Your foot should never land while it is still travelling forward in relation to your center of mass. Ideally, it will already be moving backwards upon foot strike.

Have the proper hip alignment. This is a complicated one, so I'll take my best shot at it. First of all, there should be no horizontal rotation of the hips--that is to say, from an aerial view, the hips should stay directly under the shoulders (which also should not move). There is however, some rotation that can be seen from a side view. The bottom of the hips rotates forward as the foot lands and extends as the leg extends backwards. You may feel tension in your abs upon foot strike if you do this right.

My final point is that your ankle remains loose upon recovery. The wrong thing to do is to reach forward with your foot with a flexed calf in order to get your forefoot to come down first.

The way to learn these things is to take it slow. On each run pick one or two things to periodically focus on during over the course of the workout. Try to relax as much as possible both while focusing and while just running.