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More efficient running style

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Garfield Mar 2015 11:14am, 23 Mar 2015 5,418 posts	0 Garfield After Brighton I'm going to be doing two things...going back to track for intervals once a week, plus dropping down from marathons for a couple of years to get a little quicker and stronger and improve my fitness base. (Note to self...don't enter the VLM ballot, or when I don't want to get in, I will! - it happened to me in 2011 when I said the same thing after my first marathon.
Hills of Death (HOD) Mar 2015 12:45pm, 23 Mar 2015 30,468 posts	0 Hills of Death (HOD) I hope I'm still running then Canute Yes I have to do speed work need to push the boundaries
Canute Jul 2015 12:01pm, 10 Jul 2015 1,573 posts	0 Canute Efficient running has four elements: 1) Minimising the rate of oxygen use required to achieve a given speed. This depends on efficient running mechanics (which determines the amount of work required to achieve a given speed) and on metabolic efficiency of muscles (the energy consumed by a muscle to achieve a given amount of work). 2) Minimising fuel use, achieved by increasing the proportion of fat consumed in the fuel mix. 3) Minimising risk of injury 4) Minimising the microscopic damage to leg muscles that leads to decreased power output during long races. Once you have corrected substantial mechanical problems, for many recreational athletes, elements 3 and 4 can best be improved by increasing cadence. Both the mechanical stress of footfall and the stress of braking are less when cadence is high and stride length short. Studies demonstrate that for recreational athletes, the stress at the major joints in the leg are decreased substantially by an increase of 5-10% in cadence. As I have grown older, the ability of my legs to withstand impact at footfall has decreased rapidly. To compensate I have increased cadence so that in low to mid aerobic zone my cadence is typically 190-200 steps per minute. However my legs are still not coping week. Maybe this is because I am aging faster than the average elderly athlete. Rate of deterioration in heart, lung and kidney function suggest this might be the case. I have not given up hope that increasing cadence even further might help my legs to cope. I recently experimented with increasing cadence to the range 200-205 steps per minute in low and mid-aerobic zone. Heart beats per KM increased, probably because the energy cost of repositioning the swinging leg because greater at higher cadence, causing a deterioration in element 1). There was no clear-cut improvement in how well my legs coped. At this stage I do not think that further increase in cadence is likely to be worthwhile. Now I think that for me, the best approach to elements 3 and 4 is to focus on further strengthening the connective tissues of my legs (or at least slowing the loss of resilience).
GlennR Jul 2015 12:28pm, 10 Jul 2015 14,056 posts	0 GlennR Damn good post Canute,
Hills of Death (HOD) Jul 2015 12:34pm, 10 Jul 2015 30,907 posts	0 Hills of Death (HOD) It's a common sense approach very eloquently put Canute
Canute Aug 2015 3:02pm, 8 Aug 2015 1,647 posts	0 Canute The June issue of British Journal of Sports Medicine reports a prospective study comparing injury rate during a period of one year in barefoot v shod runners. ncbi.nlm.nih.gov Perhaps the clearest and strongest finding is that the barefoot runners ran lesser distance: 15 miles/week compared with 25 miles/week for the shod runners. Fewer BF runners suffered injury (52% compared with 62%) but there was no significant difference in injury rate. In fact BF runners suffered more injuries per mile (2.9/1000 miles BF; 1.9/1000 miles shod), but due to large variation between individuals, this was not statistically significant. The types of injures were as would be predicted: less knee , hip and back injuries in BFF runners, but more Achilles injures, more calf muscle injuries and more injuries to the bottom of the foot in the BF runners, though these difference were not statistically significant. I think the bottom line is that from the injury point of view there is no good reason to change to barefoot (or perhaps minimal shoes) unless you are plagued by knee, hip or back injuries. In that case it might be worth carefully weighing up the pros and cons, but probably not worthwhile if you are serious about competitive running.
SPR Aug 2015 4:47pm, 8 Aug 2015 20,683 posts	0 SPR Interesting. The planter surface injuries could be cured by a flat shoe but a bit more cushion. You'd still have the injury change from calf to knee and vice versa though. Wasn't there a study that a little shoe is more efficient than no shoe or loads of shoe (don't think it looked at injury rate). Certainly I wouldn't race barefoot or in a thick shoe. I wouldn't race in my NB minimus either as they're too soft. My NB RC130 are great for racing, a little more cushioning could be added to them, but they'd need to remain firm.
SPR Aug 2015 4:57pm, 8 Aug 2015 20,684 posts	0 SPR What options a out there for a flat shoe with medium cushioning? And by flat I mean zero drop, to max 3-4mm. And Hokas are not medium cushioned before anyone mentions them, lol
EarlyRiser Aug 2015 5:01pm, 8 Aug 2015 1,438 posts	0 EarlyRiser Set out my own preference first. Confirmed minimalist shoe runner. Like running barefoot when conditions right but rarely and certainly not in a race. Wouldn't the set of injury types listed for shod runners be potentially more injurious long-term? Knee, hip and back problems seem to me more potentially disabilitating than achilles and calf injuries? Just first impression.
EarlyRiser Aug 2015 5:09pm, 8 Aug 2015 1,439 posts	0 EarlyRiser SPR. Like you I still have a pair of NB RC130s. Use these for road training now. Everything else - off-road and road-racing I have Mizuno Universe 5s. Drop is practically zero. I'm not really sure what people mean by cushioning any more. I run away from anything that looks 'fat'! I will say the Universe 5s apart from being incredibly light, have a slightly more cushioned 'feel' than the RC130s. But only from midfoot to heel. Up-front under the toes just as responsive - there are some little hard inserts into the outer sole that make a difference. I like them.