Slowerthanyou wrote:
"Of the 70 runners analyzed during the fourth lap of the men’s marathon, 47 of them (67 percent) landed on their heels, 21 (30 percent) landed on their midfoot, and two (3 percent) landed on their forefoot. The percentages were similar in the 78 competitors analyzed in the women’s marathon: 57 (73 percent) heel, 19 (24 percent) midfoot, and 2 (3 percent) forefoot. And this pattern wasn’t confined to particular countries or finishing places. In the men’s marathon, the top four finishers, hailing from Kenya, Ethiopia, Tanzania, and Great Britain, were all heel strikers during all four laps of the race."
place scales in shoes, in the heel, and in the forefoot, to show how much pressure comes down where, along the shoe, from landing to toe-off, for those who run with an efficient gate. that would be interesting. i think what you'd see is that there's no binary choice between heel or midfoot.
deciding whether you're a midfoot or rearfoot striker is not an efficient use of your brain power. it's like deciding whether your prospective spouse should be a blonde or a redhead. that initial point of attraction - hair color - is about as predictive for success is building a shoe around the initial point of foot contact with the ground. what happens
beyond initial contact - whether you're on a first date, or whether you're running on the road - is what matters. are you overstriding? or is your footplant occurring at an efficient point in your gate?
nike - tho never good at explaining this - has championed midfoot cushion for decades now. hoka championed midfoot cushion. and now other companies are doing so. regardless of where you strike first, midfoot is where most of the sex is for those who have an efficient gate. on level ground, at least.
however, shoes need to have both rearfoot and midfoot cushion, because a good footfall means you'll be applying pressure to both areas of the shoe. should we get into a discussion of whether your car should have front or rear axle suspension? should we argue this over? which is more important?
if you sense that heel cushion is the
only thing that's important, then i can pretty much promise that you're an overstrider, your cadence is too low. when in an ironman, you see these big guys running along at 6:15 pace with their little daisy cutter strides, shoes hitting the ground right under their knees, don't strain to tweeze out the
initial point of contact. look at where you think they weight their shoes
mostly during their time on the ground, before toe-off. if you analyze how good runners run, you'll see how and why good shoes are made the way they are.
Dan Empfield
aka Slowman