I had to learn to fore to mid foot strike after a terrible round of plantar fasciatis.
Mainly had to make myself consciously land the foot on the toes. It took about 3-4 weeks. Now it is a natural/subconscious thing. And I got a bit faster as a bonus.

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Next races on the schedule: none at the moment

I've changed somewhat to a higher cadence which resulted in a shorter stride and landing more straight under my body vs. heel strike ahead of my body. It does take some effort to be conscious of that.. Since it is hard to see ourselves run a few things to think about. To start it was dramatically shorten stride to get cadence up to get that feel. Then stride length could adjust to something more natural but really trying to keep footfall under my body instead of in front. I also visualize keeping my feet on the ground for a very short time.. like running through a puddle, if you are quick enough you can avoid getting wet ..

I also try to work on stride length being the equivalent of gears on my bike.. uphill shorten stride length while trying to maintain cadence.. downhill lengthen stride length with same cadence.

It takes work but is doable..

Personally, I often work on run cadence so I don't over-stride (as much). I do it during most of my runs and not just one specific run.
I also have days where I work on lifting my knees but that is it.

If I had a big problem with running I might try more of a change. Most people tell me that your body tells you how to run, I tend to believe that but I do feel some people have room for improvement. I think I look weird while running but coaches and experienced runners tell me I look fine.

A few years ago barefoot running was all the rage, now it seems that huge cushioning and carbon plates are.

Yes and it was effective and improved outcomes for me.

Having seen / endured this discussion on ST before, You’ll get replies to this thread that it can’t be done, there is no “right” cadence, and That Good Running Has Been Inside You All Along, and you just need to run more / do strides. I accepted with those for a while and now disagree. my experience has been specific and targeted form, style and cadence changes have led to better running and triathlon outcomes.

I spent the last few years bringing my strike from my heel to the front of my foot.

I have felt less injuries. I also went to a faster cadence and shorter stride. I’m definitely faster especially after a good training block this year in the 100/100.

Unfortunately, I did not get to test my speed in a planned 3/15/20 open marathon and I don’t think I’ll be signing up for another 26.2 anytime soon, but mainly want to focus on a 70.3 WC qual and being fast in the 13.1 portion. I’m pretty happy where I am right now, but still have a long way to go.

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https://www.strava.com/...tes/zachary_mckinney

I have, as some of the replies above, also changed my style from heel to mid/fore foot and upping cadence significantly. In the beginning it felt crazy inefficient but now it's natural.

I downloaded a cadence music app, called Weav Run. Paid for two months and used it in the fixed BPM mode, which helped alot.

However, I believe that everyone runs differently and upping cadence/pose running/whatever is not one size fits all, as mentioned above.

Good luck.

I was seeing an exercise physiologist for my shoulder and he asked to see me run to see how I was holding my shoulder. He helped me improve my technique, heel strike to forefoot and landing under my hips. He gave me two cues to focus on:
1. Run like I was wearing stripper heels
2. Squeeze my ass as if trying to stop someone putting a finger up it. I later adjusted this to imagining I was being pulled along by a string tied around my waist.

These cues improved my run efficiency and negated some niggles I had with knees and hip flexor.

Additionally we worked on cadence. After a week or two running with a metronome set at 180bpm I was able to naturally run every run in the vicinity of high 170s, which was the aim.

Ok cool, I’m glad there are some people who have found benefits. Some of it seems pretty legit and other bits are bs (one website saying pose method could speed Kipchoge up).

I’ve seen things saying it’s inefficient but if it helps me stay uninjured and do a decent block of training then that’s more efficient!

I tried the metronome thing yesterday and found it felt like I was running fast. I’ll stick with it and see how it goes.

Can anyone recommend decent resources? It seems hit and miss when googling

Thats the thing, I told everyone of my athletes. Works good.

Speakin about cadence, its a long time work. Sometimes it takes a year to had 180 instead of 165. If person work with phisyologist thats help faster and better.

Yes, I dramatically increased cadence, shortened my gait and changed the point of contact of my foot. They're all intimately related.
In my opinion there are different cadences at which you can be comfortable but you may not be comfortable in between, so gradual change may not be possible. I presume this is mosty a consequence of natural frequency interactions due to limb lengths and mass distribution. I used to run with a very low cadence (maybe mid 150s) and a very long stride with severe heel strike. I suffered with knee pain, occasional back pain and sometimes foot and hip pain which seemed o be running related but not sure. I stopped running for several months due to knee pain. Every time I tried to start back it flared up immediately. That's when I took up cycling to keep fit and when I did come back to running I used Merrell Barefoot Trail Gloves. This was about 8 years ago so it was an earlier version of them. I forced myself to keep my strides short, focusing on picking up my feet as soon as they were behind me. This drives a higher cadence and you can't heel strike much when taking short strides. It felt weird for the first few minutes but then I got comfortable. I built up gradually (really gradually) over a couple of months before I was running for more than 25-30mins at a time. It only took a few runs for the new run to feel natural but my calves were VERY tight after every run for the first month or two, then they relaxed. The zero heel drop of the shoes no doubt required some adaptation of the calves, plus I'd only been cycling for some time prior to this.
I did try running in my old style in my old shoes some time later as an experiment. I couldn't do it. The shoes felt horrible and my slower cadence clumsy run no longer felt right. It felt slow, stilted and "bangy". I did a couple of kilometers including trying to run in the old shoes with my new style - yuck. Went back home, switched shoes, and haven't run with a cadence below about 178 since. My usual cruising cadence now is about 183-188spm. I drop to about 178-180 when VERY fatigued and running slow, and I'm up around 187-190 for tempo/threshold runs.
I enjoy running much more now than I used to and haven't had any real injuries in years.
I switched from the trail gloves to Merrell Bare Access shoes not long after I switched my style, and I still use them. They're not true "barefoot" shoes, they have about 8mm or something of cushion, but they have no real structure to them, which I now like. I've done everything from 5km road races to half marathons, IM70.3s and full IM in them without any issues.

When I ran high school cross country many moons ago we were coached to lean forward and keep arms low. That works for short distance like 5k where you are concentrating on speed more than endurance and you can punish your body because the race isn’t very long. Endurance running requires some changes in form to preserve muscles and decrease wear and tear and the coaches I’ve been listening too, like Matt Wilpers and Becca Gentry on Peloton (their run workouts are great) stress running upright and keeping weight over the hips to reduce the dynamic load on the calves, quads and hammies. I don’t worry about arm position, I just do want feels natural and for me that is higher arms than when I was younger. It really allows me to run longer with less fatigue. I

I was just getting back into running after 30 years of no running. I had horrible form and knew I was very inefficient. So I watched a bunch of youtube videos and saw many about cadence, which almost all said focusing on this helps efficiency. I used a metronome on my iphone. I knew 180 was the "sweet spot" from the videos, so I started by running my half marathon pace and adjusted the metronome to my "natural" cadence at the time. It was about 150-152. I then started to increase the metronome speed about 4 spm every week. Of course I had to shorten my stride, but once I got up to 180 it was no problem. Now I can easily run at 180-190, but it's still too fast for my half marathon pace (HR goes up too high for a HM). I ran my PR HM in Feb at 170 for the first 10 miles and then increased to 180 for the last 5k (I actually ran with my phone and had the metronome going the whole time to keep even cadence). I shaved 45 sec/min from my previous PR in Dec. I'm still "base building" to be able to run at 180 and keep my HR down.

I found that when I was starting I was often scuffing my feet along. Now when I'm doing 170+ I naturally land on the fore foot and no longer scuff my feet.

When I do my z2 running I run at 150-155spm and I use cadence as my primary focus for different paces. When it's not 100 degrees I pretty much know 163-165 is my marathon pace, 168-170 is my HM pace, 173-175 is my 10k, etc.

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Not a coach. Not a FOP Tri/swimmer/biker/runner. Barely a MOP AGer.
But I'm learning and making progress.

If someone is trying to put a finger up my ass, bad run form is now the least of my worries.

Though I guess I’ll be running fast to avoid it.

I have recently tried increasing my cadence. I had success initially, but has battled keeping my HR low on slow runs due to the increase in revolutions.

Obviously there is a ton of advice here and everywhere, but I got my guidance from this two part podcast interview on That Triathlon Show: https://scientifictriathlon.com/tts110/ and https://scientifictriathlon.com/tts111/#tab-con-4.

The biggest takeaways I got was increasing cadence and improving posture when not running as a way to improve form. I should give it a re-listen, actually - there's tons of good stuff in there!

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80/20 Endurance Ambassador

read these responses/threads:

https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=7093385#p7093385
https://forum.slowtwitch.com/...ost=7109726#p7109726

bottom line if your wondering then you're not at the point where you can be confident of what needs to be fixed

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

@desert dude - So I’m not entirely sure what you mean.

You’re right I’m not sure what needs to be fixed but something definitely does. I’ve had knee pain recurrently which led to training on a bike which then led to hamstring tendonopathies on both sides, lower back back and now I’m back running 3years later I’m back into to knee pain. So all my races are cancelled due to corona, I’m going to try going back and upping my cadence see how it works out.

Based on my 20min run today it felt quite natural and easy at 180bpm and I had reduced knee pain so I might stick with it for a bit

Improve your eccentric hamstring and quad strength to allow for more knee flexion at initial contact in order to reduce translational motion at the knee. In addition, improve glute strength. Any videos of you running? Maybe there should be a gait analysis thread similar to the "bike fit" reviews.

if you don't know what needs fixing then you make break whatever it is you fix

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Brian Stover USAT LII
Accelerate3 Coaching
Insta

Yeah which is why I’m not going to change a lot at once. I’m going to work on improving my cadence and see where that gets me.

I read through a lot of older threads etc spoken to other runners who have found it helped them . I’m not expecting a miracle fix but I think it’s worth trying something.

With ref to eccentrics, 3 years of hamstring rehab have left me with plenty of eccentric experience, I also do eccentric squats and calf raises

Also earlier in the thread people have stated they managed to change their “style”.

Are their any standout lessons/tips to be imparted?

For me it was don’t stick your leg out in front of me and brake. Slowing the cadence below the target often specified by prolonging the push backwards phase and toe off I don’t find a problem. The key seems to be landing with knee ahead of ankle.

I personally forced myself to change by running indoors on a treadmill with bare feet. It hurts if you brake too hard. Build up though, as it takes a while for the skin to toughen up. Not sure I’ve sped up too much, but the type of injury definitely changed. No longer joint and ligament, but more muscle stuff, which is easier to recover from.