A quick poll, who do you think has the smoothest and most efficient running style, either straight marathoner or Ironman?
Ryan Hall comes to mind
Paul Tergat always looked pretty effortless to me.
If you hadn’t said marathoner, I just love watching Seb Coe run.
Wilson Kipsang…he looks effortless
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Paul Tergat always looked pretty effortless to me.
If you hadn’t said marathoner, I just love watching Seb Coe run.
Seb Coe is the best.
Not at expert in interpreting stride, but Ryan Hall’s has always caught my attention.
Kipsang, if you haven’t seen it, watch the end (last mile or so) of the 2014 NY Marathon
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Rinny. I can watch her run all day. A thing of beauty. Effortless.
Rinny. I can watch her run all day. A thing of beauty. Effortless.
Is there a male equivalent in the tri world?
Guys like Gomez, Sanders, Hanson have to be fairly efficient. Frodeno seems to defy logic a little.
Rinny. I can watch her run all day. A thing of beauty. Effortless.
Is there a male equivalent in the tri world?
Guys like Gomez, Sanders, Hanson have to be fairly efficient. Frodeno seems to defy logic a little.
Alistair Brownlee.
All of the elite marathoners look amazingly smooth and efficient to me…it’s hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that they are clicking off miles faster than I go in a full on, legs flailing and arms thrashing sprint; they look make it look so effortless.
For IM, hands down it’s Rinny. Her run is a thing of beauty.
Spot
Yes, Kipsang floats. It’s kinda like the Chuck Norris joke: “Chuck Norris doesn’t do pushups, he pushes the world down.”
“Wilson Kipsang doesn’t run, he floats and the world rotates beneath him”
In triathlon, I always liked to watch Crowie run. And of course everyone admires Rinny.
On the mens side, most of the top guys look very similar to my untrained eye.
It seems like on the womens side you get a bit more variation and some more idiosyncratic strides (Priscah Jeptoo for instance)
All of the elite marathoners look amazingly smooth and efficient to me…it’s hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that they are clicking off miles faster than I go in a full on, legs flailing and arms thrashing sprint; they look make it look so effortless.
I might suggest you take a look at Paula Radcliffe running.
Now, I’m not criticizing anyone, especially Paula. So don’t jump all over me. I’m merely saying that not all elites look smooth and efficient.
For the open mary, any of the elites. I remember watching a video of a Ryan Hall training run at Big Bear with the camera filming from the side. His body looked relaxed and somewhat “lazy”, yet you see all the things in the background whipping by and are reminded he was clicking off sub 5:00 miles.
For IM, from the Kona coverage, Crowie has always looked smooth and relaxed to me. Others have said Rinny. I will agree she looks efficient, but it looks like she’s at war out on the run - attacking and mowing down the field. Both great runners and warriors.
All of the elite marathoners look amazingly smooth and efficient to me…it’s hard for me to wrap my brain around the fact that they are clicking off miles faster than I go in a full on, legs flailing and arms thrashing sprint; they look make it look so effortless.
I might suggest you take a look at Paula Radcliffe running.
Now, I’m not criticizing anyone, especially Paula. So don’t jump all over me. I’m merely saying that not all elites look smooth and efficient.
… see Frodeno. Amazing athlete, just doesn’t look pretty to me in photos I’ve seen. The rolled up top doesn’t help either. But clearly his mechanics from the hips down are solid and his power to weight ratio isn’t too shabby.
He is mostly known for ultramarathoning but Bruce Fordyce has a smooth and efficient running form.
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Efficiency does not necessarily mean “smooth.” There is not necessarily a strong correlation between the two…as others have already mentioned Prisca Jeptoo and Paula Radcliffe. Here’s a summary of Paula Radcliffe’s Vo2Max and Running Economy for 10 years:
http://fellrnr.com/wiki/Running_Economy
While I can’t find a compiled list of elite’s running economies like there are lists of Vo2Max, I’d wager that her running economy is about the highest ever recorded and she definitely lacks in the ‘smoothness’ category. Also note, she was ABSOLUTELY WORLD CLASS in track (5k, 10k) in her earlier years (her 5k is 15 seconds faster than the AR and her 10k is the 5th or 6th fastest ever ran).
Now for just looking for a ‘beautiful’ running action, Molly Huddle comes to mind (she will be a marathoner soon), as does Hicham El Guerrouj (farthest he ran competitively I think is the 5000). Someone mentioned Seb Coe, and he never ran over a 5000 either.
For people who have completed marathons: Tirunesh Diababa on the female side comes to mind, and on the Men’s side, Moses Mosop comes to mind.
Efficiency does not necessarily mean “smooth.” There is not necessarily a strong correlation between the two…as others have already mentioned Prisca Jeptoo and Paula Radcliffe. Here’s a summary of Paula Radcliffe’s Vo2Max and Running Economy for 10 years:
Dr. Stephen McGregor who studies this sort of thing and has measured the economy of huge amount of runners says that he can not tell how actually efficient someone is by just watching them.
Paula always looked to me like she was having a conversation that started with,
“can you do this for five more steps”, nod, “yes”, “five more steps”, nod, “yes”…
(Have a feeling it would be a waste of breath to ever disagree with her)
IM male version, the names that come to my mind are Cam Brown and Crowie, they always made IM runs look easy.
Female runner (triathlon) Gwen Jorgensen that’s smooth/effortless. She just run away from others without having the feeling that she pushing!