I am mid foot striker, or am I

But those London streets are paved with gold and that wears out your shoes quicker :wink:

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This is always from all parts of the race, tbh on Sunday I was running strongest at the end of the marathon!

I am not massively phased by it, but I always surprised to see my foot firmly on the floor when I feel like it is only my fore foot and was interested in others opinion.

As I say I am going to try and get someone to video me finishing a 5k to see how I roll (pun).
(Though the guy I had planned to ask ran it in 30 minutes this week with a broken arm so that plan may be off!)

You mean like this?

image

or this?

image

Static images are not the full story

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You’re h, but due to years of training and racing on the track Bekele always ran with his head turned left. Don’t go showing a picture of Geb and his massive pronation either!

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there is a tendency for all runners to exceed their biomechanical form when racing…

walking in running shoes is not good for understanding foot strike and re acceleration wear patterns…

there is good data to determine the benefits of reducing the angle of the foot at foot strike…

and why you’d want to lander ‘under’ or ‘just ahead’ of your COM beats me…

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What would you suggest @explorerJC? You’re a respected expert on this matter in these parts. But that’s two comments (this and the one on @Chriswim thread) where you’ve very deliberately pointed a negative, but then left it there…

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to allow people to think about the solution rather than just taking someone else’s word for it…that is, i assume, how they can accept much of the dogma that exits…

I am happy to help people to unpack the argument…but not to be lazy about it…

Absolutely. I don’t think anyone suggested where he should or shouldn’t land or any other dogma?

About interpreting sole wear. I’m kind of sceptical. Most runners strike the ground with their heel first. I’m no expert but kind of imagine maximum force delivery, when pushing off, is through the forefoot? So won’t even a heel striker have greater wear at the front of the shoe than the back? How much does sole wear really tell us? Maybe I’m speaking through my Asics here of course

firstly, shoes tend to be designed to absorb the impact at heel strike, secondly there is a range of friction which wears soles as the foot rolls through to toe off…but no, overall force is the same albeit spread over a wider area or if you are shockingly inefficient at toe off…

my comment wasn’t directly aimed at this, but…

I thought so but didn’t understand why. I wasn’t telling him do to do anything. I was just trying to describe what was most likely happening based on his description of the photo. There was no advice or dogma from me.

Who/what was it aimed at?

Sorry YKK I missed this earlier as I was busy with work. Do you mean that you’re surprised that you’re on the whole foot during the stance phase?

the general dogmatic guidance which is usually along the lines of reducing stride length, landing underneath COM (which really shows a lack of understanding) or landing just ahead of COM…

There are more neuroreceptors in the forefoot, and pretty much none in the fat pad of the heel…thus this is usually the ‘feeling’

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Yes, I think so, I guess when I land it feels like I am on my fore/mid foot, but when I look at pictures if taken at the correct moment my whole foot looks like it lands pretty much on the ground and I dont think I have ever seen one where my foot is partly on the ground but my heel is not. Of course that could just be timing, but I have run a lot of races now.
If EJC is correct, then maybe it has something to do with the receptors in my feet soles and that would explain it.

The main reason I asked is that I dish out running advice to my mates as much as the next man as I am “the runner” in whatever group I am in, so I was just intrigued as to why I look like I land flat footed when I am explaining that as I got faster I moved to be more mid-foot which in my lay mind makes sense as I my foot is landing more under me. Likely everyone ignores me anyhow!

However, as lots have said I should watch a video of me to know for sure.

I enjoy running and for me has trumped the other tri sports and is all I really do now as it really is as simple as plug some headphones in and just run and not really for that long and you can get relatively good. Run more and you get even better.
I am faster than I ever thought I would be, have zero interest in remedying or researching if whether my COM (I have no idea what that is) is in the correct place or anything else form wise. So I certainly don’t plan to ruin running with drills

I was just intrigued as to why and if others had noticed similar.

Yep, none of that guidance was given.

CoM is centre of mass. I would say most people will have the whole foot on the ground at some point during the stride regardless of where foot strike is. Timing of the photo obviously determines what you see. I was watching some Farah slow-mo and during a 10km (2012 super Saturday) his heel almost touched down, during the marathon it does.

eJC is correct…but will also add that the shoe companies have built even more cushioning into the heel area for obvious reasons and thus will reduce feeling even more so…

Yes, the foot will (apart from particular cases) be flat on the ground at some stage…those who went from stacked shoes to zero differential shoes without allowing for adaptation, this was a problem because their musculature wouldn’t allow it…