Foot strike and cadence

What are we aiming for

Quick and light steps, avoid stomping or overstriding

Foot landing under centre of mass, not ahead

Cadence around 165-180 for endurance runs (will vary person to person)

It is ok to be a heel, midfoot or forefoot striker, the efficiency is more to do with HOW you land.  Most sprinters/track athletes will be more towards forefoot, but many elite marathon runners are heel strikers.  I am a midfoot striker and that is efficient for me, but that is not necessarily true for everyone.  If you look at the elite heel strikers you will see their form is very different to the majority of recreational heel strikers.  They will be running with a higher cadence, lower ground contact time, have quiet landings, therefore making this very efficient.  So if you are a heel striker, improving cadence and reducing overstriding are both more important than forcing yourself to become a midfoot striker.

Any changes we make need to be done slowly, completely altering how you run would be likely to cause more problems than you solve.  It is far better to pick one thing you would like to work on, you can then periodically focus on that during an easy run.  Concentrating on something for a whole run will be too mentally fatiguing.

If you find your cadence is lower than 160 spm then working on this will also shorten your stride and reduce braking.  Look to increase your cadence by 5 spm for a few weeks, do not assume that 180 is right for you and force yourself to jump to that or introduce a big change in one go.  We are all different so you may find big improvements in how you run by gradually increasing to 170 but another person 185.

If you overstride then you may be quad dominant and not using your glutes as much.  Look to land over your flexed knee not with your leg extended out in front.

Ideas to try on your next easy run.  In the middle of your run try adding in 5 x 30s where you are focusing on

a.      Quiet steps.  Run normally but aim to reduce foot noise

b.      Quick feet.  Slightly increase your cadence without speeding up