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PostPosted: Thu May 27, 1999 8:01 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Just recently I began to include sprints in my distance training, which I found very helpful- and now I am concurrently working on improving my 200-800m speed. I tried toe running, and saw a very nice increase im my performance, but it also aggravated some of the pain in my shins. I think this could be solved by refining my toe running form- could you go into more detail about specific foot form when toe running?- heel height, center of balance position, and the like

[Anonymously Posted by: 'Sapan']
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Dan
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PostPosted: Thu May 27, 1999 10:24 am    Post subject: Reply with quote

Hi, I don't know about the specific biomechanics of toe-running, but I'll try to describe what's worked for me. Wink

I tend to picture the foot sort of like a diving board while toe-running -- firm but not rigid. You want to make contact with the ball of your foot, but without pointing your toes down. To do this, you will need to rotate your torso forward slightly (this contributes to toe-running's speed increases). Generally, heel striking goes hand-in-hand with over-striding. If you visualize a vertical line from the front of your knee down to the ground, this means your foot is landing in front of that line. To toe-run correctly, you want to be landing directly on that line, then springing lightly into the next stride.

If you want to take it one step further, there is the concept of negative (or zero) foot speed. This might be the most difficult technical aspect in all of running. Apparently only a few sprinters in the world have mastered it! The idea here is that at the very moment your foot touches the ground, it is moving ever so slightly backward. Run normal, and pay attention to how you contact the ground. Most likely, you are brakeing with every impact. While I don't expect you to master this technique, it might go a ways toward easing any soreness toe-running might cause you.

Also, did you read the section on shin splints in my tips page? This might help you, as well. Another thing to concentrate on is building up calf strength. When I first took to toe running with a vengeance, the sight of a few flights of stairs scared me for nearly two weeks! Smile Now, I tend to do toe raises nearly every time I'm standing around without hardly thinking about it.

Here's another thing that might be worth playing with: In the push-off phase, try and relax your ankle so that your calf is free to do its thing. Just experimenting here myself, it feels like most of the rigidity comes from the arch of the foot.

Sorry if I couldn't answer your questions a little more technically. Adam, are you out there to help? Hopefully the descriptions give you a little something more to work with.

Dan
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PostPosted: Fri May 28, 1999 12:57 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Your descriptions helped out alot- thats what i was looking for, but Im still not clear on one thing- how far do I alow my foot to pivot after I land on the ball of my foot, naturally walking I would allow it to pivot all the way until my heel hits the ground- but in this situation do i want to keep it rigid, or let my heel come close to hitting the ground or somewhere in between? it seems to me that keeping a rigid angle would give the quickest turnaround, but also gives very little spring to absorb the shock...

[Anonymously Posted by: 'Sapan']
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Dan
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PostPosted: Fri May 28, 1999 5:43 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Glad that helped somewhat. Let's see... You definitely don't want to keep the ankle entirely rigid -- that would put a large amount of pressure on the fairly fragile foot metatarsals. How much to let your heel drop? My best estimate would be about half the distance. So, if your heel is three inches off the ground when you impact, let it drop to about 1.5" before springing back. I'm not sure if there's a hard and fast rule for this. Play around with it and see how that feels. Just remember to stay fluid. Rigid = hurt.

Dan
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Adam
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PostPosted: Sat May 29, 1999 6:58 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Triceps surae (calf) muscle stiffness does play a role in maximal sprint speed since research has shown that that particular muscle group actively helps with forward propulsion. I don't know that any research has been done specifically on optimal triceps surae stiffness for sprinting. Possibly because it is a complicated problem of optimizating maximum energy return, minimum contact time, and a host of other factors, or possibly because many of the answers are intuitively clear.

For your question of ankle rigidity, the easiest part to answer is whether or not you should try to hold it completely rigid. The answer is definitely no for two reasons: 1)It's probably impossible given the magnitude of the impact forces during running, and 2)if there was no muscle length change then no energy could be stored and returned in the "spring" of the muscle. The exact amount of energy returned would vary with stiffness because of the nature of muscle tissue, but it almost certainly needs to be greater than zero, therefore requiring some ankle joint movement upon impact.

As far as controlling the exact amount of triceps surae length change during impact, my feeling is that consciously optimizing any factors related to sprinting fast would be difficult, other than obvious changes such as running on your toes versus heels. The reason for this is that most of the finer control of movement during a high speed cyclical activity such as sprinting comes from lower level unconscious parts of the nervous system. Additional input from higher conscious centers of the nervous system would probably not help. What would help is to do training that would improve your body's ability to unconsciously optimize things such as calf muscle stiffness. Plyometric drills such as quick one legged hopping or uphill bounding, for instance, could be effective in that regard.

The bottomline: Your body will figure out how to sprint as fast as possible a lot quicker than you if given the right training. You just need to figure out the right training.

Adam Gaines
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Dan
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PostPosted: Sun May 30, 1999 6:42 pm    Post subject: Reply with quote

Excellent answer(s)! See, I said basically the same thing but without making it obvious that I didn't know what I was talking about. Smile

I can't agree enough that over-thinking sprinting is probably one of the worst things you can do. I've seen it written that maximum sprint speed ocurrs at only 95% intensity, because that's the best combination of relaxation and speed. Let it come to you.

Dan
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