I must say after seeing the guy last year who ran the marathon barefoot with out the slightest scrape on his feet was pretty impressive.
My interest has been piqued but so far trying to transition on my own hasn't really worked. My daughter is fast but needs some help with her form and stride so last week we both attended a running clinic at Fleet Feet. The clinic was fairly basic but gave a few pointers. What I got out of it the most was watching my stride on a video they took of the class. When we did a lap in our socks I noticed I was "prancing" on the balls of my foot. Prancing is when you are still trying to reach for a longer stride but almost on tip-toes so you still hit the ball of your feet.
Here are a few pointers they told us to follow:
Form: Keep your body tall. Do an overhead stretch to reset your body and alignment. Feet are hip width apart facing forward with your hips set squarely above them in a neutral position...don't stick your booty out. Arms bent at 90 degrees but relaxed.
Foot Strike: You want to strike the ball of your foot, then hit the mid then slightly hit the heel. You also want your strike to be under your body, not out in front. This one is taking some getting used to but your cadence will help (we'll get to that).
In Motion: When you start to run lean your body slightly forward from you ankles, not your hips. You can get the feel for this by standing a couple of feet away from a wall and fall toward the wall bending at your ankle. Don't forget to catch yourself, hands up on the wall, not face :) Your arms shouldn't go out in front of you, very little forward motion, most of the motion in the arms is when they push back. Every move you make should benefit forward motion only.
Cadence: This was a new one for me but made a lot of sense. To become a faster runner you want to pay attention to your cadence or how quickly you are turning over your feet to strike the ground. They had us do a good exercise with a beeper set at 180, with each beep we hopped foot to foot. Then they slowed it down to 160, 150, 140. By 140 you could feel yourself plop side to side and notice how long your foot was resting on the ground. At 180 you barely had time to get your foot all the way down which is better for the impact on your body and feet as well as improve your speed. There are apps you can download to your phone and set a cadence to help you learn your new pace.
If and when you decide to transition to a different running style be sure to take your time. You don't want to go out one morning and decide this is the day you will never strike your heel again. It takes time to get comfortable with it and your body must adapt. Changing from a heel strike to a ball strike engages more muscles and like any new routine those muscles will get sore.
Start out by trying your new form a couple times a week. You could try running a mile this way then build from there or try doing intervals of new form and old form or new form and walking. Most of all listen to your body, ice, stretch, use a roller and change back to your old style when pain or soreness set in. If you over due it all at once you might not be running at all for a while. Trust me, I started a few minutes at a time yesterday and when I tried it today I could only do a couple of intervals before my calves were way to sore to keep it up.
Here is a link I found, it helps lay out in more detail the info above. I have also had a couple of people recommend the book, Born to Run. I haven't read it but I've heard it's very good.
http://www.runningplanet.com/training/running-form.html
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