Striking the ground

There is a lot of debate about heel-striking versus forefoot striking. There are excellent articles that explain the difference in impact and concludes that is probably better to strike the ground with your forefoot than otherwise. (Like this one.) But not everyone agrees. Some say that front-foot striking may cause all kinds of problems with your feet if you do longer distances like that. (Like these guys)

I had an interesting variation of this today. Last week I went out for a 50k but could do only 21k before my ITB in my left knee became unbearable. This is despite mid-foot striking. Today it looked like the same thing was going to happen since around 8k, it started going wrong and I had to stop and stretch. As is my habit (a good one I think) I also asked my Friend to help.

And I believe He did. I experimented with different ways to place my foot and found that if I put more of my weight on the inside of my foot as it lands, the pain becomes manageable and it did not get any worse. Just to be sure, I switched back to my normal way and sure enough, the pain returned very quickly. I know about Supination and pronation which is the rolling movement out and in respectively that your food does after striking the ground. I suppose what I did was to correct some over-pronation that started too far on the outside of the foot.

My legs did get sore, but I suppose it is what you would call “normal” pain. I enjoyed the rest of my run and finished in a time which was good enough.

I keep on thinking how it would be to run the Tuffman 24-hour stadium run on 10 March. I did it once a bit more than a year ago, but it will probably be different. That was mid-winter, this will be spring. (The average maximum temperature is 27 degrees Celsius and minimum is 14 degrees Celsius on that day in Chandigarh.) Then I had no problem with my legs other than the “normal” piriformis (butt-pain) that is still there in varying degrees. I was very happy to be done with the 50 today, so how would 150 or 160 feel?

But then I remember that it depends on what you set out for. I was mentally prepared for only 50 today. On the 10th of March, I will probably be prepared for more. So much of it is in the mind.

Here are some pictures I took this morning.

Keep running

Stephan