Yes - more geekiness - stride analysis 1 year later

File this as "only in Boulder".   Only in Boulder, (as an average Joe Blow) can your running style be compared side-by-side with an Ironman World Champion to see how your form checks out.

 

Backstory

I've been a bit worried about my running stride - the wear on my shoes is inconsistent.  Even tho I don't *think* I heel strike, I have wear on the left heel of my shoe.

Last year I had a in depth stride analysis done at The Fuelary (formerly known as All Sports Recovery).  I was a bit of a heel striker and I didn't lean forward enough.  They gave me some tips to improve my running form and even tho I feel like I've had gotten better I wasn't really sure.

So I thought I'd go back since it's been a year and I had a couple of concerns:
1. the left shoe wear has me worrying I was heel striking on my left foot
2.  I was worried that my cadence is too fast.  I avg 97 - 100 per minute (per foot) and I heard 90 is optimal.  I thought maybe I was wasting energy - but every time I try to slow down my cadence - it naturally pops back up to the high 90s.  I blame it on my short little legs. 

The Analysis 

Josh started off by checking the strength of my hips/glutes and sure enough - my left side (the side with the shoe wear) was WAY weaker than the right side.

Then he had me run on the treadmill.  He showed me exactly what was happening with my left foot, but even with that issue he thought my form was pretty good.  

When I land on my left foot - I land on the outside of my left forefoot and then on my heel.  So I'm not heel striking, but landing on the outside is causing the wear.  Josh didn't seem to think that it was that big of a problem.  I just have to tiger tail the outside of my lower leg.

Another thing was I have a little bit of hip drop when I land on my right leg.   But other than that he thought most of my issues could be fixed by activating my muscles before running and with one legged drills.  On the good side, I'm landing on my mid-foot and I'm driving with my arms.

To fix things, I need to make sure my glutes are firing before I start running and he gave me some instructions on what/how to foam roll and activate before I started running.  Sounds easy enough.

Cadence and Comparsion

When I asked him about the cadence - he said he liked my cadence said and it reminded him of someone else - Mirinda Carfrae.   whoa...I are you kidding me?

So he pulled up the video of Mirinda and played my video and hers side-by-side.  It was pretty amazing our body positions were the same and our cadence was pretty much the same.  It was really cool watching both videos play side-by-side.

Here are a couple of stills from the videos.  Of course there is a BIG difference in our paces.  I'm running at 9.5 min mile pace - she's running at  5.5 min mile pace. 

Old vs New

Here's a couple of videos from my 2011 and 2012 gait analysis.  Yes - I'm a big time GEEK!!  Note - the treadmill was moved from last time and the chart in the background was moved higher - in 2011 top of the chart was below my shoulders and in 2012 it was level with my neck.

Here's the most recent video of me running.  I got a little lean from the ankles and landing on my mid-foot.


And here's me as a beginner a year ago.  I'm almost running straight up (no lean) and I'm a heel striking fool.


And for your viewing entertainment - here's two world champions showing how they do it.  Poetry in motion.   Video credit - the Fuelary's you tube video.
I left the Fuelary pretty happy knowing even tho I'll never be as fast as Mirinda - I at least have her running style.  :)