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Anonymous
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I tried changing my footstrike in my running today, from heel to forefoot. My calves are a bit sore, and I noticed that I ran a bit slower.

One thing I noticed that was pretty cool was my two different patterns (I run in sand/gravel, no choice). When I first started, I was hitting the middle of my foot pretty consistently and you could not see the heel in my shoeprint. But when I was coming back in the last couple minutes of my run, I started getting lazy. My heel was striking and you could see the extra force it was taking me to push off on the toe to recover from the inertia brake of hitting my heel. I thought it was pretty cool.

Anyway, just something I wanted to share. I'll let you know if my speed improves a lot once my calves get used to the new technique. Also, I was running in Nike Considered Humara: they have a trail mesh top, a Nike Free sole and a weird trail waffle. The low heel made it a bit easier to strike mid-foot.
>> Anonymous
Sand and gravel are pretty brutal. I don't think it's really comparable because you don't have anything firm to push off of and there isn't a lot of friction.

Probably great exercise though.
>> Anonymous
woooh rougher than snow? I wonder
>> Anonymous
>>46598
I'm a fatass, so when I strike with my heels I get insane knee and shin pain. Forefoot strike does seem to get faster as your calves improve their conditioning. Don't forget to think triple extension: Hip, knee, ankle.
>> Anonymous
>>46655
It's not thick beach sand. I'm in Afghanistan, so if you can imagine sparse sand and gravel on hard ground, that's what it's like. Yeah, it kinda sucks, but I've pretty much gotten used to it and my ankles and other joints are pretty strong now because of it. I was getting some soreness in my Achilles, which is why I wanted to start doing forefoot striking (to aleive pressure from the heel/knee/hip joints). I can mix it up later if I find my metatarsals start getting sore.