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Question on forefoot vs. heal strike and mileage conversion?

(2 posts)
  1. Just ready your entire book over the last two weeks. Excellent!!

    I have two comments. Number one: In your post for this thread you commented that running forefoot in situations involving mud is not efficient and would be best being done using a heal strike stride. You just confirmed an observation I have made over and over while running muddy trails. I am also thankful that I am not weird in switching from forefoot on harder trail surfaces to heal strike in muddy root filled trail sections. I kept feeling like I needed to pick one or the other!

    Number two: In reading your book I kept wondering how can I adapt your training regiments to someone such as myself that runs exclusively in the mountains and on trails. In December I am beginning your Level 2 marathon training and am struggling with figuring out how many miles I should be running. My 18 mile long runs are usually filled with 5,000+ and 5,000- elevation gain/loss with extremely difficult footing. Would it still be appropriate for me to adhere to your mileage suggestions even though they were meant for the road?

    Finally the two most important revelations I got from your book were: Training using intervals that are close to race pace and hill sprints for the injury prone runner. Absolutely good stuff in my running sphere!
    Cheers,

    Posted 9 months ago #
  2. First for most it is best to run more heel to toe but when you are talking about elites it's a much different story. Most people will have less injuries with a heel to toe and heel striking is much more efficient in mud, sand or rough grass. I think it's important to not be so absolute with elites as you will discover some of the greatest ever have been both heel and toe. 80-90% of running is being healthy so that is where i would start.

    As far as adjusting to mountain running i would def. just run for time and put some sort of number system on both intensity and duration it was ( ex.1-10 with 10 being as hard as you could go) Training is what it takes from you not always some easily measured response especially at altitude. Individual response to a stress is really what matters.

    Posted 9 months ago #

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