Great illustration on how to get a better running stride to avoid unneeded injury/stress. Craig, on left, raises the knee higher. While Terrenzo, in the white, pretty much goes forward. Although going forward may seem to result in speed, the going straight forward motion created the heel to go down first and therefore less forward motion and possible heel injuries and such. Great picture.

I thought id share since I never really understood what caused more of a heel strike, until I saw this...

I totally run heel strike. It sucks. My knees rattle and shake, and I am having such a hard time changing it.

I found this photo really interesting...because I think it makes sense, but I've also noticed that I only hit that first runner's form when I'm running faster and allowing myself to expend the energy to lift my legs like that, but if I'm holding back and just cruising I'm on the second runner's form to save effort for later in the run. Maybe the guy in second is just waiting to make his move!

Knowing Craig, he probably just past the second runner

Also found this video a few weeks ago, pretty interesting.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fSMaE0wqDeU

It is a huge amount of effort, unfortunately I used to heel strike and have now changed to midfoot strike, but it was a good 6 months at least before I got used to it - at first the soreness in my calves was almost crippling. The good news is I've been injury free since switching, so I reckon it was worth the effort.

i thought about this when i was running today!

So did I. It was f***ing hard work trying to concentrate & keep good form, but as already mentioned it should help in the long run (get it).

Cheers for posting.

I've been trying to switch for 1.5 years now, and I still heel strike. My legs hate me, and I still hate running.

Bummer

Have you tried minimal shoes already ? Almost impossible to heels strike in those.

I agree with the original poster but I'd like to add that every runner is unique in physical makeup and form. That's not to discount the benefits of being conscious of form but more importantly I've found that drills benefit a runner more so than making big efforts to change form during a run. This is particularly important if while making form changes new aches and pains start to develop.

The most beneficial drills I use are very short intense sprints up steep hills. Brad Hudson explains them best so I will post his article.

http://runningtimes.com/Article.aspx?ArticleID=15737&PageNum=1

I real eyes opening photo. I have been before thinking my running when on road paying attention of not stepping on my heels but also I am trying not to lift my feet too much but instead taking small firm steps without lifting my knees too much. Maybe my running at the moment is something between these two. On the other hand, I don't think this is great concern for me (yet!) as I run quite slowly and I feel really comfortable with my running position.

I take back everything I wrote yesterday!

When I was running yesterday I got this topic to my mind and started paying attention on the movement of my legs. I realized that in fact I do step dominantly on the heels. So, I tried to lift my knees a little higher and noticed a magnificent difference. I noticed that I still was taking the short comfortable steps not too far, I was stepping now better and it felt like my running was "rolling" much better". Negative aspect was that it felt like putting a lot of pressure on my shins. I used to have severe shin splints and never want that back.

E-P, layoff the shins and just do drills. This is the type of pain I am talking about in my earlier post!

You'd think.

I run barefoot at least 1/3rd of my runs, and otherwise run all almost all my runs on vibram's fivefingers. Heck, I mostly walk on fivefingers too.

I even run on concrete or hard surfaces to try to get me to force a midfoot/forefoot run, but It's not happening. I'm still a heel striker. I think it's got more to do with my body position than anything else, but that's not changing and I don't know how to do that.