Hello - Just joined this
Hello - Just joined this group and saw this forum.
I've been running barefoot 6 years, starting my 7th. Back when I ran shod, I used to run with these long, slow, bounding strides. It was hard for me catch the vision of running with a much faster cadence. Too easily I found myself slipping back to long, slow strides -- which was murder on my feet.
So I started 'singing' different songs in my head while running, to keep my pace up. Some of my favorites are these (don't laugh):
Handel's Messiah ("Forrrr unto us a Child is born, ..., unto us, ..., a Son is given," etc)
A silly song our church choir sang once called Jubilate, it has a good beat, though.
A song our Primary kids at church used to sing (I played the piano for them) called "Scripture Power."
Lately I've also been muttering this little chant I came up with one time while running through some gravelly beach sand. Its kind of like doing a voice 'beat-box!'
I wanted to emphacize the "up beat" part, to match "lifting" my feet. I can't write it out here very well, but its kind of like: tsee TSA TSA TSA TSA TSAtsee TSA TSA TSA TSA ... and various variations, with lots of off-beats stressed. It seems to help my cadence as well as keep my feet light.
Ryan