Sprinting barefoot

[Abide]

Fartleks sound like a great

Fartleks sound like a great idea. Phil I really like the idea of starting with longer sprints and shortening them as you get tired.

An ultra runner I know does a lot of his midweek runs in the pool. He says it really helps with recovery. And he runs a 100 miler every other week and is close to 60. Pretty cool stuff, just a little to slow for my liking

 

[Barefoot TJ]

I understand and agree

I understand and agree with the letting your stride lengthen behind you, when you have a forward slant, but lengthening your stride in front of you will cause you to heel strike. You guys can pick this statement apart, but that is what happens to me if I try to overstride.

 

[sloutre]

I tried on Wednesday: knees

I tried on Wednesday: knees up, heels up, lenghtening the stride in the back with a lean slightly more pronounced. At some point I felt like I got it right. I will need more practice but I think I know the feel of what I'm aiming for.

The thing that surprised me is the soreness in my quads the next day. I 'forgot' to stretch, as usual, and my quads got pretty sore. This does not happen on long runs. So I was really working differently.

I'll keep practising the fartleks once a week for a while, following your advice and see how it goes.

 

[migangelo]

http://www.youtube.com/watch?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd1QvXJS9m4



watch this lady run. she grew up running bf. pretty amazing.



MIke

 

[Abide]

Barefoot TJ wrote:I

I understand and agree with the letting your stride lengthen behind you, when you have a forward slant, but lengthening your stride in front of you will cause you to heel strike. You guys can pick this statement apart, but that is what happens to me if I try to overstride.

Hey your back

Well the theory is because you are moving fast enough by time your foot touches your body will be directly over your foot. But your foot doesn't really overstride you kind of just pick up your knee and your foot stays more under your body. I don't have fancy video editing skills to show you but a picture is worth a million words in this case.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

migangelo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Pd1QvXJS9m4 watch this lady run. she grew up running bf. pretty amazing.MIke

GORGEOUS! Absolutely beautiful!

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Abide wrote:Well the theory

Well the theory is because you are moving fast enough by time your foot touches your body will be directly over your foot. But your foot doesn't really overstride you kind of just pick up your knee and your foot stays more under your body. I don't have fancy video editing skills to show you but a picture is worth a million words in this case.

Well, there goes that theory. I don't move fast enough I guess. Ha! ;-)

 

[Matt]

I think one of the big

I think one of the big advantages of sprinting is time. There are times when I don't have a lot of time for a really long run. On days like that, I do more sprinting, and feel like I get in as much "running" as I normally would, but in a shorter amount of time. I'm not against long, slow runs, but there isn't always a lot of time for that.

 

[mokaman]

Sprinting isn't really speed

Sprinting isn't really speed training to me. I only sprint once in a great while on grass at a football field...its full all out speed for 50 - 100 yards... 3 or 4 times only after a slow warmup. I do this for overall health and not for running purposes...its suppose to be good for your hormones etc.

Speed work on the other hand is 10 - 20% of my weekly miles leading up to a race. I try to hit a half marathon to 10k pace for 1 - 3 miles in the middle of one run each week...and thats it for speedwork, the rest is slow running with hills in the mix.

To keep it interesting vary the paces...several shorter burts of speed up to sometimes one longer 2 - 3 mile part...whatever fits the course to keep it fun.

 

[Matt]

mokaman wrote:Sprinting isn't

Sprinting isn't really speed training to me. I only sprint once in a great while on grass at a football field...its full all out speed for 50 - 100 yards... 3 or 4 times only after a slow warmup. I do this for overall health and not for running purposes...its suppose to be good for your hormones etc. Speed work on the other hand is 10 - 20% of my weekly miles leading up to a race. I try to hit a half marathon to 10k pace for 1 - 3 miles in the middle of one run each week...and thats it for speedwork, the rest is slow running with hills in the mix. To keep it interesting vary the paces...several shorter burts of speed up to sometimes one longer 2 - 3 mile part...whatever fits the course to keep it fun.

I agree about the distinction. The other thing about sprinting is that it feels a lot better than speed training, at least it does to me.

 

[Barefoot Larry]

Barefoot Larry wrote:Hey

Hey BFRs, what pace m/m is considered sprinting?

It depends on you ability, for you I think around a 4 minute/mile pace.

I think I'm too old for a 4 minute/mile pace. When I try to run as fast as I can, I'm not faster than 6:30 m/m ugh I'm aging

 

[Matt]

Barefoot Larry wrote:Barefoot

Hey BFRs, what pace m/m is considered sprinting?

It depends on you ability, for you I think around a 4 minute/mile pace.

I think I'm too old for a 4 minute/mile pace. When I try to run as fast as I can, I'm not faster than 6:30 m/m ugh I'm aging

I might be too old for a 4 minute/mile pace, too. But I keep trying. I wonder how accurate my Garmin really is when it comes to sprinting paces. There is a lag, and by the time the Garmin can really figure out what my pace is, my sprint is over. I've gotten it under 5 min/mile pace a few times, but I don't really know how precise that is for really short sprints.

Now that I'm doing more sprinting, I'll be curious to see how much I can improve.

 

[migangelo]

c'mon Larry you can do it!

c'mon Larry you can do it! Don't you want to bend over in pain and puke? No pain no gain right?



Mike

 

[mokaman]

I know my 100 yard sprint

I know my 100 yard sprint speed is lame compared to 1 mile speed...sprint is just a couple seconds faster than my 1 mile speed per min/mile. Mostly because I don't have leg strength to actually run 100 yards full speed...the last 20 - 30 yards are slower than the middle 50 so it pulls down my 100 yard speed time. You can't go by a Garmin just the time in seconds and use a calculator to figure per min/mile speed...4 min/mile sprint would seem impossible for me...I'd be way happy with 5 m/mile speed.

 

[Abide]

You guys should try a track

You guys should try a track with a stopwatch. Or run in a marked football/soccer field.

Running sprints is like weight lifting. You need to work up to it. A 15-16 second 100m is way easier for me than a 40 second 200m? That is kind of strange. Plus there is no way in hell I am getting less than a 75 seconds for a 400m.

 

[Barefoot Larry]

If your Garmin lags too much

If your Garmin lags too much there is a setting that will increase the data sampling rate. I think the default is 5 seconds.

 

[Matt]

Barefoot Larry wrote:If your

If your Garmin lags too much there is a setting that will increase the data sampling rate. I think the default is 5 seconds.

I'll have to look into the Garmin settings. That makes sense. I hit my quickest Garmin pace yesterday, by far. It was a 4:18 pace. I think my previous best had been 4:45.

But I think the improvement isn't about being that much faster, but being able to hold a sprint for a longer distance, which gives my Garmin more of a chance to catch up.

 

[Jonny00GT]

I read running down hills and

I read running down hills and walking back up is good for speed training. Has anyone tried that? You're supposed to start with a slight down grade first to work up to bigger drops. You don't fight gravity. Just let it take you but try and keep your form. Ken Bob mentions this in his book, too, and provided a story where he was bombing down steep hill practically sitting on his heals, but not fighting the speed and yelling,"No Brakes!". I think it's something about the addition of gravity able to pull you faster than you can normally sprint that activates more quick fibers.

In high school, we had this torture device...er...piece of equipment, that was 2 harnesses with a bungie cord in the middle. Coach would have one guy take off, and once the cord was good and stretched, the other guy would take off(and ultimately face plant if he couldn't keep his feet!). After a few rounds of this, they would switch. There was supposed to be a benefit for the first guy of sprinting against the resistance. The benefit for the other guy was roadrash! Ok ok...it was similar to the down hill principle. He would end up moving his legs to match a speed he couldn't normally achieve on his own. The benefit for everyone else watching was obvious! I think the coaches got a kick out of us biting it as they would make the second guy wait longer and longer to take off. Eventually they waited too long and the cord snapped. I think those 2 guys got to go home early! LOL!

-Jonny

 

[ajb422]

Sprinting downhill barefoot

Sprinting downhill barefoot before you've been doing it awhile is probably not a super idea. Running downhill barefoot is fun, and much less painful than in shoes, but I think you could also risk coming down too hard and putting too much stress on areas that are already stressed from the transitioning. I do it all the time now, and I have a blast with it, but I'm not sure I'd suggest it until every tiny little itty bitty bit of transitional issues are gone. I wouldn't say I use it as "training" though, like everything I do I just find it fun. Running down hills and walking up them is much more pleasant than the other way around.

 

[Matt]

ajb422 wrote:Sprinting

Sprinting downhill barefoot before you've been doing it awhile is probably not a super idea. Running downhill barefoot is fun, and much less painful than in shoes, but I think you could also risk coming down too hard and putting too much stress on areas that are already stressed from the transitioning. I do it all the time now, and I have a blast with it, but I'm not sure I'd suggest it until every tiny little itty bitty bit of transitional issues are gone. I wouldn't say I use it as "training" though, like everything I do I just find it fun. Running down hills and walking up them is much more pleasant than the other way around.

I concur with this. No matter how you look at it, sprinting is puts more stress on the body that slower running. Recently, I've noticed a few issues with my right knee. Definitely, related to sprinting.