Nick
on Goss (ArmyPTUNC
Nick:
Don Goss (ArmyPTUNC here on the site) is an Army Doctor doing a sojourn at UNC Chapel Hill, during which he is also conducting a joint loading/impact study in which I have served as a participant. He could probably help you out a good bit. There's also the mathematics to figure out a cadence and stride length required to maintain a particular pace. It's very straightforward, but also tricky. Here's my long-past post describing how I worked it out for myself.
" I was (and frankly, still am a bit) dismayed at the loss of speed and at the potential prospects for regaining any speed at all, much less back to my 6:15/mile traditional, shod running pace.
I ran with LTC Rex Hall to have him watch my form in person and help me improve it. While running, I asked him how one might go about increasing one's BFR speed.
A quick check of the math works out like this: in traditional heel-striking form, I was making 54-inch (4.5-foot) strides at a cadence of 188 steps/minute, or 1,173 steps per mile, resulting in a 6:15/mile pace. The BF math is as follows: 32-inch (2.67-foot) strides at a cadence of 233 steps per minute, or 1,977 steps per mile, resulting in a 8:30/mile pace.
So by decreasing my stride length by almost half and increasing my cadence by 24%, I've been able to add 2:15/mile to my pace with no difficulty at all. Not what I was hoping for, but being older, I'll live with it.
The problem is that I'm pretty much maxed out at that cadence, and my soles are pretty much maxed out at that pace (unless I'm on dirt or grass that don't abrade like concrete does, giving me some room to allow more friction as I speed up).
Rex Hall's theory was that to increase speed BF, rather than significantly lengthening your stride by extending the angle between each leg and your hip joint forward and backward, which will increase the friction your feet experience due to push-off and braking effects, you should simply hold your feet up in the air for a longer time. This sounds like what Master Abide is advocating from a different angle now that I've read what he says above about " high knees and butt kickers."
But my experience is that to get any significant increase and still keep my feet landing under my center of gravity, I've got to lean forward more with my hips at the same time to provide the forward motion without the push-off and braking effects coming into play. The biggest downside to this is that while holding your feet up for a longer time before setting them down, you get more impact on each foot plant due to gravity's pull effectively increasing as you increase the time above dirt. This is a recipe for stress fractures if you don't gradually work up to it. Since my initial stress fracture 7 months ago, I've not even begun to attempt this again yet, and probably won't until this summer (and then, only on dirt, and VERY SLOWLY). "
I have attempted it many times in recent months, and found that the softer the surface, the easier it is on the body to raise higher and then hold your feet up for a longer time.
But this is about math. Just an idea. I'm a hard-core NON-mathematician who is married to a college math and physics major who teaches high school math now. I only use math when I have to in order to get an answer I simply must have. It makes my brain overheat and smoke come out my ears.
Hope this helps. Particularly look up Don Goss. Good luck!
