On my way back I was thinking about a comment I made yesterday on running.about.com One guy, who is going into the Marine Corps, has shin splints and came to the forum for suggestions. Wendy, our guest blogger in this blog, said he should be sure his feet hit the ground under his center of gravity. I clarified that by saying that he should be sure his feet hit the ground behind his knees rather than in front of his knees.
As I thought about that comment, I wondered how I was doing in that regard, and I glanced down at my legs and noticed my feet were hitting the ground almost under my knees. I thought that maybe I could move my knees forward a little bit, so I sorta bent my knees a bit more, and lo and behold, I started running faster. In fact I went enough faster that I was out of breath after 90 lf steps. And, not only was I going faster, it seemed easier for me to go that way instead of the low shuffle that I usually use.
I thought about it and decided that I must have lifted my knees more. I know that people who sprint have to lift their knees higher to get more energy into their running, but I hadn't thought about lifting my knees higher during my slow running pace. I ran this way during the last mile of the run and felt fine at the end. I'm going to experiment with lifting my knees to see how it goes for 4 miles instead of just 1 mile.
I had recently ran a 11 Mile trail race and discovered my "marathon shuffle" doesn't work well on trails...I tend to trip over roots and jutted rocks. Once I lifted my knees not only wasn't I tripping over things, but was running at a faster pace. How would that knee lift translate over 26.2 miles? Would the knee lift cost me an energy debt? Higher knees = harder pounding on the joints?
ReplyDeleteYou've brought up some interesting questions. Going faster and lifting knees higher will cost calories, of course since you're moving faster and moving your legs more.
ReplyDeleteI don't know about 26.2 miles, but for my shorter distances, a higher knee lift might be an advantage.
I haven't given much thought to a higher knee lift in the past due to the likelihood of more pounding on my knees. I think that even with higher knee lift yesterday, I was still doing a shuffle.
It depends on our regular exercise. I daily ran 5 miles and I think if I ran even more than 20 miles even then i will be much better than others.
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