The Heel-Strike Returns

I'm sure, by now, many of you runners have read Christopher McDougall's beloved Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe,Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. For those of you who haven't, it is an exciting, informative read that follows the world's best ultra-marathoners to the hottest, most highly elevated locales in North America. McDougall's recounts of the over 26.2-mile races run by such absurdly, impressive athletes were the parts of the book that resonated most with me. For the rest of the world, however, the National Bestseller seemed to be about one thing and one thing only: running barefoot or nearly barefoot. In fact, the book sparked a manufacturing trend of lightweight running "shoes" with zero to 8 mm drops, compared to the 10-12 mm drop found in traditional running shoes. That trend then gave rise to the other trend of running with a mid and/or forefoot strike instead of a heel-strike.

 For better or worse, I too jumped on the bandwagon some time after 2011, when the book was published. While I never fully converted to running without shoes or even to running in those sock-like things called Vibram Five Fingers, I traded in my Saucony and Brooks stability shoes for a lighter shoe that was either the New Balance Women's W890v2 Neutral Running Shoe or something very similar to it. More importantly, I stopped heel-striking and began landing on my mid-foot.

My new shoes just felt so light and springy that I couldn't help letting go of the way I had been running for the previous 15 years. After a couple of years of running with this new form, in this new type of shoe, I was racing my fastest times at the 5K. Unfortunately, I was also using my new stride and shoes when I acquired my longest-lasting running injury. See earlier entries of this blog for my grumblings about right ankle pain that lasted more than a year.

I can't say for certain what caused that nagging injury.What I can tell you is that my physical therapist expressed concern about my mid-foot strike. After watching me run around his facility for a few minutes, he concluded that heel-striking would be better for me.

Since following his advice is what finally enabled me to return to running without pain, I have returned to heel-striking.