Over Striding – The Dangers For Runners
After worn out shoes and failure to warm up properly, over striding is the biggest threat to running performance, a factor which increases considerably among novices. It’s very tempting to stride out too far as a way of either conserving energy by decreasing turnover or increasing your speed by covering more ground, but in both cases over striding will have the opposite effect.
If your foot lands too far in front of your hips, it will put unnecessary strain on your knees and hips, as the impact of landing will not be absorbed in the vertical line from the feet through the ankles and knees to the hips. The knees will bear most of this unabsorbed shock as they are the pivotal point between the planted lower leg and the still movement upper leg, but the iliotibial band will also suffer because the jointing involved will create all sorts of friction around your hips. Because over striding pushes you to land on your heels, they will also take a bashing, as will you’re Achilles tendon.
Your performance will be affected in terms of both speed and endurance. Because of the jarring from landing on your heels, and your centre of gravity having to catch up with your lower leg, you are effectively putting the brakes on. The jolt stops your stride cycle being smooth enough to gain maximum momentum, and in the time it takes for to roll from heel to ball, the elastic recoil energy will be lost and you will be expending energy for a much greater proportion of each stride.
To avoid over striding, practice your stride with gentle running and stride out, making sure to land on your midfoot, with a smooth forward momentum and very little jolting,. Shorten your stride if you have to – the average runner should be taken between 85 and 95 strides a minute; much less than that suggests you over striding — then, if you want to cover more ground, increase your time in the air without overstretching your leading leg.
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