Heel landing or forefoot landing?

With the barefoot trend and pose running in mind there is a tendency to consider the difference between forefoot and heel landing.

In the youtube video below you will see a runner in the biomechanics lab running both with shoes and without.

Most prominent observations:

• from heel landing he switches to mid- forefoot landing;
• the impact of the landing decreases;
• his calf muscle has to work harder;
• the muscle on the front of his lower leg (tibialis anterior) as to work less.

The biomechanist Joseph Hamill indicates that the length of the stride decreases while running barefoot. According to this researcher this will use more energy and is therefore less efficient. This contradicts with a previous posting I wrote on the Russian trainer / doctor Romanov. He states that the pose running method with forefoot landing and shorter strides is more fuel efficient (read this posting).

A final important observation is at the end of this video: If you take off your shoes and start running barefoot you will change you stride and technique. This makes you prone to injuries. So build it up: barefoot running.



Bron ABC Catalyst

Loosing weigth and your body clock

Triggered by a documentary on Dutch television I found a ABC Catalist episode which deals with the same subject but in English.

Core message is two fold:

1. You can't fool you body clock
2. Eating during the period you body claims as 'night' will cause weight gain, diabetes and obesity's

Wanna know more? Watch the documentary >>

Below you will see another documentary of the BCC on your body clock:

Film: Race Across the Sky

From the same makers as 'The Beauty of the Irrational'. And again with Ryan Sanders (see previous post).

Thie film is a short impression of the Leadville 100, also known as 'Race Across the Sky'. It is one of the ultras featured in Born to Run by Christopher McDougall (see blog) with Micah True (still 'alive and kicking').

Impressive is the word that comes to mind.


The Race Across the Sky from The African Attachment on Vimeo.

Film: The Beauty of the Irrational

Some of the most irrational descision we human being make lead to the most beautiful moments of our lives. This roughly the explanation of the title of this short film.

In the Fish River Canyon in South Africa is a walking trail, 84 km long good for 5 days walking. South African Ultra Runner, Ryan Sanders, sets out to run it in the fastest time possible. He finishes in just under 7 hours in 6:57.


The Beauty of the Irrational from The African Attachment on Vimeo.

Nico product placement with the Suunto Ambit.
 Spot it! It isn't hard to miss!

Small improvement in the course

Almost every Marathon has a little loop somewhere in  in the route to make the course fit the 42.195km.

In Amsterdam is has been, for ages, a loop leaving the Amstel near the windmill, over a small road and roundabout onto the Europaboulevard and back again (called 'locatie oude lus' on the map).

The loop is this year on the President Kennedylaan and this saves al lot of turning making the route a bit faster (called 'nieuwe lus' on the map).

With this change it was necessary to measure the route. And this is still done old fashioned way by bike with the use of a Jonescounter. Read more...

Almost 30 but still innovative: Nike Air Pegasus

one of the oldest running shoes carrying the same name all along is the Nike Air Pegasus. Celebrating its 25th birthday in 2008 it is turning 30 next year!

Being an oldy in name, the shoe itself is still innovative and now also available in the ID line, the customisable shoe.

This time not only the colour but also the sole, road or trail, and the upper, Gore-Tex or mesh.
This way you can have the same shoe for four types of use/running:

1. Road/mesh: for dry weather
2. Road with Gore-Tex: For the wet rainy seasons 
3. Trail with mesh: Dry conditions during an off road run
4. Trail with Gore-Tex: Wet conditions off road.

Can't wait for the Pegasus 30. I am curious what they come up with for this anniversary.

The ID is available in the Nike Store. The ID is not available in other online stores.

The regular Pegasus is widely available. Picking the one year old  Pegasus 28 can save you an additional 20 to 30 bucks or more.
See all the Nike Air available on Amazon Including a '92 retro version (see image). 

Nike+ for Android

One of my first posts on my Dutch blog (see posting) was on the collaboration between Apple en Nike. These two brands combined forces and enabled runners to use the Nike+ sensor in combination with the iPod. For the younger runners amongst us: This is an iPhone that did not connect to Internet, did not allow you to call and was only suited for listening to music and view video... ;p
A couple of days ago I wrote on the the new shoes LunarTR1 (see posting). The shoe again is shown in combination with the iPhone from Apple.

For runners with Android phones I have some good news because I found f.e. on  myandroidgadgets that here is also an App available for Android.