Gait Analysis

[Dale]

Anyone out there that's had a full-fledged gait-analysis done?  If so, what was your experience with it?  Have it done more than once?  Worth it or not?  Basically just a shoe/orthotics fitting appointment or a full-fledged analysis of your running stride?  Other thoughts on the subject?

I'm looking at this program http://www.swedish.org/body.cfm?id=2258 and am looking for folks who may have either considered or gone thru something similar. 

[Sasha Pachev]

I do not know of anybody who made a trustworthy claim of any kind of performance improvement via gait analysis feedback. At the same time, there are plenty of elite marathoners with a funny looking gait. Maybe not as funny as some sub-elite and mid-pack, but perhaps you just do not pick on somebody's gait as much when you know he is on his way to a sub-2:10 marathon.

Having said that - correcting the deep underlying causes of a funny gait is worthwhile. However, beware. There are a lot of people who claim they know how to do it and build a business around it, but I am yet to meet one that can take a guy who has already maxed out his performance through regular training, do some magic, and have him run 5% faster in all distances 5K through the marathon (which is what you would expect from an effective gait correction).

I believe there are two things that somewhat correlate, but not anywhere close to 100%. Visual awkwardness and real inefficiency.  In other words, the efficient form cannot be properly observed visually. You need some specially crafted measurements. The most reliable of those being how fast the guy can run for an hour :-)

[Paul (RivertonPaul)]

Even for sprinters gait is not determinative, as was demonstrated by Michael Johnson.

[Rhett]

I have worked on my form a lot over the past few years and believe it really made a huge difference in finally going sub 3.  That being said, during the olympic men's marathon, the guy who won, or maybe it was the guy who took 2nd, was like tilted to one side the whole way.  I kept wanting to try and prop him back up.  It was driving me crazy, but obviously it works for him.  I can't even run 2 miles at the pace he ran the whole race.

[Dale]

Well, I appreciate the feedback.  I know gait analysis isn't a panacea.  I was thinking that since running economy is so important and fixing gait flaws would likely lead to economy improvements, it might be worth a shot.  Frankly, I was hoping a few people had already gone down this path, sunk the $$$ into trying it, and had valuable feedback one way or another.  Guess if I decide to try, I'll be the guinea pig.

[Cody Draper]

Dale-
You don't have any obvious flaws in your stride.  The only possible item to check out is that you have a tendency to under-stride (especially when tired), but the most efficient form is the one that your body naturally gravitates toward (regardless of stride length).  Just try and minimize wasted vertical motion and just plain run fast.  IMO anything beyond that is merely splitting hairs.  I wouldn't worry too much about it and merely focus on running smooth and comfortable. 
On the other hand, if you find a miracle cure for slowness, I will be interested...

[Megan Marie Schedler]

hi... Rhett: I noticed the funny gait of the olympic marathoner too, I believe he was the Morrocon runner... I was thinking the same thing when i was watching, lol.

[Dale]

Thanks Cody.  I actually have found a method scientifically proven to cure slowness....it involves running faster so that you're not running slow.  I hear it works but I've been unable to replicate the phenomena myself.    
I will not understride....I will not understride.....I will not understride....

[Sasha Pachev]

Dale:

The question is why you understride. I would suppose there is some form of biomechanical or neurological abnormality that makes it more efficient for you to understride. If you could fix the abnormality you would run faster, but if you just try to fix the stride you will run slower.

The biggest determinant of your running speed, though, is how much force per body weight you are able to drive into the ground. So, excluding some minor gains from other sources, there are only two ways to get faster in a distance race - reduce your weight without reducing the sustainable component of your ground reaction force, or increase the sustainable component of your ground reaction force without increasing your weight.

Possibilities:

a) The easiest for a less trained runner - increase aerobic capacity (and thus increase the percentage of absolute force that is sustainable) while reducing counterproductive weight through mileage.

b) Eat a better diet and hope that some fat that did not go through exercise will still be able to go. This could also help with the aerobic capacity increase, as well as fuel storage capabilities, injury prevention, running career longevity, performance consistency, etc, and is a good idea.

c) Do something to increase the elastic energy of the spine, bones, and tendons so that when you bounce the kinetic energy of the fall more fully converts into the ground reaction force. Or in more simple terms, become more like a tennis ball. A very good thing to do, but not sure what you could do that would be effective. I've tried bounding drills of various kinds over the years, if there were any improvements they were minor. Hanging upside down seems to help a little bit, but still nothing easily measurable. Running barefoot sounds like a good idea, but so far no miracles after 1500+ miles. But I am not giving up.

d) Increase the absolute power without relying on the fast twitch fibers or anything else that would make it impossible to train the ability to sustain that power. And we must do it without increasing the weight. I believe this is the 90% of the Quality X.

I checked the list of Haile's PR's - with some only minor variations he is faster than me on every distance from 400 meter to the marathon by 20%! Jeff McClellan and I did a number of tests with force plates and discovered that his force per body weight in every exercise we tried was higher than mine. Jeff was beating me by about the same percentage on all distances up to the 10 K. After that I closed the gap, and beat him in the marathon using higher aerobic base and more fuel storage, but this was possible only due to Jeff's lack of lifetime base - in a couple of years of proper training I would have no chance against him in any distance if the force discrepancy remains.

In other words, I primarily fail on item d). I am of the opinion that is where Dale, Cody, and everybody else who has run 50 miles a week for a year and is still a far cry from the world record primarily fails. If runner A beats runner B in every distance by the same percentage then almost inevitably runner A has more absolute force per body weight than runner B.

It is common to explain the differences in absolute force by slow-twitch/fast-twitch ratio. This is applicable to an extent, but not when you are comparing two runners who are maintaining an equal percentage gap on all distances from sprints to the marathon. It is not in the weight either unless you are obese, which you would not be if you had run 50 miles a week or more for a year. There were some studies that showed that elite runners recruit a greater percentage of their muscle fibers. Well, that is rather obvious - if you are getting more force per unit of muscle mass, you would have to recruit a greater percentage of the fibers. The question is - what is the mechanism behind this ability, and how do you develop it?

Canova and other coaches suggest short hill sprints up 15% grade. That is one option, but is there something else? I do not know.

[Dale]

I think I tend to understride because as a "beginning" runner, I kept reading that overstriding was bad and so I did some things early to make myself learn to keep strides compact and quick (such as forcing myself into a 180+ stride rate on all runs).  Ah, the disadvantage of being an adult-onset athlete and without local training partners.
Cody initially made the comments during the NWP relay (after, I believe, I begged everyone for form feedback....thanks again Cody!).  After than, I decided to try two things.  First, to focus on taking full strides and second to strengthen the muscles (especially the stability muscles) to support a longer stride. 

The first part I made some progress on by choosing certain workouts to focus on things I knew would lead to a longer stride.  Example:  Slow down stride rate while maintaining pace.  Exaggerated push-off.  Exaggerated leg lift.  I think doing some of these drills has helped my stride open up some.

The strengthening part I accomplished using Hill Repeats this training cycle and core/leg exercises with high reps and no/low weights.  I wouldn't have been able to get very far with the first part if the strengthening hadn't worked.  At faster speeds, I still feel "wobbly" at times, like my muscles are unsteady and I'm on the verge of losing control, but the speeds are quite a bit faster now than they were a few months ago.

Brad Hudson's new book also recommends short and steep hill sprints as a way to increase power....I like the idea and have been incorporating them into some runs.

But this was really the whole reason I considered exploring the gait analysis.....I *know* I understride now, and can actually work on correcting the fundamental reasons I do so (or at least those I know about).  I'm moving away from the more supportive shoes and have weaned myself completely off the orthotics and am now doing more in lightweight trainers/racers (tried the Vibram Five Fingers, but then tore my feet up on runs longer than 2 miles or so....I'll try again sometime after next week's race probably).  What else is there I could be working on that I'm not now?