I just got back from NYC, where I watched Mo and Tommy run the 5th ave mile and had a good time. A bit tired, but the runnings going well. I’m going to start doing some low key races pretty soon, so after watching 5th ave. i’m pumped up and ready to go.

In regards to training, I often say that it’s all been done; there is nothing new. It just seems like everything is recycled and things come in and out of vogue.

Another favorite saying of mine is that, the best coaches/athletes always figure things out first, then science later confirms and explains what they intuitively did. The example I always give for this is Carl Lewis’ lack of stretching.

The following video provides a good example of both of these ideas. It’s an interview with famed coach Percy Cerutty, whose most notable protege was the undefeated miler Herb Elliott. In the video you’ll notice a couple of different things. First, there’s some core work and some pretty heavy weight lifting. Lastly, check out the running up and down the sand dunes. If that doesn’t work on strength endurance, I don’t know what does. Plus, it looks so natural (I wish there was video of his athletes carrying spears up the hill too…some ideas don’t work/catch on).

http://www.ina.fr/sciences-et-techniques/medecine-sante/video/CPF04006926/le-sorcier-de-port-sea.fr.html

Lastly, here’s a video of Said Aouita with some good slow motion video. Take a look at the video at about 55sec. You can clearly see Said landing in slow motion and it is right on. No heel striking, pretty much a midfoot strike with the heel coming down after, strikes right underneath him. Anyways, take a look at that, it’s how you should run.

http://www.ina.fr/economie-et-societe/vie-sociale/video/VDD05006323/said-aouita.fr.html

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    5 Comments

    1. Anonymous on October 4, 2009 at 5:27 pm

      good stuff. Thanks again

    2. Anonymous on October 6, 2009 at 1:05 am

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    3. Anonymous on October 13, 2009 at 4:28 pm

      Steve,

      Respect the site and thanks for the info, but you need to chill on telling people "how" to run. You are comparing Said Aouita with others? Are you serious? He is running at speeds the readers of this blog perhaps may never run. Remember the direct correlation between speed and footstrike. You cannot run like Aouita if you are running 16:00 for 5000m.

    4. stevemagness on October 13, 2009 at 4:37 pm

      Thanks for the comment.

      You CAN run like Aouita if you are running 16min pace. Maybe not exactly, but close. Most of the changes that occur with speed are not going to be related to footstrike however.

      Footstrike is going to change slightly with speed but nothing incredibly drastic, if we are talking about non=sprinting situations.

      Regardless of how slow a runner is going, he should still land at least mid/whole foot. What changes is he will land slightly more forward, or the heel will drop down instead of hitting at the same time.

      You can see this in the best runners. Even when they are jogging, there foot still comes down underneath them. They may be running 7min pace, but they are still not striking there heel into the ground…

      It's not a direct relationship from sprinting to jogging on where the foot strikes. For instance, go watch some recreational runner try and sprint. In most cases, they will still reach out and strike there heel.

      • Anonymous on June 12, 2012 at 11:16 pm

        I think you posted something on a different website about Percy Cerutty's training methods, which said that Percy believed in varying the pace through most training runs. So my question is what's the difference between a varied pace run and a fartlek? Or are they the same thing?

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