It’s been about 3 weeks since I’ve video taped myself and shared it with friends on HomeField.  For those of you who missed last week’s post, video analysis of my running form revealed that I had a horrible heel strike.  Which means that the first point of contact my foot had with the ground was my heel.  I could have sworn this wasn’t the case, but, the video doesn’t lie.  Nevertheless, after some modifications to my stride, I’ve filmed myself again to reveal a new and improved running style. Here are the results:

Big difference from week 1 to week 2.

Two things you can notice right away:  One, you’ll notice I’m landing more on my forefoot, rather than my heel.  And two, the point of impact in week two is way closer to my body’s center of gravity, as opposed to out in front of me.  This is what allows me to fall forward, rather than pulling myself forward.  This is inline with the pose style running I mentioned last week.

The question is, have I seen any improvement since changing my style?  Well, my first 10K two weeks ago, clocked in at 51:58.  This past Saturday, after running the third leg of the NYC Tri, my time improved almost 6 minutes, down to a 47:05.  Big improvement indeed. Am I in the clear?  It would appear not.  Alex Tyron noticed my feet may be “rolling out” while I run.  As she noted in HomeField’s discussion:

As you can see in the comment, she noticed this in my stride.  You can see it above.  Sure enough, the test she suggested (looking at the bottom of my shoes) definitely raised some concerns.  Next step, videotaping myself on the treadmill.