Crossfit Running and Endurance Cert

If the video doesn't work you may have better luck viewing it at: http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-7975567075741588431&hl=en
Here is the initial video at the first day of the cert this past weekend. You can spot me in the white tank and black shorts about 38 seconds into the video and then the slow motion version at around 2:10. Most people can be seen heel striking during their stride. The big misnomer within the running world especially with distance running is that this is the acceptable way to run far. However, this form of running would never be possible without the cushioning protection provided by shoes. Take your shoes off and run across a grassy field. Do you heel strike? Probably not. And believe it or not human beings had already been running for hundreds and thousands of years prior to the explosion of Nike or your choice of athletic equipment. Think about many of the African countries where runners train for years and years without shoes and more than likely less injuries than runners of industrialized worlds. Why? Proper mechanics allowing for proper distribution of forces. Heel striking or striking with a stride that reaches out in front of your GCM (general center of mass) causes injuries for two main reasons: 1) stopping a movement. In slow motion it is easy to identify that the runner is essentially breaking with every step by striking with the heel or striking in front of the GCM. 2)Creating leverage. Since the breaks are unintentionally being put on with every stride this causes energy to be placed in the opposite direction of the direction the athlete is trying to move. These two issues are the main reasons for a multitude of common running injuries including shin splints, plantar fasciitis, stress fractures, achilles tendon problems, IT Band syndrome, etc. I switched over to striking on the ball of my foot during the summer of 2006, but have been struggling with injuries (mainly plantar fasciitis with periodic shin or gastroc/soleus pain) because I was reaching out in front of my GCM and not relaxed enough in the lower leg to take advantage of the elastic recoil of our muscles rather than absorbing all of that ground reaction force through my joints.

Google any video of Haile Gebreselassie to watch him land on the ball of his foot under his GCM, his heel grazes the ground due to his relaxed lower leg and he has a slight forward lean (not from the hips but from the ankles) to allow a gravity assist to propel himself forward.
Stay tuned for the second video of the certification weekend and more thoughts on running technique.