Are you a gazelle or a glider?
What’s your running style?:
I’m not a runner, so I’m neither. But if I were a runner, I’d probably be a glider. Or a shuffler or a slider.
The New Neo
A blog about political change, among other things
What’s your running style?:
I’m not a runner, so I’m neither. But if I were a runner, I’d probably be a glider. Or a shuffler or a slider.
The air starts feeling like a very strong wind when I’ve accelerated. Would like some aerofoils.
Feels like tank tracks along the concrete, feels really easy to hit the concrete with the toe.
Gazelles don’t work quite as well if your upper body has too much mass. A lot of achilles strength to move up, and then a lot of shock as the weight comes down on the joints.
But other muscles in the legs are used to pull the body along on the glide.
People can become too specialized, since both methods are used for climbing and traveling.
Bouncer.
Awkward, ungainly bouncer.
KRB
I don’ t know how typical this is but I have switched styles between when I was young and now, middle aged.
I used to run in the “gazelle” style, which in spite of the lengthy video, is more easily described as landing on your heel. This worked great when I was young, light and strong but with weight and age, it lead to joint pain–mostly hips but also knees. I have switched to the gliding style, via barefoot training and these pains are gone.
In my opinion, joint pain or not, I think the gliding style is more efficient for older runners.
I do both depending on the distances. Up to about 8 miles, I “gazelle”, after that point, which I don’t really run beyond any longer, I would start shuffling .
I think I WAS a glider. I ran a 2:51 marathon (Oakland). I never got coaching about this or saw a video of myself, but I was attentive to minimizing energy-wasting motion and hard-on-knees footfalls. Thank you for posting, Neo, especially since you’re not a runner.
Definitely a glider/shuffler. I was running when running wasn’t cool yet – 1960s. Time and age have taken their toll. I can run/glide around the block – 1/4 mile (?), but then become a shuffler. Well, it’s not too bad for an 81 year old.
Of course, I have a friend my age who just ran another marathon. He’s a superman – all steely tendons and long, runner’s muscles. He’s a glider. He’ll probably still be running 5ks when he’s a 100. One tough dude.
My takeaway, even the most interesting things can be made annoying and dull by poor presentation.
chuck Says:
July 12th, 2014 at 11:24 pm
My takeaway, even the most interesting things can be made annoying and dull by poor presentation.
My thoughts exactly. I only made it to about the two minute mark, which is about when it would end if it was done right.
Chuck, model:
Born before or after the 1975 mark?
Neo,
You define eclectic.
Chuck is correct, the video is worthless. There are much better demonstrations of running techniques available on many forums, including youtube.
after the 1975 mark
Definitely pre 😉 I wondered a bit if I might be missing the cognitive training imparted by music videos, Saturday morning cartoons, and texting, but decided that boring was boring.
In recent times, people like to talk about the newer generations having AD and D, or having low 5 second attention spans. But my theory is that in the structured slave ring of school lectures, the recent generations have a higher tolerance for low presentation values, if the subject itself is interesting across all media forms.
Whereas the older generations can’t watch a 10 minute youtube video if the first 2 minutes don’t make sense.
Of course if a recent gen can’t understand 8 minutes of a 10 minute lecture, then it produces the same result.
This is behind the whole tl;dr trend, in which I made the line between how much tolerance different generations truly have for this. And it’s not the newer generations with the lower tolerance.
@Yamarsakar It was certainly thought provoking. I had lots of time to wonder why the hell he was running the video backwards in endless slow motion while repeating himself. Then I pondered his inability to use a pointer to actually point at anything. And his affectless monotone was a marvel.
We Badgers sort of trundle along. The Badger’s strong suit is cuddliness, not speed.
Chuck, I fast forwarded it at about 3 points.
Gazelle here.