Until my running form became what it is now, the best shoe i found for both, Cushion, stability and durability is the Asics Gell kayano. (i’ve been through a lot of shoes)
Now i’ve fixed up a lot of tightness and strength imbalance issues i had for years, and no longer need any Stability - so I’ll wear the new Addidas Boost shoes. Wow, these are simply amazing - light, cushion and response.
However, I no longer need much in the way of cushion anymore due to fantastic bio-mechanics - and now 80% of my runs and daily activities are done in the New Balance minimus shoes. Basically only a couple of mm of cushion, purely there to hold the rubber sole on… I run in these on cement, asphalt, grass no drama. I would avoid gravel though.
For my intro into ‘barefoot style footwear’ for striding on soft packed snow (0.3 to 0.33 strides per second), the progression was:
-merrell flux glove(slightly tapered toe box- ) 6mm ‘rubber/eva’ vibram sole, zero drop( the heel and forefoot are the same thickness)
-vibram lontra (toe chambers- winter style insulation), 8mm sole, zero drop
-new balance minimus trail( generous toe box), vibram sole, heel to toe drop of 5 mm(15mm heel, 10 mm forefoot)
To display more transparency regarding my supplementary minimalist/ barefoot training, I only executed my overdistance strides(0.3 to 0.33 strides per second) on
soft packed snow once per week. I’d always break the session into separate runs(no continuous tempo), and these sessions would only last 25-30 minutes at the most.
I moved from the Kayano into the NB minimus instantly without any issue at all.
However, I had to loosen up tons of issues and learn to run pain free in the kayanos. This took a long time.
I was running pain free with perfect posture for around 4 to 5 months before the switch. No issues since and no break in period
I’ll have to see with a specialist what’s the best shoes for my problems, there’s tons of shoes but they advised me to run in the Saucony triumph 10
Though from all I’ve read above the kayanos seems good and look very good too
Thursday 12 september
Slow 2 lap jog
Dynamic stretches, drills & strides
3x30m w/ 4 min rest
1x40m w/ 5 min rest
1x60m w/ 8 min rest
1x80m
That was the last session before the Belgian junior championships of sunday, let’s see what I can acheive there!
I’m not sure what’s my stride length currently, but I can say it’s short, way shorter than it should be for a 6ft2 guy. My training was cut short since december 2012 until june so I had no winter to work on my short stride
There’s alot of tightness gone in my hips so this winter, if injury free, my stride will increase for sure
The stride length ratio to the height for top sprinters is about 1.25-1.4 during max velocity phase. So trying to match stride length of 2.70m can be destructive, your stride length could be just fine being somewhere around 2.3/2.4m
Regards your hamstrings injures I would suggest to check the strength of your iliopsoas muscle (hip flexors)
Sunday 15 september
Raceday: belgian junior championships
100m heats: 11.16 (-0.5)
100m final: 11.07 (+0.3) (PB) I had a great start and acceleration, but I tensed up the last 10-20m because I felt the guys coming back. Was quite disappointed because I know I had it in me to run a sub 11. Oh well, it’s a personal best.
200m: 22.15 (+0.8) (PB) Had a great start again and turn, didn’t burn myself out like always on the turn so I had some energy left until the last 30m. I knew I was in shape to run a PB but didn’t expect 22.15 !
So that closes my season. I mean my individual season, yet have to run national relay championship next week and a decathlon in 2 weeks but that’s for the fun of it. I’m happy with my latest results, mainly my 200m pb.
Didn’t have much training this season with all the injuries and I’m glad noone occured since July, that’s when I really started to train well. I also trained alone all this time, so I made up my own program. I kinda left my coach since he barely shows up, when it rains he doesn’t feel like coming. He would say: “Ok guys today it’s off no training, core workout at home” I can’t cope with this. I know everybody needs a coach but I feel better doing it alone, technical wise it’s always better to have one I admit. Still have to figure out what I’ll do next season…
Sunday 22 september
Raceday
4x100m heats and finals
4x200m
Ran the 200m pretty well, would have definately been a sub 22. The mid-race part improved alot
Saturday & Sunday 28-29 september
Decathlon
I like ending the season with a decathlon , it’s quite fun! Total of points: 5270 pts. Not that bad and better than last year
My best ones were the 100, 400 & javelin. Still can’t believe I managed only 5m52 in the long jump and 1m57 in the high jump though…
100m: 11.17 (+0.0)
400m: 51.71 (SB)
Javelin: 45m71 (150ft) (pb)
So that closes my season, will be back in 3 weeks. It’s time to rest! Thank you all that followed my journal and gave me feedback, I really appreciate it 
Awesome work - Pb’s are always great. Sweet 200m time too.
There’s the japanese video documentary on asafa that was done in 2007 in florida. In it hes sprinting at 0.25second stride rate for the 100m and they have grey cones/marks at set at each 10m interval. From 20m on up until the 100m he’s striding at basically 4 strides per 10m(2.50m stride length for 0.25 second stride). Now, the more one thinks about it and does the math calculations(stride length and frequency), the more it’ll become apparent that he must have built up to this ‘stride length stability maintenance’ at a slower pace over varying training distances I’d imagine. Its still relatively fast sprinting, but I guess rather than ‘stepping down sensation/cues’, it may very well be ‘pushing out the back sensation/cues’ or ‘push self up the track sensation/cues’, resulting in the regimented uncanny stride maintenance of 2.50m lengths.
Obviously in his competitive 100m races he’s building up to his ‘ultimate strides over 100m’(the top speed 2.70m length(s) at a '0.22, 0.21, 0.20/second frequency/rate), with faster frequency/shorter initial accel strides out the blocks.
To compare and contrast the differences in time interval and stride rate interval of asafa at 30m and 60m in competitive 100m races as opposed to the training runs during the japanese documentary. for instance at 30m in alot of his races he’s at 3.8x seconds at 30m and about 16-16.5x strides(using foot contacts as stride count). Whereas in the training run videos he’s at 30m at 4.0x seconds and 15 strides. For the 60m intervals(in alot of his races) he gets there in 6.4x-6.5x seconds and anywhere around 29-30 strides. In the training runs he’s at 60m around 6.9x- 7.0x seconds and 27 strides.
I don’t know what they do.
I get my improvement in stride length with a drill done slow.
Seb has improved from 11.55 to a 10.88. The faster time was in a 3.1 wind, I use a countdown flash timer and he has beaten 11 the first run for 3 weeks at training before the competition. He has not run more than 100m in training, hecan do 3*100 drills and says it feels more tiring then running 400m reps.
Can you expand on this drill please?
When I used to run 800s , in taper month , we used a 140m to 200m straight run drill.
Basically running full stride length the entire way, eensuring knees do not drop.
Easy for 20m.
Kills after 80m.
By the time we could do 200m and make it feel natural, our 800m and 400m times plummeted.
Chris6878(forum member/sprinter) took video of asafa doing some runs at that florida track. He also got some video of the japanese computer/video equipment that theyd use for their documentary, as he was there.
asafa 100m(0.25 stride rate)- www.youtube.com/watch?v=iLR84NVBzFc
-the video above is basically a carbon copy of the 100m run on the japan documentary in terms of stride rate and length and time(fairly close).
Just for clarification regarding counting stride rates and lengths and the accompanying mathematical calculations i’m utilizing, you could use foot touchdowns as your 'definition of the stride, or you could use each ‘knee raise’ within the stride cycle/cyclical action as your ‘stride count definition’. So take these 100m strides by asafa he’s covering them in 43 strides using foot strikes as the ‘stride count definition’, but using ‘knee rised/raise’ as the ‘stride count definition’ he’s covering it in 44 strides.
I like to use ‘knee rised/raise’ as my method of counting strides and thus as my ‘stride count definition’.
In the video above of asafa striding 100m, as well as the 100m run in the documentary he is for the most part striding at just above 0.25 second per stride on further analysis. In the video above, he is at the 80m in 36 stridez(based on knee raised/rise) and 9.6 seconds. 9.6 divided by 36 gives a stride frequency of 0.266.
Whereas in the video below, which is the 100m run from the japanese documentary, the stride rate is almost identical as is the stride length. Just take calculate 11.5 or 11.6 seconds for the time and divide it by 44 strides(knee raises) and its a stride rate of 0.261 or 0.263 seconds. Since the video is a front view i just used ‘elbow raise to the back’ as the ‘stride count definition’, which is the same as the ‘knee raise’ for counting.
Asafa 100m run/stride from japanese documentary(front on regular speed)(courteousy of chris 6878) - www.youtube.com/watch?v=OsTh9aW3Gfs
I do stride length runs out to 40m at 0.25 stride rate and sometimes sort of out to 50 and 60m as well, and its interesting what you say, he said(them 100m stride drills being more taxing than 400m. I too feel
that they’re rather taxing as i choose to only do 3-4 at a distance of 40m or more.
What’s also interesting is how asafa warmed up for those 100m ‘stable stride length’ runs.
In the videos below, he does some hard accelerations to 20m and 30m(at 0.25s frequency) before carrying out the japanese video takes.
asafa 20m accel - www.youtube.com/watch?v=e54UvSAKvr0
Asafa 30m accel - www.youtube.com/watch?v=PVaHf9S6wr0
Speed dynamics, hamstring operations and now hip operations all aimed in getting higher knee lift.
I need more time to test before I get too far ahead of myself.
Sunday 20 october
NEW SEASON ! Also a new coach
20 min. jog
Running drills & bounds circuit. 2x10 mins
2x5x100m hills (not steep) w/ jogback recovery. 3 min. recovery between set
10 min. jog cool down
Tuesday 22 october
10 min jog
Stair workout 2x10 mins w/5 min recovery. very tough
2x5x150m in 25 sec. (about 65% intensity) 250m jog rest
Wednesday 23 october
10min. jog
Hip mobility over hurdles
Running drills. i can’t seem to get fully upright when skipping
Cone runs: running over cones, staying upright and floating. 5x
4x fly 30’s with 10m run-up. 90% intensity