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  1. #41
    Registered User
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    11-13-2015
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    Orangeville, Ontario, Canada
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    73
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    Quote Originally Posted by Wyoming View Post
    Lots of good stuff above. I think there is something I can add.

    It relates to the 'gliding' comment of Dogwood's about Skurka and that he looks like he glides. This type of walking is what I am talking about when I mention that I work on my mechanics every day. I usually start the walking day consciously thinking about my mechanics for about 10-15 mins. This is to get me in the groove so to speak. And later in the day, if I notice for some reason that I have had some heavy foot placements or 'hear' my steps starting to sound loud or realize I am bobbing up and down too much, then I go back to concentrating on mechanics for a time again.

    What I am striving for with my mechanics is to both walk quietly and not to bob up and down. Glide and walk silent. If you concentrate on not taking steps which are beyond your bodies ideal length (overstriding) you don't hit the ground hard with your heel. Your lower leg will not be way out in front of your knee. Your heel touches first but only by a little before your mid-foot comes down. Put your foot down softly. Have soft knees. Cave men did not overstride because they did not wear shoes. Sticking your leg way out and hitting the ground hard with your heel is a bad idea when barefoot. Walk like you are barefoot. The zero drops shoes help with this btw.

    A big benefit of this is that when (not if) you start to roll your ankle you can unweight it easier and reduce the chance of injury. I have noticed that many folks who hike constantly, or thru hikers who are about 500 miles or more into a hike have relearned what I call the Hiker Hop (which I am sure all cave men knew well). You will be watching your partner cruising down the trail and he all of a sudden does this weird little twitch where he starts to take a step and instantly unweights his foot with a sort of hop/skip/stutter and does not even break stride and keeps going. Before he pulled this little trick up from his ancient DNA he would have fallen on his face due to that little rock in the leaves he just stepped on.

    When you walk down hill don't fall down to your next foot placement. Many people stride off into space and accelerate downwards until their foot hits the ground and then they have to catch their falling weight. This is an inefficient use of your strength and somewhat prone to resulting in injury and falling on your face periodically. "Reach" downwards with your lead foot and put it down softly - this requires that your back leg thigh muscles be used to lower you down rather than just letting you drop.

    When you get this all down right (and it is easier said than done) you will not bob up and down and you will walk softly. It will result in many fewer injuries and greater endurance due to less wasted motion and inefficient use of your muscles.

    Every body has an ideal stride length where you will be most efficient. It is determined by the length of your leg bones. Find that sweet spot and perfect it.
    Hiking speed does not come from long strides (unless you have really long legs of course - and I am jealous because I don't). Real speed comes from stride rate. The faster you take steps the faster you go. There is an optimum for each person I believe in that if you hit your perfect stride length and hit the rate you can hold all day that is the best your body can do in terms of daily mileage. For some of us old guys that may not turn out to be that much and for Anish it is 50 mpd.
    Something I find works pretty well when training in the gym is the treadmill. For working on stride length and rate I set the machine at 2% and slowly run the speed up past 3 mph. I concentrate on not striding too far and not making a sound (no pounding feet) and just keep ramping up the speed while trying to hold my mechanics solid. If you do this you will reach a point where you just cannot go beyond the rate you are at without losing your form. So stay at that rate as long as you can. If you get too out of breath then dial it back a bit. You can also use one of those machines to practice your hill climbing mechanics (the machine I use goes up to 15 degrees).
    Great stuff, Wyoming! I have learned these points slowly and sometimes painfully, both as a self-taught race walker, and now as walker and occasional distance hiker.

  2. #42

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    A big benefit of this is that when (not if) you start to roll your ankle you can unweight it easier and reduce the chance of injury. I have noticed that many folks who hike constantly, or thru hikers who are about 500 miles or more into a hike have relearned what I call the Hiker Hop (which I am sure all cave men knew well). You will be watching your partner cruising down the trail and he all of a sudden does this weird little twitch where he starts to take a step and instantly unweights his foot with a sort of hop/skip/stutter and does not even break stride and keeps going. Before he pulled this little trick up from his ancient DNA he would have fallen on his face due to that little rock in the leaves he just stepped on.

    This^^^

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