Sunday Runday
In this weekly column, Android Central Wearables Editor Michael Hicks talks about the world of wearables, apps, and health tech associated to running and well being, in his quest to get quicker and healthier.
Wrist-based running dynamics, aka running type evaluation, is the scorching new factor for health watches. Garmin, COROS, Apple, and Samsung (amongst others) will analyze your cadence, stride, stability, and energy. The query is, can novice runners use this info to enhance with out injuring themselves? I spoke with Garmin Forerunner product supervisor Joe Heikes to discover out.
Heikes warned me that “type enhancements are fairly powerful as a result of they usually really feel unnatural.” Trying to self-correct your below-average running dynamics will “produce much less economical running” and preserve you out of the zone. Neither novices nor running veterans profit.
While Heikes would not suppose runners “ought to obsess over these numbers,” he did clarify a number of situations the place performing on running type knowledge will enhance your talents — with some effort and knowledge research in your half.
Let’s dive into these situations and get you on monitor towards running extra effectively by way of running type and energy! Be warned: Running alone will not be sufficient.
First, what are wrist-based running dynamics?
Let’s briefly run by means of the running metrics knowledge {that a} health watch can gather, together with the place you theoretically ought to be in every class.
Your cadence and stride size are your steps per minute and common step distance. Stride is partially height-dependent, however Garmin says that almost all runners common between 163–185 steps per minute for cadence, with taller runners falling on the decrease facet.
Vertical oscillation measures your torso’s vertical motion per step in centimeters. Experienced runners solely transfer about 6cm up, whereas beginners waste movement with taller steps in the 10cm+ vary, particularly when pushing arduous. Garmin combines your oscillation and stride knowledge right into a vertical ratio rating, with decrease percentages corresponding with higher effectivity.
You additionally need as low a Ground contact time (GCT) as doable, with beneath 300 milliseconds as the ordinary baseline and elites hitting nearer to 200 ms. If your stride is overly lengthy or excessive, you may land longer and more durable than it’s best to, slowing you down and sporting down your toes with excessively arduous impacts.
Average running energy solely partially belongs on this class, however it measures how a lot effort you set right into a run. Ideally, you may need to use as little Wattage of energy as doable whereas running at a very good tempo. A extra environment friendly running type would assist with this, however so would enhancing your VO2 Max. Generally talking, the decrease your common running energy relative to your tempo, the higher.
Lastly, even the most superior running watches, like the Garmin Forerunner 965, can solely measure a lot out of your wrist. For metrics like GCT stability — which detects whether or not you spend extra time on one foot than the different — or the peak floor response pressure your foot produces when pushing you off the floor, you want a separate pod accent on your shoe or waistline, like the Garmin Running Dynamics Pod or COROS POD 2.
Changing your running type is dangerous
The extra you run and the fitter you get, the extra naturally “environment friendly” your running type will develop into. “There isn’t any one-size-fits-all prescription for what to do with [running form] knowledge,” Heikes says, and runners who’ve “many 1000’s of miles beneath their belts…won’t be clever to monkey with it.”
When you take a look at a Garmin post-run abstract, you’ll be able to see how your cadence or vertical ratio compares to different Garmin runners. Yet this generalized graph cannot presumably account for elements like tempo or peak, which change how many steps you’re taking per minute or how far your toes journey.
You could also be beneath or above common for an excellent motive, and prematurely “obsessing” over this by taking faster or longer steps might cease you from discovering your pure running type over time, Heikes warns.
This tracks with my interview with Roberto Mandje, former Olympian and NYRR director of Runner Training, a couple of years again. He warned me that by paying consideration to running dynamics, you may begin chasing “generic numbers from the web…with out realizing when you actually ought to and precisely what your optimum cadence and stride size needs to be.”
Study your stats over time
His disclaimer apart, Heikes is not saying to ignore your knowledge solely, merely to run lengthy sufficient that you’ve got a pure running type, and then tinker from there.
For any particular running metric, “take a look at how this knowledge modifications over time,” he explains. Compare two runs of comparable lengths a 12 months aside and see in case your dynamics have modified in correlation along with your improved (or worsened) VO2 Max. What’s (un)modified will make it easier to gauge the place to focus your future efforts.
Then, “evaluate the knowledge from a quick run to a gradual one” and see which metrics you modify to achieve velocity. Heikes says, for instance, that his cadence tends to keep constant whereas his stride size will increase, whereas different runners may focus extra on quicker motion with a constant stride to run quicker.
He additionally recommends knowledge graphs throughout a protracted race (like a marathon) to see “how fatigue reveals up in the running dynamics measurements.” Maybe you’d see that your cadence shortens or floor contact time (GCT) will get too lengthy, for example, and use that knowledge to determine your stamina limits.
After you’ve got discovered your averages for various kinds of runs, you can then strive altering your running type and see the outcomes, each for tempo and metrics. Heikes gave the well-known “run tall” instance, saying you’ll be able to “inform quantitatively how that’s mirrored in goal knowledge” as soon as you’ve got established a benchmark to evaluate towards.
Naturally enhance your type with energy coaching
Heikes says his favourite running dynamic metric is GCT stability as a result of he “had a few knee surgical procedures,” and it helps him catch “when I is likely to be getting extra imbalanced in my stride,” whether or not due to fatigue or as a result of he wants to “do some energy coaching on the weak facet.”
While he did not go into rather more element about this, different running coaches on-line will level you in direction of energy workouts as a method to enhance particular running metrics. An imbalanced stride may push you to do extra single-leg workouts, for example.
COROS, which simply launched a running type take a look at for watches like the PACE 3, has a “From Data to Action” information for individuals scoring low in key areas, and most of its suggestions are (you guessed it) energy coaching. For instance, fixing excessive GCT begins with burpees, mountain climbers, and different body weight jumps that get your toes off the floor rapidly.
Lower-body workouts like squats, deadlifts, and calf/heel raises offer you extra highly effective launches to enhance your stride with much less cardiovascular effort. More typically, core-strength exercises like planks assist fight fatigue’s damaging impression in your type throughout lengthy races.
Rather than manually making an attempt to change your running type, give your physique the muscular instruments to run extra effectively, with this “8-week energy coaching plan” as a strong place to begin for runners.
I cannot cease you from checking your running dynamics knowledge and actively altering your type to come nearer to the common. However, from what I discovered from varied coaches and health model specialists, running dynamics is extra helpful as a benchmark, the similar as VO2 Max or your estimated race paces.
The fitter and stronger you get, the extra doubtless that your cadence, GCT, vertical ratio, and energy effectivity will enhance, particularly for marathons the place cardiovascular endurance is not sufficient. With runner-focused energy coaching, you may enhance naturally with out spending each run distracted by how excessive or lengthy you are stepping.
As for Garmin watches particularly, Joe Heikes says that the Forerunner product crew believes “there’s nonetheless a variety of utility potential for the running dynamics knowledge we at present present and for different metrics we now have been engaged on in-house. We should not but carried out innovating on this space!” So, we may even see new Garmin Coach instruments or higher indoor exercises targeted on running dynamics in the future.