Breaking the Wall

Just a couple thoughts:

In a previous post you listed our measurements from a couple years ago, and you related this to calf strength. I would be hesitant to look too much into the calf size as an indicator as most of my family members have big calves except Andrew (and he has the fastest 400m of all of us), while small calf size has also been correlated with good running economy.

High levels of plantar flexion on toe off have also been shown to correlate with good running economy, which ties in a little closer with your premise that the soleus plays an important role.

If you look at many world class runners such as Bekele, or Tadesse, you will notice that they have comparatively huge quadriceps in comparison to their size. I think that their may be a tie in between strength of the quads, and the ability of the body to utilize this strength through the full range of motion. The soleus may play a role in helping these runners to utilize this strength, potentially acting more as a stabilizer?

From experimenting in the past with what you are doing now, I think that it can be beneficial, however if you don't remember I brought on a minor calf injury when I ran an all out 400m focusing on the toe off (so be careful).

I also think that there is something to be said for what goes on from the feet up through the core. So, when you are focusing on toe off you may want to also pay some attention to what changes may be occurring in your knee flexion, hip flexion/extension, pelvic tilt, etc. Sometimes our experimenting may cause additional changes elsewhere in the body. Some of these additional changes may be good, and some may be bad, while sometimes it may be one of the changes that were not our primary focus that end up making the biggest difference in performance.

Thanks Jeff, That was pretty insightful. It makes me wonder about my own bio-mechanics, ie-I have small quads.

Steve, I don't necessarily think it is the size of the quads that matter as much as the ability of the body to utilize the strength that is there, as many of the top Kenyans do not have large quads. I mentioned Bekele and Tadesse, as they are the world record holders at the 10000m and the half marathon, and it could be that the great strength they have in addition to very efficient muscle firing patterns helps push them over the top performance wise.

I think that Sasha's focus on the soleus may in fact help in the sense that it would help him learn to use the power in his quads more efficiently, while it is also possible that a weak calf muscle would change the firing patterns to such a degree that it would not allow him to use the full extent of his quad strength.

Muscle size can be used as a hint of sorts at what the problem may be, but is definitely not a conclusive driver of performance. I am suspecting, for example, that the cause of my calves being small relative to quads is that I run in a way that places undue emphasis on the quads. This is also supported by the fact that whenever I fall off the pace, the perceived signals of fatigue are always coming from the quads, while the calves do not seem to feel any different than if I were jogging.

But at the same time small muscle size is OK, and is actually a benefit if you know how to recruit it well. So it is all about the subtle balance that is difficult to put your fingers on. Probably the best way to develop it is try different drills, strengthening exercises, and propioceptive cues and see which ones produce faster pace with lesser effort in situations where you cannot cheat yourself into believing that you are running faster with less effort.