Landing on the Center of Gravity

Sigh.  Another great post by Pete.

When he starts talking about Steve Magness using "cues" to train his runners, I start thinking POSE. ;)

Which is not the worst thing in the world.

My own thoughts, as a runner who's in no danger of finishing in the top ten at Boston:  Sometimes you land under what feels like Center Of Gravity, sometimes you don't.

In trail running, my preferred mileu, you often need to reach out and land with your foot clearly ahead of your COG.

But you're landing on the ball of the foot, not the heel, so you still have the opportunity to absorb the impact using the mechanisms of the foot.  Can you also do the same thing at speed in a marathon?  Perhaps. 

Again, I think it comes back to footwear.  Measuring human variability after adding a variable like shoes really mucks up the equation.  Unfortunately we won't ever have a chance to perform and experiment like this in a competitive marathon without shoes, but we can speculate, right? :)