No heel strike

Sometimes the answers are easy!  Looking at the picture of my last run I was confused, it looks that I landed with a heel strike. But that is almost impossible if you ran barefoot on a surface that is very rough. By chance I met a guy who is working for a company that is specialized in motion sensors and he told me that he had a colleague who is also running barefoot. So I contact the guy and he send me some links to video’s he uploaded, and one of these showed me the answer on my questions about the heel strike. Just watch this video and you will understand why. On this site from Xsens you find a video where they demonstrate how to use motion sensors in sport, at 3 minutes and 10 seconds you will find Vibram Five Fingers in action!

Heel strike ?
Barefoot running has everything to do with pushing the boundaries. First you have to put of your shoes and start walking barefoot, after that you have to start running barefoot. Then you have to increase your time and mileage. And if this is not enough you have to encounter different surfaces which also has influence of all the items I mentioned before. This weekend I reached another stage, in mileage, time and surface, running the Kadeloop in a place called Schipluiden. The track is 7 km of asphalt and 5 km of trail with pebbles, stones and gravel. I was a little nervous for this trail but it went well. At the trail I changed my strike to a more mid feet strike to land more softly. After the run I don’t had any blisters are other damage on my feet, positive feedback on my running style! But after looking at the picture a friend of my made I was surprised because it looks like a heel strike! I am almost sure that it is not possible, because a heel strike on a surface like this will hurt very bad and I did not feel any pain at all during the run. It is the only picture I have so it is not possible to analyze it but it made me very curious!