My local running shop, Up and Running are hosting the Saucony Stride Lab this week and offering free analysis slots, so I jumped at the chance to get a review of my running form.  You can see more details of the Stride Lab on their website, but this is it in a nutshell:

An innovative gait assessment system providing an in depth analysis of a runners unique stride characteristics. The high level of feedback provided to runners can improve running advice and footwear selection.

The Stride Analysis Method starts with a conversation to understand how running fits into your lifestyle, including questions about preferences and injury history. This is followed by a short run on the treadmill to collect 10 seconds of video footage from the three high-speed cameras placed to assess body position and running form. The cameras work in synchronisation to capture your stride from multiple views; from the back, the front and the side.

The three angle analysis allows for a thorough analysis of each runners unique stride and gives them a deeper understanding of their mobility, stability, control and form.

This was actually the first time I’d run in 6 days due to picking up a bug on the 25th of Feb, so I was a little nervous about hopping on a treadmill, but it seemed to go ok!  I’ve been carrying a sore ankle for a while, which I thought was down to my Brooks shoes, but the run lab should give me a good idea if this was actually because of a bio mechanical issue.

The lab started out with a chat about my ankle woes, my weekly mileage and roughly what my running targets are.   We also discussed strategies for how to include 5k pace improving runs into my longer race training plans, which was fantastic.  Then I was given a pair of Saucony Triumph ISO3 shoes to try on, and hopped on the treadmill.

It’s been ages since I’d ran on a treadmill so it took me a few minutes to get used to running on it but I got there eventually and pretty soon I got comfortable on there.   It didn’t take long to catch some video footage which we then sat down to look at.

So, turns out I’m a bit of a “boring” person to review, which is good news for me!  My gait is pretty good, with my stride landing on my midfoot and not over striding ahead of me.  My knee is flexed a bit to absorb the impact, and my knees and ankles are stable with minimal pronation.   I do have a little bit of a hip drop going on which you can see from the middle photo, but not enough to worry about, and I could do with improving my hip flexibility (too much desk work!) which should help with my push off and make my glutes work harder.

Part of the conclusion from the video discussion was that I was pretty such free to chose which ever shoes I wanted because my running style would support a shoe without a lot of padding.   So, I got to try out the Saucony Kinvara 7s.

I really liked this shoes.  They were nice and light, and as your foot rolled forward in them, they seemed to create an angled platform for pushing off from.   I was intending on picking up another pair of shoes to alternate with my Asics Dynaflytes with, and I think I’ve found them!   They would make great interval/race shoes I think!   Roll on the next pay packet 😉

So, thank you Up and Running and Saucony for the opportunity to try out the Stride Lab!