Goodbye heel strike! Hello neutral strike and good running form!

I've been hampered by a hamstring strain since October but kept running on it and finally got my gait checked out and been seeing a physical therapist for the past 3 weeks. Since October, I've turned to a high veggie diet, started working on core strength, hip strength, leg strength, and foot strength.

First was watching a video of my bad gait. My right foot obviously landing oddly. Then last week the PT found my left foot is pigeon toed. Foot strengthening and ankle strengthening is supposed to help correct this issue. With the hamstring, increasing hip strength, glute medius and maximus, while increasing core strength is supposed to aid in this new running form I'm trying to adopt.

I'm learning it takes time, lots of practice, and many hours put in running to develop the muscle memory and the muscles in the right places to support a good running form. It's actually more work than I thought which has made me realize how inactive so many other muscles were in my bad running form.

I'm also reading the Cool Impossible by Eric Orton (He coached Christopher McDougal who wrote Born to Run). The book is filled with feet, leg, and core strengthening exercises all aimed at strengthening running. It's been almost 4 weeks, I'm feeling a little stronger, a little better in form, and running isn't painful anymore, just hard work! One my moments of realization was landing each step with the core and starting the knee drive from my feet to my core and hips. So much to work on...

I've also switched to zero drop shoes. I'm feeling a little weakness in my feet but slowly strengthening. I'm running in Brooks PureFlow2 which are cushioned zero drop and RC1400 racing flats. My next purchase may be a pair of Altra which run about a half-size small.

Richard Diaz of Diaz Human Performance giving me a gait and VO2 analysis.