Running is an activity that most people can participate in without a lot of instruction on how to run. It is not like a sport where lessons are needed to acquire enough skill to be successful enough to enjoy playing the game. Tennis, golf, pickle ball, and even bowling, benefit by getting some guidance in how to play the sport. Running is an activity that most people have tried from a young age on, through becoming an adult. Running is a fun and rewarding activity but it also has some learning steps to become a better and more efficient runner. Those seemingly small things that beginning runners may do can make a big difference with a minor change that can result in progress to run faster.
The plant of the foot when you take a step is something to consider. A majority of people walk with a slight outward turning of the foot at approximately a 45-degree angle. The difference between a foot plant that is straight forward and one that is at a 45-degree angle is about 2 – 3 inches. This doesn’t seem like much until you consider running a mile averages about 1500 steps. Taking the number of steps and using a 2 ½ inch difference finds that a person loses 312 feet per mile. Much of the difference is determined by how fast and how tall a person is. On average a runner at a 20 minute per mile pace takes about 2,250 steps, a 15 minute per mile pace takes about 1,935 steps, a 10 minute per mile pace takes 1,670 steps, and an 8 minute per mile takes 1,400 steps. That amounts to a big difference in how efficient a runner is depending on how fast they run.
And if the pace a runner maintains while running the height of the runner must also be taken into consideration. The difference isn’t quite as evident as the pace of a runner but it does make some difference. Researchers have estimated that a 5 foot person takes 2,601 steps per mile, a 5’6” person takes 2,286 steps per mile, a 5’10” person takes 2,155 steps per mile, a 6’ person takes 2,095 steps, and a tall 6’ 3” person takes 2,011 steps.
