I got a gait analysis in the running shop prior to buying new shoes and like most runners I was landing heel first. I assume because all the impact is there, the vibration, etc, travels up to the knees and gives "runner's knee"? Are there any good easy techniques, drills that came help to shift from heel to mid-front foot strike, that you could suggest?
Yes, if you over-stride and land on your heals then the impact forces travel up you leg and hit your knee, which is in a locked position when you land. If your stride is shorter you should find your knee is slightly bent when you land, then everything works as a spring, absorbing the impact energy and then releasing the tension during take off - humans are extremely well evolved for optimal running.
First advice would be not to change things dramatically but slowly make small adjustments. The easiest thing would be to check your cadence and pace. if your pace os an easy effort and your cadence is high then it is almost impossible not to have a good mid-foot strike. Some coaches claim 180 RPM is optimal, that is 90 steps per foot per minute. There is some rough science supporting this but it t is also clear there is a fairly broad window, say 170 to 195 that is optimal.
Some running watches will record cadence. You can also buy a garmin footpod or similar to work with some other watches. And the strava app also measure cadence (and is free). I don;t know of any specific exercises, when i started out running I bought a footpod as I thought my cadence was too slow but it was bang on 180 almost every run. Something to think about is simply smaller steps with a faster turnover. Note that you can run at 180RPM while completely stationary just running on the spots, so the high cadence doesn't necessarily lead to high speed.
Smaller footsteps but more of them means each step has less impact and the impact that occurs is in a more efficient leg position that applies less load too the joints. One may think this is inefficient talking extra steps but the energy that can be recovered from the better flexing more than makes up for it. Walking is somewhat the oposite where a long stride is perfevctly fine (until you get to steep hills).
One thing to try could be a little barefoot running.I am not an advocate in the slightest (unless you were born and raised barefoot running it will take a long, long time before it is safe, and even then it is impractical). However, for a short test it will show you that you naturally want a shorter stride on to your midfoot because a heel-strike on a small stone after a long stride really hurts! The way barefoot people run is the way you want to run while wearing runnign shoes with all those benefits.
