Heel strike or mid-sole/forefoot strike?

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Honestly, all of the above depending how how I'm feeling. If I'm feeling pain anywhere, I have to adjust my strike. I think most do that naturally. If I'm fighting exhaustion, I tend to do a shuffle that has me landing on my heel first and it feels good and right at that time. I've run for many years without injuries related to running so I think it's worked well for me.

Sounds about right to me.

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I too am focused on landing (i hate the word "striking".... It evokes force and damage when i'm trying to glide and NOT damage) on my midfoot and found that cadence drills every single run assist in this regard. Usually, i think that when runners try to run quickly, we elongate our stride and heel-land, causing the jarring and actual slowdown you mention. As such, i try to combat this with cadence drills, trying to keep the footfall rate at least at 180/ min. However, during the drills, i aim to put my feet down as fast as possible....i take a 30 second measure out of each mile and count one foot (usually my left) during the period and then multiple by four (2 for 2 feet and 2 for 2 30 sec periods in a minute). Usually, by focusing on this drill, i have found i can run faster without injury, and make myself run on my midfoot. It also makes me not "strike" as i only am lifting my foot off the ground as little as possible....think of tire drills....it seems to work of me.

Good luck.

Brilliant, thanks all, and thanks for the welcome! It's nice to be welcomed to the sport and not just the forum. It seems to be a nice community and I can't wait to sign up for a race.I wonder if its because of sprinting in spikes back as a teen that I only feel natural on the front of my feet. With sprint spikes you can't put your feet down, so it must have conditioned my feet.I spoke to a few marathon runners at work etc and every single one of them ran with a heel-strike and frowned at me when I suggested mid-sole! So I thought id ask. It's encouraging to see so many of you do it or are working towards it. The runners I know are each ten stone or so, so its probably how they don't jar themselves.Re the weight, I'm coming across from natural bodybuilding so its predominantly muscle which still won't help the events but atleast is good functional weight as opposed to fatty tissue. I guess without muscle loss I'd sit at 5% bodyfat around 90kg (198lbs or so). So from this training with some inevitable mucle loss and a probable maintenance condition of 10%, ill be anywhere around 200lbs by the time I'm where my first goals lie.Id be happy with that.With a bit of luck ill catch on well and be able to join in the races! At my size my aim will be to become a quick sprint triathlete and do my best at olympic. I'll never be an ironman at my weight I'm sure. There would need to be a trade off somewhere.