I’ve talked before about how effective running steps push back rather than reach forward.
From my view, over-striding is to run by reaching forward with your front leg and having it pull you forward, instead of propelling your body by landing the front leg directly under your hips and pushing back. Whether or not your foot lands in front of your body is secondary to using your leg to reach instead of letting it land naturally beneath you.
Reaching your leg forward and pulling your body towards it once it lands is of course inefficient: It doesn’t allow you to fully utilize the power of your glutes, and forces your quads, hams, calves, etc. to do a lot more work that they’re designed for to keep you running. It also forces your hips and core to do a lot more work because your balance constantly shifts due to what’s essentially a bounding lunge posing as a running motion.
One of the reasons this is hard to internalize for many is because most think of the first step being the foot that reaches forward from where you stand or walk.
In reality, your first step is already on the ground. Since effective running form pushes back rather than reaches forward, your run begins when you push off from one foot on the ground to move your body forward.
The foot that first moves forward is actually the second step. And of course that second step should comfortably touch the ground and push back to propel you forward… rather than reach forward.
Start your run with this thought process, and you are well on your way to running comfortably and effectively.