After my experiment on Sunday with a barefoot beach run I decided I just had to continue the experiment and try the Vibram 5 Finger shoes to enable me to run on roads in as near to barefoot condition as I dared. Well,the shoes haven't arrived yet and at tonights "hills" session (short hill reps over the railway line in Troon), I toyed with the idea of trying it without shoes. The first couple of reps felt like hard work (no doubt Goatfell was still affecting my legs). When we were about to start the 3rd rep I noticed that the road surface was really pretty decent, certainly good enough to try running in socks so that's what I did.
In fact, I ran the next 8 reps in my socks which wasn't nearly as uncomfortable as I thought it might be. Best of all was the increase in my leg speed. Having struggled up the first two reps, my legs were flying for the rest of them. The only problem I had was on the last two reps (which were a bit steeper) as my feet were slipping on the tarmac and I just couldn't get enough traction to accelerate. I was really pleased with the way it went and there's no doubt that running barefoot alters the way that one runs. Whether this is all for the good remains to be seen but I was running faster & smoother for the same effort.
Of course, my socks din't fare too well but I have a drawer overflowing with running socks so I reckon I can afford to try this again. ;-)
Maybe my Vibram shoes will be redundant before I get them!
Tuesday 19 May 2009
On the road to barefoot running
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3 comments:
Never been convinced by the barefoot idea. Most runners (and there are millions and million of them) run injury free every day of every week so I reckon modern shoes work. If they are fitted badly they might cause some problems but surely you'll end up with problems barefoot running too? Trauma, jarring, cuts etc.
Just pop into any running forum though and you'll find that the favourite topic of discussion is injuries though. ;-)
Counter intuitive though it might seem, I think that there is much to be said for the argument that shoes don't protect you from jarring, they actually change the way you run to increase impact. Try running fast on tarmac in bare feet and you'll be amazed at how lightly you plant your feet.
I'm not 100% sold on it yet but I've had various foot issues over the years and I think it's worth a shot. It's not going to cost me too much. ;-)
You feet are packed with muscles doing the equivalent of sitting around in a Parker Knoll armchair in modern running shoes so perhaps it's not too surprising that were get problems with our feet. Certainly, in almost any other field of biomechanics it's generally accepted that providing artificial support leads to weakness of the intrinsic system. Why should the feet be any different?
I'd just say, don't scoff too much until you've tried it. There's a *huge* industry making money out of running shoes (and huge sponsorship of top athletes) so the barefoot message is never going to be popular.
Lastly, I'd add that it was actually tremendous fun to run bare(ish)foot last night and I was undoubtedly running faster without my shoes.
Tim,
Agree with you 100%! I would just urge a wee bit of caution at first, especially on tarmac, as your feet need time to adjust. The Taramuhara and barefoot Kenyans etc have about a quarter inch of leather-like skin on their soles but that doesn't happen overnight.
I reckon that you gain a second a mile for every ounce saved on the feet. So with a typical pair of trainers weighing nearly a pound each, that's about 30 seconds a mile faster for a barefoot runner.
Brian, yes, people get by with modern trainers but they make you run unnaturally and your feet wither away and become totally dependent on them. And they don't reduce injuries either - it's all just a big con! I'm convinced that most of the East African stars can run faster barefoot but you won't see a barefoot Olympic champion nowadays because big bucks from the shoe companies won't let it happen!
Cheers,
Billy
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