Pose & The Barefoot/Minimal Shoe Experiment (Part 3 of 3)

The Barefoot/Minimal Shoe Experiment

So, you’ve seen why and how I became interested in PoseMethod & Barefoot running and what PoseMethod is all about (from my perspective anyway).  Now it’s time to get onto the conclusion of the 3 posts – the experiment.

Getting Naked

I’m very keen on this barefoot lark, but I also know it may not be the safest of things to do on the road or trail.  They didn’t run about on completely bare feet 100′s and 1000′s of years ago so I might just take a tip from them and stick with a minimal layer to protect my feet.  It’s still barefoot in essence since there will be nothing protecting or supporting my feet from impact other than the great number of complex nerve endings, muscles, tendons and bones in my feet.  All good.

I also understand that starting to run barefoot isn’t something to tackle head on by jumping in at the deep end.  Barefoot Ted highlighted this point well in a recent Marathon Talk Podcast where he compared learning to run barefoot with learning a new language.  We can’t just start talking fluent ‘whatever’.  We need to learn the basics first, learn the alphabet, simple sentence structure, etc.  In that respect, learning to run barefoot has to be taken slowly.  Our feet need to learn how to feel the ground when we run, and muscles need to be strengthened (they’ll be weak from all the support they’ve had over their life in modern shoes).

The “Shoes”

If you haven’t looked at minimal shoes such as Vibram Five Fingers (VFFs) and Terra Plana EVOs before, you’ll soon see they have a number of things in common.  They have 1:1 hight ratio between heel and forefoot, they’re made with very light weight and durable materials – in the case of VFFs & EVOs all that is between your foot and the ground is around 4-6mm of puncture resistant rubber.

Oh, and they cost anywhere between £85 – £100 and above!

Unfortunately I can’t splash out £100 on a pair of running shoes at the moment so i thought i’d try and think out of the box.  I thought about how these new ‘barefoot’ shoes looked, their flexibility, then it occurred to me that there was something out there that might be applicable as a cheap alternative.  Aqua shoes!!

A bit of investigating later and it was quite obvious I wasn’t the first to have this epiphany, but it was nice to know I was on the right track.  I remembered seeing aqua shoes for sale at my local supermarket, so I headed there one lunchtime and Bam! – £5 a pair! bargain.

I should note that I completely understand these shoes aren’t made for running. They don’t have puncture resistant soles or anything so i’ll have to be careful.  To be honest, if they last 50 miles i’ll be happy. At the end of the day, it’s an experiment!

Since I started the experiment, I’ve run 8 miles in in the experimental shoes. They’re showing signs of wear but the tread is holding up well.

Another type of shoe in my sights is something they call Huaraches.  If you’ve read “Born to Run” you’ll know what I’m talking about.  Not sure they’re something for the winter but at $20 for a kit (around £12) i’d be willing to give them a go.  It’s all in the name of science after all.

The Plan

I’ve said on this blog recently that i’m not going to follow any training plans.  I’ll still stick to that.  The only reason I have a barefoot plan is to control and monitor the amount of mileage I undertake.  As BFT said, it’s something you have to take slow.

The plan is rather prudent in terms of my expectations.  By the end of 28weeks I’m looking to be running 5.5miles a week ‘barefoot’.  I think this is achievable.

The increase in ‘barefoot’ is in line with my own projected increase in weekly mileage, following the 10% rule.  Because the mileage for barefoot is so small, however, I rounded up the figures which plateau for a 3 week period before the next increase.  Currently, ‘barefoot should be accounting for between 6%-8% of my weekly mileage.  By Week 28, ‘barefoot’ should account for 20% of total weekly mileage.

Note: W/E 25th July – no ‘barefoot’ running was done because of injury (slight Achilles strain).

The chances are, I may be able to run more than that ‘barefoot’.  If I can, great.  If I can only stick to the mileage suggested in the plan, that’s great too.

BFF (BareFoot Forever)

So that’s the big experiment. Bringing more barefoot into my life and trying out cheap shoes to feed the future habit!

Do you run barefoot? Wear minimal shoes?  Let me know your thoughts on how you approached barefoot running and beyond!

**UPDATE** The experiment has come on leaps and bounds since I started.  As such, the barefoot plan changed.   See my later post Transition to the Dark Side – A Change of Plan for details. Thanks!