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July 30, 2010  

Getting started with barefoot running

I saw this post by Stephen Sashen over at invisibleshoe.com and thought i’d share it out in case you haven’t seen it.

Imagine that you haven’t lifted weights in a while… or ever.

And imagine that you got the idea that you wanted to bench press 500 pounds.

Would you go to the gym, put 500 pounds on the bar, and just go for it?

Of course not. There’s no way you could budge 500 on day one.

Would you go to the gym and put, say, 100 pounds on the bar and lift it, over and over, until you felt tired… and then do a few more reps until you were wasted?

I hope not.

Would you take a small weight, like 20 pounds, and lift it for an hour or two?

Boy, I wouldn’t.

But for some reason people think they can get into barefoot running with one of those plans.

They think they can just whip off their shoes and replace one of their regular runs with a barefoot run. Or, worse, they think that even if they haven’t run for a decade, it’ll be fine to go for a 5 mile barefoot run. Or they get out for a barefoot run, feel some strain or pain in their feet or calves and think, “Oh, I’ll just work through this, it’ll be fine.”

And they pay the price.

They wake up with freakishly sore calves or Achilles tendons. They get blisters. They get plantar faciitis. They get stress fractures.

Look, over-training is over-training. Doing too much is doing too much.

Especially with barefoot running, TAKE YOUR TIME. There’s no rush to get to the point where you’re running an ultramarathon every day for 1000 days in your bare feet. And there’s no way to rush building up the strength in your muscles and ligaments and tendons, or to develop correct and efficient form.

It happens as it happens. No sooner, no later.

How long that’ll be is a mystery. Maybe it only takes you a week or a month. Maybe it takes you a year.

Who cares?

First of all, it’s not all-or-nothing. It’s not like you won’t be able to be barefoot and then, BAM, 6 months from now you can! It’s a process. Maybe today you can only run 100 yards and then need to ice your feet for 3 days. That’s fine. In a month, guaranteed, you’ll be doing more. And a month after that, you’ll be doing even more.

Secondly, nobody is telling you to throw away your shoes the moment you realize you want to become a barefoot runner. Keep your shoes. Enjoy your shoes. And look forward to when you don’t want or need them.

But, please, give yourself time — the amount of time that YOU need — to make the transition.

Honestly, there’s enough to learn and experience and benefit from if all you ever do is an occasional 1 minute jog without shoes.

I hate to toss out “prescriptions for living,” but in this case I can’t think of any better way to say it than, “Enjoy the journey… because there isn’t really a goal.”

Great post!  Got a comment, please visit invisibleshoe.com and let them know what you think.

July 28, 2010  

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!

July 8, 2010  

Pose & The Barefoot/Minimal Shoe Experiment (Part 2)

The Pose Method of Running.

As well as over Twitter discussions with Ian and comments he’d left on my Daily Mile log, he directed me to various websites to read up on Pose.  However, I found Ian’s website the best for the explanation of technical information and how to implement technique.  You can visit his site at www.thinkrunning.com.  I’d recommend grabbing the RRS feed for your feed reader too.  There You’ll find lots of useful articles, videos and links related to the Pose Method of Running.

From my own understanding, I would explain the Pose method simply as a natural and efficient way to run.  You utilise gravity to push rather than pull yourself along.   Sounds odd when i read that back but that’s how it feels.  Don’t get me wrong though, it’s pretty difficult to get to grips with and requires you to strengthen muscles you never knew you had.  Which, again, is odd because it’s still the act of running.  You’re still performing an end goal – to run.  Pose, i guess, is just a different means to that end from what we’ve become used to.

At first it was very strange.  Transitioning from a heel strike to a mid foot strike isn’t easy.  I had it in my head that I should appear almost motionless and graceful, only my legs carrying me forward.  Easier said than done.  I did feel a difference.  But I also knew something wasn’t quite right.

The aim: Mid foot strike.  Feet striking below the hips in fast succession (quick light steps – as soon as your foot is on the ground it should be off the ground!), back straight leading from the hips - if you were watching from the side your hips and head following a level path, using your hamstrings to pull your feet up at the rear rather rather than using your quads to pull you along.

That was the aim. I wasn’t quite getting it though.  I read some more articles and watched some more demo videos.  Then, Ian left a comment on one of my Daily Mile logs that went something like - Remember to lead with your hips (thrusting them forward), lean forward like you’re teetering on the edge of falling over and concentrate on picking your feet up.

Although I had heard those points before, “picking your feet up” just seemed to make things click into place. A light bulb suddenly appeared over head. I’ve got it!  Not perfect obviously, but I think I’ve got it.  That was just over a month ago and i’ve been putting it into practise every run ever since.  In fact, my rough version of Pose has worked so well I got myself a 10K personal best (48:18) 2 weeks ago without even trying hard.  The ratio of effort to speed and distance has changed significantly.  Previously, my easy runs average 9:30 min miles.  In the last month this has dropped to 8:30 at the most… with the same effort. In a month!  It’s not that i’ve found some super strength serum or a magical work out. I’m just running way more efficiently than before. And the ITBFS. Gone.  It’s not easy and takes a lot of effort but it looks like it’s paying off.

The biggie’s for Pose seem to be core strength, strengthening your hamstrings, hips and foot muscles.  Over the last couple of months I’ve noticed a vast improvement most of those areas.

  • Hamstrings.  There is much less of a need to focus on technique now.  My hams aren’t getting (as) tired on longer runs and I can keep up the high cadence for longer as a result.
  • Core: Abs of steel! well, not quite, but again I’m able to lead with my hips without getting too tired for a lot longer now.  Plus it’s nice to see some (ok, a very small amount) of definition appearing.
  • Feet: There is a difference here.  I’ve been doing the Pose drills (Link further down the the post), but since I’m still wearing structured running shoes I don’t think I’ve improved in this area as much as I could have.  My feet will only get stronger though as i increase my barefoot/minimal footwear mileage (details in Part 3!)
  • Hips:  The need to strengthen my hips has only just come to my attention.  I don’t think my hips are dipping on the foot strike but I’ve not watched any footage of myself yet to know any better. That said though, it wont do any harm to integrate hip strengthening exercises into my routine

Like I said a moment ago, I might be doing ok but I’m nowhere near perfect!  The next stage is to take some video footage of myself, see what I need to change and what i’m actually doing right.  I’m getting a bit of help on this one thankfully.  Ian over at thinkrunning.com will soon be a qualified Pose Instructor.  He’ll be casting his professional eye over the footage and providing advice.  I’d fully recommend him if Pose is something you would like to adopt.  Go to his website or twitter page and contact him for details.

Even though I need to find out how i’m doing regarding technique, I think it’s at least 50% – 75% there (fingers crossed).  Now, it’s easy to see that Pose lends itself to barefoot running.  And, now that i’m well on my way in terms of technique, the Barefoot/Minimal Shoe Experiment has begun…

More in Part 3!

If you’re interested in knowing more about Pose and barefoot running I’ve posted some useful links below:

http://thinkrunning.com/

http://www.barefootrunner.com/

http://www.posetech.com/

http://www.sportsinjurybulletin.com/archive/pose-running-technique.html (Pose Technique, Principles and Drills)

http://tinyurl.com/Pose-Method-Videos [C&P link into browser] (Google Search on Pose Method Of Running Videos)

Video by Terra Plana, who make the Evo “barefoot” running shoe (Thanks for the link Ian!)

July 8, 2010  

Pose & The Barefoot/Minimal Shoe Experiment (Part 1)

I’ve been meaning to write a post on this for a while.  A couple of months in fact.
So, as the title suggests, I’m jumping on the barefoot/minimal shoe bandwagon.   Wait, jumping on the bandwagon?!  Well, not quite.  I hadn’t heard a whole lot about barefoot running when I first started looking into it and I sure as hell had never heard of the Pose method of  running either.
I’ll briefly explain how I was first introduced to it all then.  Throughout my running days i’ve been affected by that horrible band.  No, not Westlife.  My Illiotibial Band.  Yup, you know what i’m talking about.  It can be pretty painful!  At it’s worst it put me out for just over 3 months last year after the 2009 Edinburgh Marathon.  And this year it raised its ugly head half way through training for the 2010 Edinburgh Marathon.
That was the turning point.
I started to look into why I was getting Illiotibial Band Friction Syndrome (ITBFS).  And what was the cause?  The way I was running of course.  Imagine you’re running on a straight road along a line.  The line is splitting you in two.  As you’re running, when your feet strike the ground, each foot stays on its side of the line.  That’s the way it should be as far as i could understand.  However, I wasn’t doing that.  My feet were crossing the line.  That’s what was causing the ITBFS.
Solution:  Change the way I run.
And that’s what I started to do.  I mentioned this on Twitter and DailyMile.  Many people responded with stories of their own advice for their experience, but it was @IanM1963 (Ian) that really grabbed my attention.  He made a few suggestions about how I could change they way I run to a style that would greatly reduce chances of injury in the future.
That’s when I heard about the Pose Method of Running…

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