Wednesday, June 30, 2010
Tuesday, June 29, 2010
Barefooting
A year and a half ago, I received a pair of Vibram Five Fingers (VFF) for Christmas to work on my running form. As a heel-striker by tradition, the VFF discourage this habit by making it naturally painful. I was convinced that this bad habit contributed to a number of knee pains as weekly mileage mounted. The following spring, I wore them on all my runs, plus the office (I have a really great employer). I could feel my feet getting stronger and running was much more enjoyable. Plus my cadence picked up on its own accord.
Then last summer, I read McDougall's book Born to Run and thought maybe trying some barefooting in addition to minimalist footwear would be interesting. Right now, I'm up to running a couple miles barefoot on asphalt trails that sometimes have small bits of gravel and various twigs, berries, nuts, and seeds that fall off the trees. Since I had to start from scratch this spring (after a quiet winter), it was a perfect time to try a complete transition to barefoot running. If picking up my cadence was easy in the VFF, it sped up still more unshod.
Of course, I just went out and tried this without reading much on how. The only rule I really followed was: Start Slow. Still, after trying this for a while, I found Jason Robillard's instructional book very helpful.
I knew I was hooked when I went downtown to spend a few weeks at a client's offices. I had been wearing VFF for a while and switching back to conventional shoes really made me uncomfortable. I could feel my feet atrophy. Then I found the Vivo Barefoot line of shoes from Terra Plana that gave me some professional (though no formal) options.
So far, no injuries. In fact, a nagging IT band problem with my left knew disappeared after barefoot running. This problem started with conventional shoes and continued with the VFF.
Then last summer, I read McDougall's book Born to Run and thought maybe trying some barefooting in addition to minimalist footwear would be interesting. Right now, I'm up to running a couple miles barefoot on asphalt trails that sometimes have small bits of gravel and various twigs, berries, nuts, and seeds that fall off the trees. Since I had to start from scratch this spring (after a quiet winter), it was a perfect time to try a complete transition to barefoot running. If picking up my cadence was easy in the VFF, it sped up still more unshod.
Of course, I just went out and tried this without reading much on how. The only rule I really followed was: Start Slow. Still, after trying this for a while, I found Jason Robillard's instructional book very helpful.
I knew I was hooked when I went downtown to spend a few weeks at a client's offices. I had been wearing VFF for a while and switching back to conventional shoes really made me uncomfortable. I could feel my feet atrophy. Then I found the Vivo Barefoot line of shoes from Terra Plana that gave me some professional (though no formal) options.
So far, no injuries. In fact, a nagging IT band problem with my left knew disappeared after barefoot running. This problem started with conventional shoes and continued with the VFF.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)