Another Twitter-er

To me via Twitter:

I'm sensing a convergence on barefoot/minimal coverage running. 2 friends have reco'd "Born to Run" & 1 bought Nike Free's.

I responded:

The more you look, read & question, the more it makes sense. Unfortunately, Nike Free sucks as a "barefoot" shoe: 2 much heel lift

She responded:

Yeah, the jury's still out for my friend who bought them. I'm looking at Vibram Five Fingers.

I replied:

VFF's are raved by as best "Barefoot" shoe. Pricy tho - get fairly close to the BF technique in XC flats. & just run BF 5 min/day

" Making a (barefoot) impression" ~ A Facebook Message & My Response (after President's Cup 5K last night)

THE MESSAGE:

As I drove down Millburn Ave with my wife to the race last night, she saw you warming up and said to me "I think I saw somebody running barefoot". I looked over and said "Yeah, don't you know that he does much of his running barefoot?".

We got into the discussion of hurting the bottom of your feet on all that you find on the road. I thought I noticed your later warm up with Ray that you were wearing shoes.

I have read with great interest some of your opinions as well as some of the links about barefoot running. I especially liked the comment that bad shoe design causes so many of the injury problems. When I think of who is NOT running these days and talk to so many people with injuries, I wonder if barefoot is the way to go. How would I start to at least attempt it?

I don't know what your expectations are these days, but I thought you ran pretty well last night....

MY RESPONSE

Hey DL - I saw you warming up too. Ray and I were about 50 yards behind you heading up the hill before the race.

Yea, I switched to shoes for the race. I can simply run faster with shoes - about 15-20 seconds per mile faster. But the "barefoot" form and efficiency carries over, as long as the shoes are flats, not those over built, over hyped, overpriced trainers.

I am in my fifth summer of running barefoot - over a year it probably comes to about a third of my total mileage. In summer it is probably about 75% of my total mileage. But I worked into it slow. At first, it was just 5 minutes at a time on a well groomed soccer field. Now I can do 8 miles on pavement (probably more if I wanted) and have done 12 on pavement plus grass. And I stay as barefoot as possible when not running to support the practice.

There are tons of stuff to read about it. The two books to read are Chi Running and Born To Run. You don't actually have to run shoeless, but you can do the same technique if you get minimal flat running shoes. And train in them. I now exclusively run in cross-country flats, on and off road.

If you google BF running, there is tons. A classic place to start is here .

Shoes are always the answer! NOT

Via Twitter, saw this tweet:

Awesome race yesterday, aaand I found out what's causing my knee issues. Apparently I'm an over-pronator. So I got new Brooks to fix it!

I replied:
New shoes do not fix over-pronation. They make you weaker by allowing it. Form corrections fix the prob that is due to heel strike

She repilied:

How do I fix it? Just start focusing on perfecting my footing?

I replied:
You could start looking at your technique issues. Most people have technique tweaks that manifest themselves in injuries. It is those soft and supportive shoes that have been allowing people to run long distances with sloppy technique that leads to eventual downfall. People who have been running for a long time are more vulnerable than new runners because the weaknesses sneak up on you, especially as you age with such great aerobic fitness.

We have been told for so long that heel striking is the right way to run long distance, but that is so wrong. We were naturally selected to run with midfoot strike. The heel can be touching, but it should not be bearing the impact. Impact is dissipated by your entire body and not just your foot/shoe. Some studies actually show that the softer the shoe, the greater the impact, because your body needs to feel and respond to your foot plant! You mentioned you problem as being caused by pronation - the great enemy of all runners, according to the shoe companies - we gotta control that pronation! Well, if you run with proper technique, there is in fact little or NO pronation. All injury problems than go "poof" and they are gone (in time).

Tweaking technique is a real process of reeducation, unlearning some false beliefs put forth by shoe company marketing, and physical practice. And since most of us have been running in over-built shoes for so long, the process needs to be slow, or else there are a host of other problems that you could create for yourself by trying to change something too quickly, even though it is the right thing to do! The absolute best place to start is reading the book Chi Running by Danny Dreyer....

Workouts June 8 - 14, 2009

Had an easy workout week this past week, which was needed following the Towpath "Train"ing Run.  Rain has been relentless.  This is keeping bike mileage way down.  Raced fairly well on Tuesday night considering the 27+ miles of running I did last Saturday.  I guess I will run all the Summer Series XC races barefoot.

RVRR Summer Series XC #1 Barefoot - June 9, 2009

My last three races were marathons.  MARATHONS!  They were Philly in November of '08, The Watchung Winter Ultra in January '09 (in which I fell and broke my rib), and Boston in April '09.  The last time I ran a 5K it was the RVRR Summer Series #4 in August of '08.  So I have been mentally and physically prepared for nothing but big distance runs for more than 6 months!  I had two Tuesday track workouts in before this race, with two weeks of skipping them before this first XC race of '09.

So I ran this one on Tuesday night barefoot.  Finished in 20:17 for 4th in the 45-49 age group.  That time would have won 35-39 and 40-44!  Also note, this race comes just 3 days after the Towpath "Train"ing Run where I ran 27.3 miles.  (Perhaps I should not make an issue with that, because the winner of this XC race, Mike Dixon, ran the entire 34 miles of the D&R Towpath on that day.)  I didn't feel like being barefoot slowed me down at all!  I was surprised how I could run on the cinder path with no problem.  I did use the grass next to the cinder as much as possible.  My legs were definitely fatigued from the "Train"ing Run and my habitual lack of sleep.  I did not have much strength up old Red Barn Hill, but I felt I was cruising the flats very comfortably.

I am feeling a little Achilles strain on the left side after the race.  This may be because I have not done any fast running barefoot.  My track workouts were in spikes for the fast parts.  My average pace barefoot is 8:30-8:45 per mile.  My pace was 6:32 for the race.

I ran in Mizuno road race shoes last night to give my Achilles a little rest.  I need a day off.

The next RVRR Summer Series race is June 23rd, in two weeks, and it is my birthday party!

Training June 1 - 7, 2009

Good training week even though I lost my voice on Wednesday - have some respiratory thing going on.  I need some extra sleep to kick it out.  Lots of good barefoot running.  Not much cycling due to rainy days.  Still failed at trying to run the full 34 miles of the towpath, but had a great time with the people on Saturday.