It’s been two weeks now since I stepped up to running a full lap of Clapham Common, 6k including getting to and from it from my house. It’s a circuit that consists mainly of smooth flag stones, some block paving, a bit of smooth new tarmac and a few sections of badly weathered tarmac. Overall it’s quite a smooth run, one section half way through the run the path is so badly weathered I divert to run on the grass at the side. No point in deliberately hurting my feet. But I guess I’ll be able to run on it someday, just like the gravel most barefoot beginners worry about. One thing I have noted is that even though my feet prefer the flag stones, towards the end of the run, landing my pads between two flags can be quite painful. I guess if the flags stones where perfectly aligned this wouldn’t be an issue, but they aren’t.
Anyway since my initial 6k run two weeks ago when I did it twice in three days, I did another 6k a week later and another a week after that (tonight). I had intended to do a 2k run in-between these, but life got in the way. I wanted to do the small run as I want my soles to get used to the extra wear and I worried that a week between runs wouldn’t achieve this. However I’m happy to report that even over these three weeks, I’ve seen a noticeable improvement to how it feels on the run, and also the recovery afterwards. Of course my feet are still a little sore afterwards, but as mentioned in a previous post, there is no damage and this is merely normal at this stage.
Something else I noticed on my run tonight was my technique. Following Ken Saxton’s advice to bend my knees more I’ve really noticed how this improves everything. Bending my knees so that my torso feels like it’s cruising at a slightly lower height that would otherwise be the case. Taking short steps so that my head feels as if it’s hardly bobbing up and down with my stride, but more like maintaining a constant, or near constant level. This really feels like there is then less pressure on my feet as I’m not landing on each stride, but just smoothly switching my weight from one foot to the other. As it’s still a bit uncomfortable running the mean streets of Clapham in my bare feet, the more I can do with my technique to reduce the impact and pressure on my soles the better. And this will in turn reduce the overall stress on my entire body, especially my legs, ankles and feet. This is all a good thing, as running with no shoes on is automatically teaching me to run with better form.
It is also advised to power your legs from your glutes, rather than lifting the legs. I didn’t really understand what this meant until I started bending my knees more. Now I can feel that my legs are being powered by my glutes, rather then feeling as if I’m lifting my legs with my feet. I’m unsure if this difference is just an abstraction on what’s really going on, but either way it doesn’t matter. Right is right, it makes no difference if the reason you think it’s right is wrong.
I’m still continuing my after care routine of feet on ice packs for 10 minutes immediately after the run, soak in a hot bath for an hour, feet up for the rest of the evening after rubbing in sudocrem.