So, the second time I ran 4k I suffered a little afterwards. I think I must have stepped on a small stone* right under my 2nd metatarsal head, which is the centre of weight and first point in the touchdown of each stride. Anyway, for the next few days I didn’t run as I was a little concerned that I was pushing too far too fast. However I then ran again 4 days later with no problems at all.
So now I’m into my third week of running 4k, 3 times a week. Last night’s run was the best so far, with very little, if any, soreness on my soles, and zero joint ache the following day. I plan to step up to 5k (10 laps) next week. Not long now before I leave the saftey of running round the block and head on out onto the Common.
I am a little disappointed that there seems to be no letup in my PF though. I would have thought that as soon as I got back into barefoot running this would have resolved itself. That said, it’s much better now than when I wasn’t running only a few months ago, so maybe the running is having some effect, just not fast enough for me to consciously acknowledge it.
* I’ve discovered that stepping on small stones is par for the course if I’m going to run around with no shoes on. However when I first started this, stepping on the smallest stone would induce severe pain. Now however, it’s more like a little discomfort than full on pain, and it’s all so fast that a few strides later and I can’t feel it anymore. That combined with the fact that my proprioception is so sharp now that I’ll detect the stone under my foot before my full weight comes down on it, thus being able to take action to mitigate the possible injury.