Barefoot Running Blog

So I cheated a little on my own program yesterday and did a complete curcuit of the Common, instead of cutting it short and sticking to 4k.  This then takes me up to 5.5k and it was easy.  Although I did get a blister on the ball of my right foot by the end.  This is to be expected as the skin on my feet needs to harden up.  It’s the third one I’ve had in this process so far.  These are deep tissue blisters which I won’t be popping.  They’ll just go hard and the skin will eventually be replaced with tougher skin.

This got me thinking that there are basically three physical things that needs to adapt on my body to barefoot running:

• Calf muscles – the first thing you notice (ouch!)
• Balls of your feet – the skin there needs to toughen up
• Arches of your feet – the musculoskeletal setup need to toughen and adapt

Or, if I was building this into a training program with catchy mnemonics, it would be ABC.  Although I guess as this happens in reverse it’s not such a good mnemonic after all.

Anyway, I think my Calves have now adapted, and will continue to adapt as I step up the distance.  The skin on the balls of my feet are currently adapting as I noted at the start of this post.  And as for my Arches?  Well, I can certainly notice them now.  What I mean by this is that, yes they are sore the day after a run.  Nothing to worry about I think, just part of the process.  I read somewhere that as far as the muscuoskeletal setup of the feet go, they will take about two years to adapt to barefoot running.  So I guess I’ve quite a while to go with this yet.

So the key lesson here is that it’s not just your calves that you have to worry about in making this conversion.  And if you think you’ll convert to barefoot running in a matter of weeks – think again.

So it’s little wonder why current competative runners are still running with their padded trainers on.  With their whole careers based around heal-strike running in comfy footwear, they simply have too much invested to be able to take two years out to retrain their body for this very different form of locomotion.  I now firmly believe that it’s not really possible to make this conversion whilst continuing to run using a conventional heal-strike gait.  Hence why professional runners are not embracing the barefoot running revolution… yet.

My feet and legs ached somewhat more this last week.  I think that’s largely down to my long weekend off last weekend and then catching up by running two days in a row.  This I think was a mistake and I’ll not be doing it again.

So it was with some trepidation that I approached yesterdays run, stepping up to 4K.  Now I know what you’re thinking.  4K? Is that all?  Well for conventional running that would be true.  But for adapting my body to something that it’s not done since I was 4 years old, it’s a different matter entirely.  I want to (need to) achieve this transition without injury and slowly slowly is the only way.  But I needn’t have worried, it was a breeze.  Yes, I can feel it in my calves today, but again it’s nothing more than what you’d feel the day after the gym.

I think the skin on the balls of my feet are now getting used to the different use now.  They seem to slowly be showing signs of the skin thickening and they don’t seem to be sore as they were in the early stages of my barefoot training.  So two more weeks of this then I’ll be up to 5K which is a complete circuit of Clapham Common.  Rock on!

After missing my run on Friday as I was away for the weekend, it was with some trepidation that I set out last night to do another 3K.  This week is my second week at 3K and I thought I’d felt some discomfort in my left arch after running two days in a row last week.  So I was a little concerned.  I needn’t have been, as the run was fine.  I’m starting to  get to my current fitness barrier (out of breath) by the end of a run now, rather than me feeling it in my feet or lower legs, which is great progress.  I’m still treading very carefully though in adapting to this new form of running.  The last thing I need is training-induced injury.

I have started to notice that I can feel it in my arches the morning following a run.  This is no more that what you feel the day after a gym session, so I’m not worried.  My feet need to strengthen themselves for the extra use, so I reckon this is to be expected.

Looking forward to finishing this week and stepping up to 4K next week.

I stepped up to 3K this morning with no problems whatsoever.  I have to say that each time I go out, my new gait feels more and more natural, fluid and light.  I mentioned this two weeks ago when I moved up to 2K, but the improvements continue unabated.

I’ve noticed in the past two weeks a couple of people running around the common in Vibram Five Fingers, but I’ve yet to notice anyone in Vivo’s.  I’m noticing more and more the pounding of the other runners, slamming their heals down, transferring the shock up their legs – whilst I run past them with my light floaty steps.  Yes I feel a bit smug, my running has never felt better.

Two more months to get me up to 5K then I may try something a bit longer.  Can’t wait!

As I discovered in Goa last year, walking around barefoot seemed to fix my plantar fasciitis.  So as well as running barefoot-style in minimalist running shoes (3 times a week for 2k currently), I thought it wouldn’t be a bad thing to try and spend as much time as possible walking around as nature intended.

Obviously it’s not really possible for me to do this at work, or is it?

Vivobarefoot who make my current running shoes, also make many other shoes too.  Their “Ra Shoes” are a close to ordinary office shoes you can get and that is exactly what I got.  What I didn’t think through is that as they have no heal, I would lose an inch from my height and thus my trousers would now be too long.  I actually stood on them when trying my new shoes.  So a little hemming work later and I’m now barefooting it around the office.