More books...

Over the past couple of months, I've been catching up on running books.  Amongst others, this has included:

• Born to Run - by Christopher McDougall about native Mexicans
• Running with the Kenyans by Adharanand Finn
• The Bolt Supremacy by Richard Moore, about Jamaican running

All have a common theme (apart from the obvious!): that the kids in these cultures grow up running without shoes.  They may put shoes on later in life, but the point is that [virtually] none have shoes before teens, at the earliest.

This is slightly depressing because I can't see that a middle aged, pampered, western man will ever be able to replicate this upbringing!  But I'm going to have a good go at trying!

Here's a good-ish article that argues the point, although I can't yet get my head around the advent of poor running style in young teens as a result of education..??

http://www.runnersworld.com/barefoot-running/growing-up-shod

Perhaps it's also to do with too much sitting down.

Meanwhile...

It's now 10 weeks since I started the programme so here's a summary update:

• I can tell that my feet are a LOT stronger. 
• There are still muscles and ligaments/tendons in my legs that ache, but I'm keeping a close eye on them - nothing out of control. 
• I'm running every other day, for between 20 and 30 mins
• I had my second completely barefoot run on a tartan track yesterday.  Just 3km this time, so no blisters!  I can see why Keith says you'll develop good style faster with no shoes on, though.  Even though you can still get away with planting your heel in the rubber surface, the feedback through the foot from the landing/take off is a great constant reminder.

Onwards... 

Pete Pfitzinger on barefoot (from 2002)

Reading around the topic, here's something from the two time olympian:

http://www.runnersworld.com/barefoot-running/going-bare

"Before you start running barefoot, you should walk barefoot for a few weeks to strengthen the muscles in your feet and ankles and toughen up the skin on the bottom of your feet. Start out by walking barefoot for 5 to 10 minutes a couple of times each day. You can also do exercises while walking barefoot such as high knees and walking on the balls of your feet to prepare your feet for running barefoot. Dr. Stewart says, "Feel your arches the next morning. If they are not sore, then you can do a little more the next day, but progress slowly. When you can walk barefoot for an hour relatively comfortably, then you should be ready to start a little barefoot running."

Once you start barefoot running, the forces on your feet and calf muscles increase greatly. Start out with five minutes at the very most, and increase slowly, running barefoot every two to three days. After a couple of months, you may get to where you can run barefoot for 20 minutes, but for some people a few minutes will be all they can handle. "

This is more conservative than I've thought!  But as Jon Tilt and I were saying a couple of weeks back, t&f athletes are probably in a good place at this time of year with regards their plantar facia and achilles, having been running in spikes from April through August (800m in my case).

Ugh, I'm making a lot of mistakes - all down to being somewhat over-keen!


It makes me feel like a beginner, and that's quite fun.


Today I ran 5k barefoot, on our athletics track (the one you ran on when you visited Southampton, Keith!).  Felt great, but for the last 1 or 2 km, I knew that I was being over ambitious and should have stopped.


I was right about the long wet grass making my feet feel cold - I had no such problems, even though the track was quite wet.


However, I now have two blisters, both on the left foot, one under the first metatarsal, and one under the 5th!  Not large enough to stop me running, but enough that I know they're there!


I haven't had blisters on my feet in more than 10 years!


I was also running with one of the UK's top coaches, who has also read the Older Yet Faster book - Peter Haynes.  We were having a great chat about his athletes and other running topics, which possibly distracted me from thinking about what my feet were feeling.


More to the point, it was also distracting me from thinking about style, so I am chalking this session up to a foot-strengthening-session.  and have vowed to concentrate better in the future.

Inspired by Keith's reply to my last reply, I've ditched the shoes!  Well, for one run, so far!

I have a lovely local park, it's well maintained because young kids play football matches there, and it's a cricket pitch in the summer.  It's 500m away, so it's usually where I've done my friday strides prior to a saturday 800m race.

Yesterday I jogged there, took off my shoes, and ran 3km in bare feet.  I'd like to say I felt liberated, or connected to my ancestors, or something.  But I didn't.  It just felt like, well, running on grass in bare feet!

I confirmed what I knew before: that concentration is still required - you can still let the hips and shoulders drop and heel strike on the soft ground.  So after the session I was left thinking "I wonder what that will achieve".  Although it was a nice day yesterday, and the temperature was still about 12 degrees C, my feet got so bitterly cold that the hurt.  The grass was wet and about 10cm long, so that probably had something to do with it.

Anyway, having wondered what the gain would be, I can report that I definitely ached in new places this morning!  Aches, and not pains, I have to add.  The aches are in the muscles in the feet and ankles, and possibly the lower calves.  But most certainly the ache of muscles that are not used to being recruited!

So I can see what Keith means when he says that you'll get there quicker with minimal shoes, and quicker still with no shoes at all.

I also realise that if I went out and did the same session again today, and every day, then there'd be a high chance of injury.  So Heidi's 20 mins every other day for a few months sounds about right.  This isn't going to happen over night.

But I'm absolutely loving it!

This is the way that my thinking has been going over the past few days:


If you want to change the way that you've been running for 35 years, then it's gonna take a few months or even a couple of years to do it.


As Keith says in the book, and in his recent reply to my last post, you'll do it quicker without shoes on.  But quicker is a relative term, and I think this still means months.


Logically, I'm guessing that running properly (out of cushioned shoes) is going to be using muscles that you've never used before.  And how long did it take to build up some of the muscles you do use today?  Up to 7 or 8 years, that's how long.  (look at photos from today and from 2, 4, 6, 8 years ago, and you will see muscles now, that didn't exist then) (I took up 800m running 8 years ago)


And I'm guessing that most of those muscles are in the feet.


So this requires real patience.  Approach it almost as if it was a new sport.  Say you were taking up white water kayaking from nowhere.  You'd give yourself at least 2 years to be mildly competent, and that's assuming you can get out on the water 3 or 4 times a week.


Well, I think some of those small muscles are going to want time and space to grow, recover, grow, recover, grow, recover.


I guess Keith and Heidi need to balance the honest truth with the prospect of putting people off for ever.  Tell the average weekend road racer that they need to have at least 6 months off racing and they'd baulk at the thought.


But I'm serious about this.  After 8 weeks I know how good this style of running feels, how fluid and how light on my feet I feel.  But I know if I was to hit a 60 or 70 mile week this month (which I would usually do at this time of year) then that would probably injure me right now.  I'll aim for that volume in January, I think.

The spikey balls arrived! 


What a difference.  I've been rolling the foot over a tennis ball for a few days now.  I can really find the pressure points, particularly in the foot where there's a little bit of Plantar Fasciitis lurking.  However, the effects are limited - and short lived.


However, after the first use of the spiked ball, all traces of pain disappeared!  Not forever, it does creep back after half an hour or so, depending on what you are doing.  But it's clearly more effective than the tennis ball.


I awoke this morning with no hint of the problem.  I rolled in the car on the way to work (automatic car, pain in the left foot, checked clearance of the pedals over the ball for safety sake!!).  However, in stiff shoes, over a tarmac car park, I was aware of pain within 50m walk from the car.  But it wasn't immediate.  Just a reminder to take things steady.


This does beg the question, (Heidi!), can one roll too much?  My car commute is an hour each way, on steady moving motorway, and I can roll for at least 50 mins of that time.


I did have one other question if that's ok.  The book talks about a steady start (beginner programme), and about from a starting point of structured shoes, first moving to neutral, then minimal, alternating between shoes during the journey.  Does "alternate your shoes" also mean "alternate your style"?  Because when I put on my padded/structured Kayanos, I can still maintain the new style, concentrating on hips forward, torso upright, not landing infront of hips.  Or, with the old shoes on, should I also let my hips drop to take advantage of the padding in the shoe?  Thanks guys!!

22nd September

Too much too soon

Well, Keith and Heidi do say, as do the instructions on the inside of the box for my new NB Minimus 10v3 shoes, as do a number of the related YouTube videos,


 "Don't do too much too soon"


And guess what...!! 


I knew the race on Sunday was not a good idea, but being a team relay I couldn't let the team down.  But it's brought on a little Plantar Fasciitis.  I've had it once before, about 5 years ago.  It came on suddenly and hard.  After 15 months it went as soon as it came.  I've never had a murmur of it since.


Yesterday morning at the end of my 1 hour car-commute, I felt it, and at times during the day it got quite bad.  So I aborted the usual Tue eve track session (although, as with 5 years ago, once warmed up I couldn't feel it).  And I did a huge tennis ball session when I got home, which really helped.


This morning I awoke with some trepidation.  When I had the condition 5 years ago, the mornings upon awaking were the worst time.  Thankfully, there was only a mild hint of the condition.


I rolled the tennis ball under the foot during my commute.  There are definitely some tight spots in there.


And, my spike balls should arrive tomorrow from Amazon.  Like Jon, I've gone for a pack of three, different sizes.
http://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/product/B00CCPNDWI?psc=1&redirect=true&ref_=oh_aui_detailpage_o00_s00


I've also decided to take another few days off, and take it easy for a while.