Tag Archives: Training

Journey to Barefoot

Week 2: Building Some More

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Third week has gone and well into the fourth now, last week I ran last Tuesday 2.6 miles (longest so far) totally barefoot but after that my feet were tender for a few days so I ran on the Friday and Saturday with my Xero’s with a short barefoot warm down afterwards.

Yesterday (Week 3) I ran at lunch barefoot again, feet having recovered and set a new distance record of just over 3.10 miles (5km) and other than my feet again feeling tender the rest of my body felt relaxed and at ease.

It could just be me but I do feel like my feet are slowly changing shape, my big toe on both feet seems to have more mobility and my arches seem to be more pronounced. Outside of my feet my glutes now feel like they are firing more and my calf muscles, while still not 100%, feel relaxed. It’s a slow process and there is part of me that wants to get some shoes on and go for a long run, or run at the speeds I know I can before making the change but the ‘enforced’ training limits by being led by my feet long term feels like the right thing to do.

I do have a concern over my race plans for the year, I don’t see me being ready for a marathon in June and the NDW 100 might be off the table as well. I have a line in the sand date of May 18th to make a call on the NDW 100 and already probably going to drop to the half in June but hopefully what I lose out on this year will be paid back with many injury free years of running in the future.

Still early days, but if nothing else every run is truly exciting again.

 

Week 2

  • Barefoot: 2.63 Miles
  • Huaraches: 8.23 Miles
  • Cycling: 64.89 Miles
Journey to Barefoot

Ditching the shoes

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I have always liked the idea of minimalist running but never really got  into the idea of  totally barefoot running, however recent experience with injury, plus reading Barefoot Ken Bob Saxton’s book, Barefoot Running Step By Step (Barefootrunning.com), has drastically altered my understanding and my perspective.

I was always under the impression that what I should be doing was running in the minimalist shoes to make the transition to zero drop ‘barefoot’ shoes, this seemed logical as I had always run in normal shoes before.

Kens book makes a sensible point when you sit back and think about it, essentially running in barefoot shoes is not running barefoot, they are still shoes and looking back on my time running in minimalist shoes it does ring true,  it really isn’t like barefoot because you don’t realise when you are not running correctly.

I have spent most of my time running on the ball of my foot putting too much strain on my calf muscles (rather than relaxing them), pushing off the ground (rather than lifting) and slowly overtime worn my body down to the point where it is just one injury after another.

So as the title of this post suggests I am making the  leap to barefoot only running from now on, building up the technique as the book suggests with a hope that by doing this I will be able to lead a mostly injury free running life

I have already completed my first proper barefoot run, leaving my house with no shoes and returning with no shoes and I can say that the experience was exhilarating, albeit “painful”.

I say “painful” as it’s not like pain in the classic sense, its like the feet are being overloaded with stimulation which they are not used to and it just gets to a point where the nerve endings can’t cope anymore. Also what I did notice was as per the book that if you are not running correctly you soon have to adjust as anything but correct form is uncomfortable.

So after a dry spell of blogging, I have something to write about again in my journey from injured shod runner to (hopefully) happy barefoot runner.

You can buy the book direct from Kens website, I got mine from Amazon however
You can buy the book direct from Kens website, I got mine from Amazon however
Training Updates

Snowdonia Marathon: Not long now

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Only Friday to go before I will be standing at the start line for the Snowdonia Marathon 2014.

I had another physio appointment yesterday from a lady (who is also a triathlete) and had the whole of my lower body given a sports massage, which as well as being quite painful, highlighted the numerous areas of tightness/weakness which is all highly likely to have culminated in the calf strain. It is now obvious that the 4 years of on/off training and very little in the way of stretching and conditioning has taken its toll.

I will learn from my mistakes and will be undertaking a program of work supplied by my physio to build back the strength in my calf and address the weak areas such as my glutes, however first task is to get around the marathon on Saturday.

Hopefully on Saturday night I will be writing a race report saying that I got to the finish with no significant issues, even if I am the last person across the line I will take finishing as win.

Fingers crossed……..

Training Updates

My posting has been rubbish…….

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My last post was ages ago, I think May following the NDW50/Richmond Park Marathon effort.

Suffice to say I need to start posting more and actually write some of the gear reviews that I had planned as well as race reviews. The good news is my training has really picked up over the last few weeks as well as me loosing about 2 kilos of weight, meaning that running and cycling is getting easier meaning I can run and cycle more!

The last two weeks is where it has really slotted into place, with 35 mile week of running and 62 miles of cycling followed by a 43 mile week of running and 51 miles of cycling.

The next events planned is the Snowdonia Marathon followed by the Winter Fandance (Clean Fatigue) so I will focus on writing about my build-up to these as well as the longer term plan for the (in hushed tone) North Downs Way 100 in 2015