Hi all. Happy to have found this forum. I've been running on and off since I was 16, pretty much injury free. Last summer, at age 44, I started to give some bad knee and hip pain, which the PT said was due to weak glutes. I got Brooks Beast motion control shoes and $200 orthotics. I did exercises. The pain got better, but quickly returned if I ran for any length of time, or on multiple days in a row. Been dealing with since last August.
Fast-forward to last week. I happened across Born to Run and read it while at the beach. I decided, what the heck, I'll run down the beach barefoot and see what happens.
It was amazing. No pain. My stride was totally different. Liberating.
When I got home from vacation, I immediately went to the local high school track and ran three miles around the grass infield barefoot at a decent clip (8:45 mile, not fast, because I was just experimenting). No pain! And my stride was amazing--shorter, landing on the outside of my midfoot and rolling off my toes. No heel striking at all.
I could have gone much further but stopped, heeding warnings not to do TMTF and hurt myself. I did get blisters on the bottoms of both second toes. But I'm not worried about blisters. Blisters lead to callouses, which lead to "not a problem." What I am worried about is weird hip and knee pain that nothing really helps, and barefoot running doesn't cause that.
The Merrell Vapor Glove 3s arrived yesterday and are on my feet as I type this.
There's no turning back. It's barefoot or minimalist shoes from now on!
Fast-forward to last week. I happened across Born to Run and read it while at the beach. I decided, what the heck, I'll run down the beach barefoot and see what happens.
It was amazing. No pain. My stride was totally different. Liberating.
When I got home from vacation, I immediately went to the local high school track and ran three miles around the grass infield barefoot at a decent clip (8:45 mile, not fast, because I was just experimenting). No pain! And my stride was amazing--shorter, landing on the outside of my midfoot and rolling off my toes. No heel striking at all.
I could have gone much further but stopped, heeding warnings not to do TMTF and hurt myself. I did get blisters on the bottoms of both second toes. But I'm not worried about blisters. Blisters lead to callouses, which lead to "not a problem." What I am worried about is weird hip and knee pain that nothing really helps, and barefoot running doesn't cause that.
The Merrell Vapor Glove 3s arrived yesterday and are on my feet as I type this.
There's no turning back. It's barefoot or minimalist shoes from now on!