Noob with a question about concrete

Hey Ba
Yes, it's unfortunate that some people don't understand the definition of callus. But that's true of many things. What to do? Some people think capitalism = market economy.

One of the great things about barefoot running is it gets one to question received wisdom and established preconceptions and take a more scientific view of matters. The body is very adaptable, callusing is but one adaptation, doesn't matter if the stimulus is good/natural (e.g., varied surfaces), or bad/artificial (e.g., tight shoes).

A few BRS members object strongly to the use of 'callus' to describe the thickening of the plantar skin. So do we posit a separate physiology for the feet?

Hola Bare Lee,

I tend toward thinking of it as a thickening of the foot pad, versus thinking of it as a callus, growing up in Ohio, and doing a lot of manual labor on farms growing up, especially a lot of digging and wood splitting, I think of calluses as the hardened dead skin that developed from repeated abrasion.

I use to get such thick calluses on my hands that I could run a needle through them and not feel a thing...haha, once as a very bored teenager I sewed my fingers together and made a kind of webbing with the thread going through the calluses on my fingers and hands lol.

I could not do that with the thickened pads on my feet, which are not covered in deadened hard outer skin...
 
Hey Ba

Hola Bare Lee,

I tend toward thinking of it as a thickening of the foot pad, versus thinking of it as a callus, growing up in Ohio, and doing a lot of manual labor on farms growing up, especially a lot of digging and wood splitting, I think of calluses as the hardened dead skin that developed from repeated abrasion.

I use to get such thick calluses on my hands that I could run a needle through them and not feel a thing...haha, once as a very bored teenager I sewed my fingers together and made a kind of webbing with the thread going through the calluses on my fingers and hands lol.

I could not do that with the thickened pads on my feet, which are not covered in deadened hard outer skin...
Yep, different stimulus = different adaptation, but same physiological process. Happens all the time. Kinda like doing high reps versus low reps in strength training, . . . er, I think. The former results in hypertrophy, the latter in greater muscle density. OK, a loose analogy, but I'm kind of brain dead right now. Time for a run!

BTW, my heel calluses can get quite thick, and develop fissures, and I don't heel strike while running. It's from walking barefoot. Yet, for me at least, walking is much less abrasive than running, so it must be the pressure. According to one definition I read the last time this point was debated, a callus results from either abrading or pressure.

Oh, also, I remember when I was doing karate, it was a very different kind of plantar callus as well. My knuckles and shins also became quite think, from the strikes, kicks, and blocks, so that was either some other kind of callus or an increase in the underlying bone density or something.

Adaptations . . . speaking of which, I just had a deadlift PR yesterday.

Anyway, I'm still astonished by your rapid progress. Keep it up! I'm still struggling to regain the running fitness I had last fall.
 
Yep, different stimulus = different adaptation, but same physiological process. Happens all the time. Kinda like doing high reps versus low reps in strength training, . . . er, I think. The former results in hypertrophy, the latter in greater muscle density. OK, a loose analogy, but I'm kind of brain dead right now. Time for a run!

BTW, my heel calluses can get quite thick, and develop fissures, and I don't heel strike while running. It's from walking barefoot. Yet, for me at least, walking is much less abrasive than running, so it must be the pressure. According to one definition I read the last time this point was debated, a callus results from either abrading or pressure.

Oh, also, I remember when I was doing karate, it was a very different kind of plantar callus as well. My knuckles and shins also became quite think, from the strikes, kicks, and blocks, so that was either some other kind of callus or an increase in the underlying bone density or something.

Adaptations . . . speaking of which, I just had a deadlift PR yesterday.

Anyway, I'm still astonished by your rapid progress. Keep it up! I'm still struggling to regain the running fitness I had last fall.



Yeah, the body is amazing in what it adapts to, the mind shapes the body to fit it's desires and perceived needs.

I was surprised at how much I could half squat this week...I went up to 300 lbs for 10 -12 reps, for several sets, and felt like I could do a good amount more weight than that...guess all this running carrying all this extra weight has some benefits lol

I feel like I am backtracking a bit though, my legs are getting heavier lately, but I think its from being at a daily calorie deficit to lose weight for so long now, that maybe I am finally starting to eat into some muscle...I' e been pretty careful about getting plenty of full chain amino acids to keep from losing muscle with the fat, but I have so much weight to lose that it may be inevitable that I lose some muscle with the fat.




Congrats on the deadlift PR!


BTW: I think you are onto something with that whole, 'its useful to learn to run fast then learn to run long' thing...Most of one's distance running times are predicated off of your 1 mile PR.

I'm playing it kinda loose, but functionally I am training to run a fast mile time, then expand to greater distances.

I might be delusional, but I think there is a sub 5 minute mile hidden deep down in this body someplace lol
 
Yeah, the body is amazing in what it adapts to, the mind shapes the body to fit it's desires and perceived needs.

I was surprised at how much I could half squat this week...I went up to 300 lbs for 10 -12 reps, for several sets, and felt like I could do a good amount more weight than that...guess all this running carrying all this extra weight has some benefits lol

I feel like I am backtracking a bit though, my legs are getting heavier lately, but I think its from being at a daily calorie deficit to lose weight for so long now, that maybe I am finally starting to eat into some muscle...I' e been pretty careful about getting plenty of full chain amino acids to keep from losing muscle with the fat, but I have so much weight to lose that it may be inevitable that I lose some muscle with the fat.

Congrats on the deadlift PR!


BTW: I think you are onto something with that whole, 'its useful to learn to run fast then learn to run long' thing...Most of your distance running times are predicated off of your 1 mile PR.

I'm playing it kinda loose, but functionally I am training to run a fast mile time, then expand to greater distances.

I think there is a sub 5 minute mile hidden deep down in this body someplace lol
I think there's basically two ways: run a certain distance and then allow aerobic conditioning over time to increase, leading to faster paces. Or choose a pace that feels good, and then gradually increase distance. Last year I thought it would be cool to run a half-marathon distance, so I pushed distance over pace. If I hadn't fallen off the running wagon this last winter and now this spring, I imagine my pace would've started to increase over that distance. That's what happened once I got up to six miles and stayed there for a while.

Now I'm trying it the opposite: refusing to run slower than a certain pace at which I feel relatively smooth. In the end though, it's probably best to run all three paces: intervals, tempo, LSD. It's just a matter of finding the right mix.

Still, there's nothing wrong with running the same aerobic pace all the time, it's just that I think it's easy to stay in that habit, and it's also easy to plateau after a certain point, and never get any faster. Also, faster paces teach good form, as the body is forced to become more biomechanically efficient in order to conserve fuel.

Anyway, the main thing is to be consistent, so everyone has to do what they enjoy so they keep coming back for more. Me, I will enjoy running more when I can run 8-9mm as my aerobic pace, and I'm impatient to get there. Also, I sometimes wonder if it's good to run more than 60 minutes at a time on a regular basis. Might be better to run less but faster. Feels more like a workout, although I do enjoy the adventure and meditation of a good long run.

BTW, a lot of people recommend against doing half-squats. Try full squats at reduced weight. Supposed to be a lot easier on the knees.

It's funny, but like you said, people don't realize how strong overweight people are. It's like running with a weighted vest or pulling a weighted sled!
 
It's funny, but like you said, people don't realize how strong overweight people are. It's like running with a weighted vest or pulling a weighted sled!


Haha, yeah, if you figure that when you land while running, you are holding twice your body weight with one leg for a moment, then I was basically jumping on one leg with 520 lbs of weight over and over and over lol

They say with bad form you are sometimes loading 4 times your weight with each stride while running...at my heaviest thats 1048 lbs loaded on one leg over and over and over while running...where the weight really catches up to me though, is on uphills...cause there is no 'rolling' stride to help you, no way to go up other than to carry the weight up.

If you want a good workout, go run up a mountain trail with an eighty pound weight vest on lol

At about the halfway point, its mind over matter cause the body says 'NO MAS NO MAS!' LoL



The weight is coming off though :) now I'm running around with a 60 pound weight 'vest' lol




Oops...Sorry for hijacking your thread Noob!
 
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Hello Supe,

When you run those 200 yards, are you landing on your heel or on your fore/mid foot?

You will not be able to run the same way barefoot as you do with shoes on, which is kinda the point, change your running stride, cadence (180 bpm), shorten your stride length, land softly on forefoot and just let the heel lightly kiss the ground, run gently and 'lightly' without hard foot landings, etc...you have to change the "way" you run without shoes...be patient about it...one of the main reasons to run barefoot is because you CANNOT run the wrong way comfortably when barefoot ;-)

If its not comfortable on concrete, or even gravel, run in a way that it becomes comfortable, let your body guide you :)


Wow, this thread blew up while I was away! (Buying a house..... crazy, crazy busy)

I was definitely making a conscious effort to land forefoot. But I think the rest of my form was off. That's what made it uncomfortable methinks. After watching a video that was posted in another thread, I realized I wasn't bending my knees enough, I wasn't keeping my back straight (was leaning forward), and my hips weren't twisting naturally so that my center of gravity was over the footstrike. The "aha" moment was when the video talked about how if you're striking correctly, you will barely make a sound. Like a cat I think it said. Once everything came together and my footfalls were practically silent it was not painful at all, actually.

Now, I'm not saying I've nailed the perfect form. No way. I have a loooong way to go until I'm proficient at this. But I feel more comfortable knowing that concrete isn't necessarily the enemy.
 
Concrete is my friend. And should be your friend, especially in your beginning stages. Avoid anything soft, right now the key thing is form and learning how to run softly. I don't live near trails so I'm a 100% barefoot concrete runner. When I ran in shoes concrete was hard, now that i run barefoot concrete is very soft to me.

If you have callus on your feet from running barefoot you are doing it wrong. The number one myth to barefoot running is your feet must be so tough! My soles are actually nice and soft, and I'm going on 5 years running barefoot.
 
Concrete is my friend. And should be your friend, especially in your beginning stages. Avoid anything soft, right now the key thing is form and learning how to run softly. I don't live near trails so I'm a 100% barefoot concrete runner. When I ran in shoes concrete was hard, now that i run barefoot concrete is very soft to me.

If you have callus on your feet from running barefoot you are doing it wrong. The number one myth to barefoot running is your feet must be so tough! My soles are actually nice and soft, and I'm going on 5 years running barefoot.
I'm not sure what you mean by "callus," though. My soles are what I would call definitely leathery, but I get the impression that I run on rougher surfaces than you do. I run probably 90% on asphalt and rarely is it smooth or without gravel. I just don't have that many sidewalks or trails nearby.
 
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All my runs are on paved bike trails and sidewalks and I do long distances on them so don't be afraid and get out there, if I can do it you can do it too!
 
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I much prefer the hard surfaces, either concrete or macadam.

Trails that don't have shale or other random sharp stuff are very rare hereabouts, and grass just scares me after getting hurt too many times stepping on hidden painful objects or in holes.

In any case, part of the joy of BFR for me is the required focus on every step. Being present in the moment is precious to me.
 
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I'm not sure what you mean by "callus," though. My soles are what I would call definitely leathery, but I get the impression that I run on rougher surfaces than you do. I run probably 90% on asphalt and rarely is it smooth or without gravel. I just don't have that many sidewalks or trails nearby.


I mean that thick hard callus's that look like blisters. Yes mine are leathery, but more like soft leather and completely smooth. The number one comment I hear from people at races is "your feet must be filled with callous" which obviously is far from the truth.
 
I mean that thick hard callus's that look like blisters. Yes mine are leathery, but more like soft leather and completely smooth. The number one comment I hear from people at races is "your feet must be filled with callous" which obviously is far from the truth.
Smooth Corinthian leather, as Ricardo used to say.

I hate callous remarks about calluses.
 
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Lol, Bare Lee. I didn't even realize the words were spelled differently, until this thread.

One thing I find as I try to improve form: Varying surfaces is very helpful if you can. Recently I found running on some grass with hidden stones (mostly dull, fortunately) that everything felt to "jarring". Without thinking about it my gait became much lower and I noticed the jarring stopped. I realized after that this stide resembled what Ken Bob described as "Groucho walk". Since then I've used this lesson on other surfaces. I find it lets me feel like I'm falling up hill.
 
Great to hear from you again Dama! How've you been?
I've been awesome! I mean my running is going great and I'm truly enjoying Summer. Have you done races this summer?
 
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