Hello and question about performance

[Samuel Stow]

Hi all,

I'm new to the barefoot bandwagon, having recently read born to run and also Ken Bobs book barefoot step by step, and more recently Scott Jurek's eat and run.

I'm pretty experienced in running and I'm also 33. I mainly run to perform in races rather than just for the fun of it, of course I enjoy it as well!

I bought some VFFs before reading Kens book but i don't regret buying them as it enables me to run further. I'm very aware of the possibility of injury so I'm taking it pretty easy. At the moment my plan is to run 4-5km every 3 days in bare feet / VFFs depending on what my soles can handle. This morning i did 2.2km barefoot and 2.5km in VFFs, i'm running on gravel and bitumen. It was easier barefoot today than last time which i was happy about.

My question is however, in my experience so far i'm only able to run about 6min/km (10min/mile) barefoot. I want to race and will do in shoes until my feet can keep up.

What do you guys think it takes to be able to run as fast barefoot as shod? How long should i expect to progress for? If i can't race barefoot i'm happy to just use it for training to keep my feet and muscles, form etc in good order, but i know that there have been some very fast BF runners so i'd love to try that. Is type of surface limited when running BF at speed? e.g. gravel is that no good?

Running in shoes I like to cruise at around 8min kms but on the surfaces i've been running on that seems a daunting task.

Would love to hear some of your experiences about racing barefoot and achieving speed and good foot condition for running on gravel etc.

Cheers

Sam

 

[DNEchris]

Hi Sam,

Welcome!
Don't rush the progression or you may find yourself with your own stories of stress fractures with which to regale your friends.
Take it easy, work on efficient movement, and your pace will gradually increase. Work on running silently - if you can hear your footfalls you are doing something wrong.
I was faster barefoot than shod after about 6 months - but I had no immediate prior history of running. You should be able to regain your cruising pace within a few months and probably improve on that if you keep it up.
I'm a little less than twice your age, enter very few races, and run entirely for fun but can currently manage a local 5 km at about 6.30/mile pace barefoot.
Before you get there though your feet have got a lot of wakening and strengthening to do. Muscles, bones and tendons all need to get to full strength before you can get to full speed.
Take it easy and enjoy the journey rather than continually straining for a goal.

 

[Bare Lee]

Is type of surface limited when running BF at speed? e.g. gravel is that no good?

For me, the rougher the surface, the slower I go. On pure gravel, my (aerobic) pace is up around 13mm, on smooth asphalt it's 9mm. But I rarely run on rough surfaces, so who knows? Maybe with continued practice my pace might come down and approximate my smooth surface pace. I'm just a middle-aged recreational runner, so going fast isn't really a concern. I'm happy when I run 8-9mm pace because that's when my form feels best. I love doing sprints too though, every week or two when possible, and feel like I'm at least as fast bare as shod when doing those.

Otherwise, ditto everything Chris says; go slow, and make sure to massage the foot and lower leg muscles if they feel tight or you feel pain in your foot tendons.

For more info, you should comb this site's forums and threads, and don't hesitate to PM someone, especially a racer, if you find their comments interesting and want to follow up with a question or concern. Lots of barefoot runners here race.

 

[Samuel Stow]

Thanks guys that's really helpful advice, good to know. I definitely will take it easy and enjoy the progression. I'd love to be able to competently race barefoot in 6 months! I certainly have found the experience enjoyable the few times that I've tried it so far. My family do think I'm nuts though!

Sam

 

[Sid]

Some advice from Dr. Mark's website: (2x Air Force Marathon winner)
naturalrunningcenter.com/2011/07/23/abcs-minimalism-reply-jeff-galloways-views-running-injury/

The real folks making this happen in a small community such as Shepherdstown are my lead employees, aka the Shoe Guys, Tom Shantz and James Munnis. Tom and James lend some practical and philosophical advice on the topic.

Here’s Tom: “We give verbal warnings to all minimalist shoe buyers. I have been adapting for a little over a year now. It’s a slow process. What I have found that works best is to have two pair of shoes. One that is ‘flat’, zero drop, and one that has a drop of 5mm. One should transition into the 5mm shoe first. It should take approximately 2 weeks. The zero-drop shoe should take you approximately three months to transition into. Once you have transitioned into both shoes you should continue to slowly increase your distance in the zero-drop shoe. The 10% week rule is out the window. Try 1% increase in the zero-drop shoe. For a younger runner who has been in racing flats the transition is much shorter.”

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Welcome!

 

[Phil Hart]

welcome, Sam. I started at about 12 minutes/mile when transitioning. 3 years on now I can do about 7:15 minutes/mile as a race-type pace. I rarely go further than 10K barefoot, though. I can go farther if I slow down a bit, and the faster I go, the sloppier I tend to get (particularly near the end of the run to maintain that pace), which can take some skin off my soles.

 

[tsdh]

Hi Sam,

I'm only about a year into running at all, 6 month into barefoot or minimalist running. Since it's cold and wet here in Germany, and almost all my normal courses are sharp gravel, I usually run with my Luna Venado huaraches and take them off on the few passages that are asphalt or (even better) forest trails. Now spring is coming, and I'm going to drop shoes especially also in my non-running time (e.g. work).

Last weekend I've finished my first half-marathon in sandals in 1:45 (=5min/km) without any problems in my feed (but dead tired legs. ;-))

At least for me it's easier to go far (but slow) in completely bare feet than to go really fast on shorter distances. When I do the latter, I tend to get blisters at the balls of the feet, probably because I push too much. We'll see if that improves over time especially when I've been almost-all-time barefooter for some time.

Bye,
Tassilo