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
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