Alright, this will be my first post before I log my first barefoot runs...
A little background,(sorry for the length, I started to ramble!)
I have been running since elementary school, through middle school, high school (where I started competing), then college where I made it to provincials on the cross-country team, and now during my professional life, I have been running on and off more or less for my health (sometimes mental health) around my home and workplace. I am lucky that during the time I would run around my home, I have one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in my city at my doorstep, full of hills, mature trees, amazing homes, river, parks, etc. Also luckily I have a shower in my office, and am able to clear my head and stretch my muscles during my lunchhour, up and down the equally beautiful river pathway system adjacent to our downtown core, which runs for miles in two directions.
During my college training, I wound occasionally have knee pains, which would never be explained, but seemed to disappear after a while, either though training, or switching of shoes, not sure. I would wear spikes only once and a while during races.
Now fast forward to a couple of years ago, to the day I almost gave up running altogether. In 2007 I was adding on the miles. Up until then I had only participated in a handful 10k runs with moderate success. I decided that I would finally step up and try a half marathon. After 10 weeks or so training that summer I did not feel prepared, but ran nonetheless. Success, a sub-2hr run, and felt good! Riding on my previous success, the very next spring I registered for the full marathon in the summer of 2008. The spring was full of training as I had an 18week program to get through before the race. I was now getting into the 20+ km range, which was higher than ever before. One hot, sunny afternoon in April, I was running across the city to a reservoir lake, and back. Throughout the run my shins started acting up, and within a few km of my home, they hurt so bad I had to walk the rest of the way home. From that point on, I pretty much couldn't run pain-free.
I was crestfallen. I honestly didn't know what to do. I had always run, but now, I was forced to not run, as I didn't want to create an injury that would be with me forever. I pretty much gave up running for the next year or so. Worst year of my life. It probably wasn't until the summer of 2009 that I started any sort of physical activity. Thankfully a fellow employee was running bootcamps in the park not far from my office, which allowed me to get out a couple of times a week, and since the distances we would run we less than a couple of km, I had no problem with my shins. It wasn't until that fall that I started trying to run again, and after a couple of weeks of shin pain, I gave up for the winter.
Now
, spring of 2010, I finally was getting fed up with the whole situation, and wanted to face the problems head on. Though various methods, I tried to diagnose and fix the problem, either through acupuncture, some new Newton shoes, strength exercises and stretching, and one trip to my local running injury clinic for an evaluation (albeit before they had their fancy (read:expensive) motion capturing system for an in depth gait analysis.) All to no avail.
So, here we are. Middle of 2010. I have been giving minimalist shoes a lot of thought, especially the ubiquitous Vibram Fivefingers. That was until I saw one person running down the pathway barefoot. That really struck a chord, and actually, since then I have never stopped thinking about it. I finally built up the courage, albeit slowly and very tentatively, to start running barefoot, with no prior research. I would run to a park with shoes on, then take them off and proceed to run around this large park on the grass, doing a couple laps and hills, and then running back to work (during my lunchhour) barefoot on the road. Total trip was 5km. By the second or third time, I thought that leaving my shoes unattended for 45 minutes, and running back to work with them on my hands was too much, so the next times out were sans shoes. It was then I decided that this is what I wanted. It is a little strange to walk out of the change room with only a shirt, shorts, and shades, feeling kind of naked from the knees down! I have to admit, I like the attention I get from pedestrians and shod runners, and I hope to use this opportunity to sell the benefits unshod side of running to others!
So in short, I am already sold on bare foot running and I have only gone out a few times, but I am buoyed by the reading I have been doing, either websites, blogs, forums, or books. I feel that if I take the time to develop the necessary technique (this shouldn't be taken lighting as I am un-learning the poor technique I acquired through my lifetime of running with shoes. Regardless of overdoing it a little on my first completely asphalt run (still pushing off with my toes – which turned into a big blister), I have gone from not being able to run more than 3km with my shoes before I would have to pause and stretch, and having to stop running altogether around the 5km mark because of the crescendo pain in my shins, to running barefoot 5km with little shin pain. I am excited and want to start running longer distance, but know this to be premature. I have always been trying to avoid injury, and I realize running barefoot is no exception. I will take it easy for now…
First step: Learn proper technique, no matter how long it takes
A little background,(sorry for the length, I started to ramble!)
I have been running since elementary school, through middle school, high school (where I started competing), then college where I made it to provincials on the cross-country team, and now during my professional life, I have been running on and off more or less for my health (sometimes mental health) around my home and workplace. I am lucky that during the time I would run around my home, I have one of the most beautiful neighborhoods in my city at my doorstep, full of hills, mature trees, amazing homes, river, parks, etc. Also luckily I have a shower in my office, and am able to clear my head and stretch my muscles during my lunchhour, up and down the equally beautiful river pathway system adjacent to our downtown core, which runs for miles in two directions.
During my college training, I wound occasionally have knee pains, which would never be explained, but seemed to disappear after a while, either though training, or switching of shoes, not sure. I would wear spikes only once and a while during races.
Now fast forward to a couple of years ago, to the day I almost gave up running altogether. In 2007 I was adding on the miles. Up until then I had only participated in a handful 10k runs with moderate success. I decided that I would finally step up and try a half marathon. After 10 weeks or so training that summer I did not feel prepared, but ran nonetheless. Success, a sub-2hr run, and felt good! Riding on my previous success, the very next spring I registered for the full marathon in the summer of 2008. The spring was full of training as I had an 18week program to get through before the race. I was now getting into the 20+ km range, which was higher than ever before. One hot, sunny afternoon in April, I was running across the city to a reservoir lake, and back. Throughout the run my shins started acting up, and within a few km of my home, they hurt so bad I had to walk the rest of the way home. From that point on, I pretty much couldn't run pain-free.
I was crestfallen. I honestly didn't know what to do. I had always run, but now, I was forced to not run, as I didn't want to create an injury that would be with me forever. I pretty much gave up running for the next year or so. Worst year of my life. It probably wasn't until the summer of 2009 that I started any sort of physical activity. Thankfully a fellow employee was running bootcamps in the park not far from my office, which allowed me to get out a couple of times a week, and since the distances we would run we less than a couple of km, I had no problem with my shins. It wasn't until that fall that I started trying to run again, and after a couple of weeks of shin pain, I gave up for the winter.
Now
, spring of 2010, I finally was getting fed up with the whole situation, and wanted to face the problems head on. Though various methods, I tried to diagnose and fix the problem, either through acupuncture, some new Newton shoes, strength exercises and stretching, and one trip to my local running injury clinic for an evaluation (albeit before they had their fancy (read:expensive) motion capturing system for an in depth gait analysis.) All to no avail.
So, here we are. Middle of 2010. I have been giving minimalist shoes a lot of thought, especially the ubiquitous Vibram Fivefingers. That was until I saw one person running down the pathway barefoot. That really struck a chord, and actually, since then I have never stopped thinking about it. I finally built up the courage, albeit slowly and very tentatively, to start running barefoot, with no prior research. I would run to a park with shoes on, then take them off and proceed to run around this large park on the grass, doing a couple laps and hills, and then running back to work (during my lunchhour) barefoot on the road. Total trip was 5km. By the second or third time, I thought that leaving my shoes unattended for 45 minutes, and running back to work with them on my hands was too much, so the next times out were sans shoes. It was then I decided that this is what I wanted. It is a little strange to walk out of the change room with only a shirt, shorts, and shades, feeling kind of naked from the knees down! I have to admit, I like the attention I get from pedestrians and shod runners, and I hope to use this opportunity to sell the benefits unshod side of running to others!
So in short, I am already sold on bare foot running and I have only gone out a few times, but I am buoyed by the reading I have been doing, either websites, blogs, forums, or books. I feel that if I take the time to develop the necessary technique (this shouldn't be taken lighting as I am un-learning the poor technique I acquired through my lifetime of running with shoes. Regardless of overdoing it a little on my first completely asphalt run (still pushing off with my toes – which turned into a big blister), I have gone from not being able to run more than 3km with my shoes before I would have to pause and stretch, and having to stop running altogether around the 5km mark because of the crescendo pain in my shins, to running barefoot 5km with little shin pain. I am excited and want to start running longer distance, but know this to be premature. I have always been trying to avoid injury, and I realize running barefoot is no exception. I will take it easy for now…
First step: Learn proper technique, no matter how long it takes
