Hello From the town that makes Weetabix

Hi Chris,

The vivo workshop may well be useful, if you can manage to get it as and when it starts up again.

Only comment I’d add (quite possibly not that helpful;)) is that I don’t believe there is a truly ‘right’ answer to how you lift your feet. So don’t worry too much about being unsure.

Putting it simply –we are all different and some descriptive imagery that works perfectly well for one individual may seem totally incomprehensible to someone else. That doesn’t mean you are necessarily ‘wrong’. You just have to find an analogy that works for you.

I’ve heard a variety of suggestions over time -from lifting as though you have stepped on that bee, to imagining that the ground is white hot, to visualising yourself running out of the house in the middle of the night looking across the street for someone in a crowd (honestly!). Personally, I find sometimes picturing a small log in front of each step that I then have to step over seems to work for me. I also generally focus more on lifting knees than worrying about my feet –they just follow where my knees and legs go!

Possibly more importantly however - I think it is very easy to end up over-thinking all of this and then fretting that you’re never going to get the hang of anything (I know I’ve had that feeling a number of times!).
The answer very often is to just relax. When you truly relax and listen to your body it can very quickly all fall into place almost without you realising it, or even particularly trying. This is probably why people might suggest losing the shoes completely is a useful first stage, so that you can feel clearly what your feet are telling you, as opposed to the somewhat ‘muffled’ feedback you’d get through a rubber shoe sole. –All easier said than done though, I know!...

Keep going anyway… And if you do manage to get to the Vivo workshop it would be interesting to hear how you get on…

Good luck...:)
Thanks Ted, that kind of makes sense ;-).
I’m still resting the old Achilles at the moment but today the wife made me do the jo wicks work out but we did 15 minutes on the cross trainer and 15 minutes on the running machine either end of it. I was going to power walk but decided to do a slow jog, I had on nike free run 3.0 and at a slow 5 mile an hour pace on my forefoot I didn’t get any pain.... Lol I’m waiting for all the comments on the Nike’s now !!!
I contacted vivo and they are hoping to be open late June so I will keep you all posted as to how I get on.
Thanks for all the advice.
Chris
 
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Hi Chris,

The vivo workshop may well be useful, if you can manage to get it as and when it starts up again.

Only comment I’d add (quite possibly not that helpful;)) is that I don’t believe there is a truly ‘right’ answer to how you lift your feet. So don’t worry too much about being unsure.

Putting it simply –we are all different and some descriptive imagery that works perfectly well for one individual may seem totally incomprehensible to someone else. That doesn’t mean you are necessarily ‘wrong’. You just have to find an analogy that works for you.

I’ve heard a variety of suggestions over time -from lifting as though you have stepped on that bee, to imagining that the ground is white hot, to visualising yourself running out of the house in the middle of the night looking across the street for someone in a crowd (honestly!). Personally, I find sometimes picturing a small log in front of each step that I then have to step over seems to work for me. I also generally focus more on lifting knees than worrying about my feet –they just follow where my knees and legs go!

Possibly more importantly however - I think it is very easy to end up over-thinking all of this and then fretting that you’re never going to get the hang of anything (I know I’ve had that feeling a number of times!).
The answer very often is to just relax. When you truly relax and listen to your body it can very quickly all fall into place almost without you realising it, or even particularly trying. This is probably why people might suggest losing the shoes completely is a useful first stage, so that you can feel clearly what your feet are telling you, as opposed to the somewhat ‘muffled’ feedback you’d get through a rubber shoe sole. –All easier said than done though, I know!...

Keep going anyway… And if you do manage to get to the Vivo workshop it would be interesting to hear how you get on…

Good luck...:)
I also dropped it down to 170 cadence as well so that might have helped ?
 
Hi Chris,

The vivo workshop may well be useful, if you can manage to get it as and when it starts up again.

Only comment I’d add (quite possibly not that helpful;)) is that I don’t believe there is a truly ‘right’ answer to how you lift your feet. So don’t worry too much about being unsure.

Putting it simply –we are all different and some descriptive imagery that works perfectly well for one individual may seem totally incomprehensible to someone else. That doesn’t mean you are necessarily ‘wrong’. You just have to find an analogy that works for you.

I’ve heard a variety of suggestions over time -from lifting as though you have stepped on that bee, to imagining that the ground is white hot, to visualising yourself running out of the house in the middle of the night looking across the street for someone in a crowd (honestly!). Personally, I find sometimes picturing a small log in front of each step that I then have to step over seems to work for me. I also generally focus more on lifting knees than worrying about my feet –they just follow where my knees and legs go!

Possibly more importantly however - I think it is very easy to end up over-thinking all of this and then fretting that you’re never going to get the hang of anything (I know I’ve had that feeling a number of times!).
The answer very often is to just relax. When you truly relax and listen to your body it can very quickly all fall into place almost without you realising it, or even particularly trying. This is probably why people might suggest losing the shoes completely is a useful first stage, so that you can feel clearly what your feet are telling you, as opposed to the somewhat ‘muffled’ feedback you’d get through a rubber shoe sole. –All easier said than done though, I know!...

Keep going anyway… And if you do manage to get to the Vivo workshop it would be interesting to hear how you get on…

Good luck...:)
Hi Chris,

The vivo workshop may well be useful, if you can manage to get it as and when it starts up again.

Only comment I’d add (quite possibly not that helpful;)) is that I don’t believe there is a truly ‘right’ answer to how you lift your feet. So don’t worry too much about being unsure.

Putting it simply –we are all different and some descriptive imagery that works perfectly well for one individual may seem totally incomprehensible to someone else. That doesn’t mean you are necessarily ‘wrong’. You just have to find an analogy that works for you.

I’ve heard a variety of suggestions over time -from lifting as though you have stepped on that bee, to imagining that the ground is white hot, to visualising yourself running out of the house in the middle of the night looking across the street for someone in a crowd (honestly!). Personally, I find sometimes picturing a small log in front of each step that I then have to step over seems to work for me. I also generally focus more on lifting knees than worrying about my feet –they just follow where my knees and legs go!

Possibly more importantly however - I think it is very easy to end up over-thinking all of this and then fretting that you’re never going to get the hang of anything (I know I’ve had that feeling a number of times!).
The answer very often is to just relax. When you truly relax and listen to your body it can very quickly all fall into place almost without you realising it, or even particularly trying. This is probably why people might suggest losing the shoes completely is a useful first stage, so that you can feel clearly what your feet are telling you, as opposed to the somewhat ‘muffled’ feedback you’d get through a rubber shoe sole. –All easier said than done though, I know!...

Keep going anyway… And if you do manage to get to the Vivo workshop it would be interesting to hear how you get on…

Good luck...:)

Hi Chris,

Tedlet’s response to you is quite similar to the way I run the trails barefoot (I don’t need to visualize logs though- mine are real, as are roots (damn those roots), rocks, etc.

Simply lifting the knees and letting my feet pendulum forward works fantastically. I never ‘push off’ the feet this way (with the exception of short hill sprints) thus avoiding blisters, hot spots, and other carnage that can be experienced by pushing off the feet instead of lifting the knees. I find it more economical energy-wise as well.

Cadence is something I really can’t respond to very well. It’s difficult for me to focus on that due to the varying terrain underfoot at every twist of the trail, elevation change, footing, etc. I’m not saying it’s unimportant (I do think about finding flatter terrain to practice on from time to time but that’s about as exciting to me as a treadmill)- when I run I’m just in the moment and let the conditions dictate my cadence.

Like Tedlet said “...The answer very often is to just relax...”. It works.
 
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Hi Chris,

The vivo workshop may well be useful, if you can manage to get it as and when it starts up again.

Only comment I’d add (quite possibly not that helpful;)) is that I don’t believe there is a truly ‘right’ answer to how you lift your feet. So don’t worry too much about being unsure.

Putting it simply –we are all different and some descriptive imagery that works perfectly well for one individual may seem totally incomprehensible to someone else. That doesn’t mean you are necessarily ‘wrong’. You just have to find an analogy that works for you.

I’ve heard a variety of suggestions over time -from lifting as though you have stepped on that bee, to imagining that the ground is white hot, to visualising yourself running out of the house in the middle of the night looking across the street for someone in a crowd (honestly!). Personally, I find sometimes picturing a small log in front of each step that I then have to step over seems to work for me. I also generally focus more on lifting knees than worrying about my feet –they just follow where my knees and legs go!

Possibly more importantly however - I think it is very easy to end up over-thinking all of this and then fretting that you’re never going to get the hang of anything (I know I’ve had that feeling a number of times!).
The answer very often is to just relax. When you truly relax and listen to your body it can very quickly all fall into place almost without you realising it, or even particularly trying. This is probably why people might suggest losing the shoes completely is a useful first stage, so that you can feel clearly what your feet are telling you, as opposed to the somewhat ‘muffled’ feedback you’d get through a rubber shoe sole. –All easier said than done though, I know!...

Keep going anyway… And if you do manage to get to the Vivo workshop it would be interesting to hear how you get on…

Good luck...:)
Morning Ted,
Sorry for late reply, I did reply the other day but I doesn’t seem to have uploaded..... lol I can’t even remember what I put now (its my age).
Just reading through your reply again and and what you sa makes sense. I suffer from a bit of anxiety in some situations and all though for some strange reason I can quite happily go out in public with weird toe shoes I’m finding it hard to go out barefoot :).
Very silly I know..... I think the answer is just to get up early with dog and just get on with it......
Chris
 
Thanks guy’s, still not used to the site, just came across the reply’s from Barefoot bc and noodles !!!! Sorry for not replying sooner !!!!! How lucky is barefoot bc having those fantastic runs on their doorstep... I just have tarmac !!!
I called vivo and they are still not open for workshops due to the COVID situation but they did give me the number of one of there trainers how must subcontract to them. I couldn’t believe how nice and helpful he was and spent over 15 minutes answering my questions and giving me some sound advice.... he is going to give me a call when they are back up and running to book in. I was blown away with how kind and helpful he was. I then got a text giving further advice and said that if I liked he could look at a video of my running on the treadmill and look at my form.
I’ll keep you all posted.
Chris
 
can you recommend anymore light reading treads/posts... it’s hard to find them on here
That's because everyone on here is very sensible and serious.*
I highly recommend hijacking posts.

Edit: *I just realised that my stupid grin doesn't show up when I type. Just in case there's any doubt, I love these forums and the people on them. They are so willing to share their knowledge, experience, advice and silly comments.
 
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