Foot tenderness

your post gets a little difficult to read. it looks like you're asking how hard should your heels touch the ground? not too hard. if it hurts that's too much. can't get much more specific than that. i don't know of anyone who has measured the pressure to apply and if they did how would you measure your own?

yes it's normal for your feet to get sore. if your feeling your heels slamming down, fatigued legs, and sore feet, then cut back your mileage. you can either cut back or get injured. everyone knows it's tough to cut back but when the choice is to keep going and get injured, the choice is obvious.

don't worry about distance and speed. keep the form good and those will follow.

when we are fatigued not we should pay attention to the technique, always be careful about.

I agree with Antonio, I think fatigue is part of it. It's easy to lose form once fatigue sets in. Like others have said form is the most important issue to work on before distance and speed.

TMo said:

I had a great 6 mile run last weekend barefoot the whole way. I felt great! I had no wear spots or blisters, but my feet were a little tender at the end. On Monday I went for a 4 miler, and at mile 3 I had to walk. My feet still had no marks, but they were so tender I could only run when I could find grass the final mile. So this is my question...is this normal? I think my form must be ok if I am not getting wear marks or blisters.

My other question is how much impact should I be putting on my heels. I noticed this even more when my feet were tender, but prior I observed I tended to touch my heels more when I was fatigued.

Click to expand...

"Sore" feet. Okay, a few questions:
1. Have you increased your mileage dramatically?
2. Are you running on consecutive days?
3. Have you changed the surface you've been running on?
4. Were your feet dry or immediately out of shoes?

All the above will be a root cause of "sore" feet. I'm assuming you're talking about the bottoms of your feet as well, yes? Since you were referencing wear spots and blisters, this is what I've assumed.

Until you are a very seasoned BF runner (a year or so with 25+ mpw), numbers 1, 2 and 3 will certainly be a factor in the bottoms of your feet being sore. That feeling is normal and should be telling you "enough for a bit". Listen to your body and give your feet a rest day. ESPECIALLY if you're ramping up your miles. That's the beauty of BF running is the signals your body (feet) will throw at you. LISTEN.

For #4 above, soft, "gummy" feet fresh out of shoes and immediately on to a dry "road" surface (asphalt or concrete), in my experience, has previously led to sore feet. Let your feet dry before attacking a dry road surface. Wet feet on wet tarmac doesn't seem to be any problem.

As for your heel touching, I think we as a community, are not consistent with our message. I am a believer that if you aim for your 4th toe to make contact first (it won't, but gets your foot in the right position) and just relax your foot from there, all will be fine. If your heel is hurting, don't let it come down so fast. That's just my opinion, I could be wrong.

Cheers.

My only counsel is PATIENCE. Different folk built capacity at different rates.

Do what you need to do in terms of integrating Min shoes from time to time or for particularly problematical stretches. My opinion is that I'd rather run a bit farther with a bit more comfort than suffer and not enjoy my running and maybe even risk injury. I'm just being somewhat practical in this, although Dama has a different term for it.