Hi,
It has been now several months since I started running barefoot, and I've tried to religiously follow Ken Bob's guidance (bent knees, upright posture, lift the feet,...)
During my early stages of BFR, I practiced on a variety of terrain, mostly on gravel trails (as advised by KB) and asphalt. Today I can easily manage running a couple of miles on gravel trails and even more on asphalt.
My next step is to build up the distance so as to be able to run a full half-marathon barefoot (road running). Surprizingly, I'm feeling that my running requires more effort than when I used to run shod!
I regularly use a Heart Rate Monitor when I train for a race, so I decided to use it during my last 30min barefoot run. At easy pace, I noticed that at the same heart rate, my pace was about 1min/mile higher than it was back in the days I was training shod! What a loss of running efficiency!
Why??
I expected at least that not having the shoe weight of my feet would make me a more efficient runner, but that's not enough.
Barefoot running requires much more focus than shod running, and focus consumes energy.
Cadence is also a concern: running barefoot has naturally increased my cadence from 170-175 (shod) to 180-185. However, I suspect that contrary to was is commonly said, higher cadence increases effort due to higher rate of muscle activation (hence higher heart rate).
Finally, I can't really feel my so-called "springs" (bent knees) propel me effortless. Although I'm trying to stick to Ken Bob's principles of barefoot running ("lift the feet, don't push"), moving forward still requires effort!
Any thoughts?
How can I retrieve, or even exceed, my shod running efficiency?
Did it feel like the same as you were transitioning from shod to barefoot running?
It has been now several months since I started running barefoot, and I've tried to religiously follow Ken Bob's guidance (bent knees, upright posture, lift the feet,...)
During my early stages of BFR, I practiced on a variety of terrain, mostly on gravel trails (as advised by KB) and asphalt. Today I can easily manage running a couple of miles on gravel trails and even more on asphalt.
My next step is to build up the distance so as to be able to run a full half-marathon barefoot (road running). Surprizingly, I'm feeling that my running requires more effort than when I used to run shod!
I regularly use a Heart Rate Monitor when I train for a race, so I decided to use it during my last 30min barefoot run. At easy pace, I noticed that at the same heart rate, my pace was about 1min/mile higher than it was back in the days I was training shod! What a loss of running efficiency!
Why??
I expected at least that not having the shoe weight of my feet would make me a more efficient runner, but that's not enough.
Barefoot running requires much more focus than shod running, and focus consumes energy.
Cadence is also a concern: running barefoot has naturally increased my cadence from 170-175 (shod) to 180-185. However, I suspect that contrary to was is commonly said, higher cadence increases effort due to higher rate of muscle activation (hence higher heart rate).
Finally, I can't really feel my so-called "springs" (bent knees) propel me effortless. Although I'm trying to stick to Ken Bob's principles of barefoot running ("lift the feet, don't push"), moving forward still requires effort!
Any thoughts?
How can I retrieve, or even exceed, my shod running efficiency?
Did it feel like the same as you were transitioning from shod to barefoot running?