The "Transition": fact or fiction?

Bare Lee

Bare Lee

Barefooters
Jul 25, 2011
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#1
How many people have arrived at a point where they thought or said, OK, I'm done with the transition, now I'm a bone fide barefoot runner?

My experience has been that there is no 'transition' to barefoot running; each and every increase in pace or distance has required a period of adaptation, some niggles along the way, extra soreness or renewed sole sensitivity, getting used to new types of terrain, etc. Seems to me that the transition is over only when you achieve your performance goals and are content to maintain your barefoot running fitness--in terms of pace, distance, temps, terrains, and so on--at that level.

Has this been anyone else's experience? Or have you found that once you established a base, it was just a matter of slowly increasing your abilities/range with little further concern for adaptation issues?
 
#4
Bare Lee said:
How many people have arrived at a point where they thought or said, OK, I'm done with the transition, now I'm a bone fide barefoot runner?

My experience has been that there is no 'transition' to barefoot running
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I agree, though instead of saying there's no transition, another way to look at it is that barefoot running exists in a constant state of transition. Since there is direct contact between the ground and you, a living organism, as long as you run barefoot your body and mind will always be in a state of transitioning and adapting to the ground.
 
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#5
i just see myself as someone learning to run who happens to prefer being bf. i haven't known of any runners, other than sponsored ones call themselves Nike or NB runners. have you?
 
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#6
I wouldn't consider myself a barefoot runner until the majority of my running is done barefoot. I bike a lot, but that isn't what the majority of my exercise is, so I call myself a runner, not a biker.
 
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#7
spoonerweb said:
I wouldn't consider myself a barefoot runner until the majority of my running is done barefoot. I bike a lot, but that isn't what the majority of my exercise is, so I call myself a runner, not a biker.
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So someone who runs 10 miles a week (all of it barefoot) is a barefoot runner, but someone who runs 50 miles a week (30 shod, 20 barefoot) isn't? That doesn't seem fair.
 
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#8
Bare Lee said:
How many people have arrived at a point where they thought or said, OK, I'm done with the transition, now I'm a bone fide barefoot runner?

My experience has been that there is no 'transition' to barefoot running; each and every increase in pace or distance has required a period of adaptation, some niggles along the way, extra soreness or renewed sole sensitivity, getting used to new types of terrain, etc. Seems to me that the transition is over only when you achieve your performance goals and are content to maintain your barefoot running fitness--in terms of pace, distance, temps, terrains, and so on--at that level....
?
Click to expand...

...and then winter comes and it all changes again!

I don't exactly agree that there's a constant level of adaption/transition, nor do I yet consider myself an arrivisti. I do think in terms of a narrowing end of the curve, with the learning and physical transitions of my first year relatively dramatic and sometimes painful. I did start off from zero, or "couch," after all.

Of late it's been relatively subtle, and the changes I work on now are not so much focused on my feet and legs as with speed and endurance in themselves. I do deeply enjoy my BF running - every run is an opportunity for a rich and satisfying experience. My VFF runs are very good, too, for that matter.

Now that I consider it, maybe I am arrived at some sort of plateau, though certainly not any pinnacle. My main concerns now aren't BF. They're just runner concerns.
 
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#9
3 years into running barefoot I can say I have transitioned, but it's all a continuing journey. Now when I hear the word transition to me that means all of my muscles, tendons, ankles, calf's, have reached a point in strength which allows me to run barefoot comfortably and cover some decent mileage. Then the journey part of it is running in barefoot in winter, gravels trails, trails in general, etc.

I still feel my soles need allot more conditioning, they are still not where I want them to be. And they never might get there but who knows, so I think I should change my answer. No, I am not fully transitioned!
 
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#10
A year and a half in, looking back, I felt there was a point, about 3 or 4 months in when I was able to run about 4 or 5 miles bf, without any of the MS pain that I used to get shod after about 3 miles. I was well past some TOFP I got in month 1-2 and I was recovering 1 day and able to run EOD which is my usual interval. So at that point I felt there was a completion of the transition of sorts, from the standpoint that not only was I running bf comfortably, but I was starting to break through the mileage and speed barriers that running in foot coffins had subjugated. Since then, I've continued to make refinements though, beyond just being a sucessful "bf runner", and feel there is a still a more overall physical transition taking place with balancing power and efficiency and trying to shed a few of those extra "beer & icecream" pounds! ;-)

BBR
 
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#11
Bare Lee said:
How many people have arrived at a point where they thought or said, OK, I'm done with the transition, now I'm a bone fide barefoot runner?

My experience has been that there is no 'transition' to barefoot running; each and every increase in pace or distance has required a period of adaptation, some niggles along the way, extra soreness or renewed sole sensitivity, getting used to new types of terrain, etc. Seems to me that the transition is over only when you achieve your performance goals and are content to maintain your barefoot running fitness--in terms of pace, distance, temps, terrains, and so on--at that level.

Has this been anyone else's experience? Or have you found that once you established a base, it was just a matter of slowly increasing your abilities/range with little further concern for adaptation issues?
Click to expand...

I did that....then my ITBS flared up a week later :D
gotta love BF running!
 
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#12
bf in az said:
So someone who runs 10 miles a week (all of it barefoot) is a barefoot runner, but someone who runs 50 miles a week (30 shod, 20 barefoot) isn't? That doesn't seem fair.
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life isn't fair....:D lol
...I'm not so sure that phrase is valid anymore these days! haha
 
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#13
Bare Lee said:
How many people have arrived at a point where they thought or said, OK, I'm done with the transition, now I'm a bone fide barefoot runner?
Click to expand...

Interesting question. Presuming "transitioning" is simply going from doing one thing to doing another, then it would seem to me every time I change anything (shoes to bf, flat runs to hill runs, pavement to dirt, slow to fast) there would be a transition required. Your body does best what it has always done. Change that, and adaptation is required. So I guess my view would be, as long as you keep doing what you're already comfortable doing consider yourself transitioned.
 
#14
I guess my question is whether there is a set of base adaptations--plantar skin development, tofp issues, and so on--after which one is just improving as a runner, not as a barefoot runner per se, or if barefoot running, with its extra set of temp, terrain, and physical adaptations, requires continual adaptions in a way that shod running does not. I don't think there is a right or wrong answer to this; I'm just interested in hearing about other people's experiences or opinions.
 
#15
Great topic Bare Lee,

For me, I break transition into two parts, mental and physical. The mental transition happened when I decided that I really liked BF running and decided to do most of my running BF. At the same time, the physical transition was happening. Better form and less problems (injuries, aches and pains, blisters). So at this point I consider myself transitioned to BF running.

Now for the complicated part. Progression. This is where the never ending list of goals is happening. Mileage goals, terrain capability, and yes, I hate to even say it because it is at the bottom of my list, but keeps creeping into my thoughts, speed improvement. I wish I could just pick a level and be satisfied, but I want to progress. Too many goals.
 
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#16
rickwhitelaw said:
Great topic Bare Lee,

For me, I break transition into two parts, mental and physical. The mental transition happened when I decided that I really liked BF running and decided to do most of my running BF. At the same time, the physical transition was happening. Better form and less problems (injuries, aches and pains, blisters). So at this point I consider myself transitioned to BF running.

Now for the complicated part. Progression. This is where the never ending list of goals is happening. Mileage goals, terrain capability, and yes, I hate to even say it because it is at the bottom of my list, but keeps creeping into my thoughts, speed improvement. I wish I could just pick a level and be satisfied, but I want to progress. Too many goals.
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Yah, that seems to be about my sense of it too. If it's true that my discovery of the importance of massaging my lower leg and stretching out my feet will continue to allow me to alleviate or resolve my tofp issue, then I would consider myself to have transitioned in the sense of having a decent base--I can run for an hour at 9-10 mm pace on easy surfaces. Basically I've been at or close to this level for over a year, it's just that I was clueless about what to do every time my tofp would resurface. But as Barefoot Gentile has reported, running an 50K ultra on challenging terrain requires a whole new level of sole conditioning, so in that sense my transition is far from over, and probably never will be. This is the barefoot running journey, as BG describes it.
 
#17
Barefoot Gentile said:
3 years into running barefoot I can say I have transitioned, but it's all a continuing journey. Now when I hear the word transition to me that means all of my muscles, tendons, ankles, calf's, have reached a point in strength which allows me to run barefoot comfortably and cover some decent mileage. Then the journey part of it is running in barefoot in winter, gravels trails, trails in general, etc.

I still feel my soles need allot more conditioning, they are still not where I want them to be. And they never might get there but who knows, so I think I should change my answer. No, I am not fully transitioned!
Click to expand...
I like your distinction between bfr transition and bfr journey. That might be the best way to frame it. Or maybe Transition I--packing the bfr bag--and Transition II--taking the bfr journey.
 
#18
I jumped from a max barefoot distance of half marathon to a full marathon. There was no transition, as far as barefoot goes, I was already there. I of course increased my mileage and conditioning shod for in between distances. That does not mean I can run barefoot on any surface/temperature for any distance. Nor do I want to so I am still done transitioning since I will never go there.
 
#19
When you're heading out for a run and it doesn't even occur to you to grab some shoes.
 
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