I have some questions for people who run bf on trails. Sorry for the huge amounts of questions here
The trails I'll be starting on are alot of nicely packed dirt that I'm completely not worried about. The coyote poop is my biggest issue there. But some of the middle miles get decent sized rocks. Maybe golf ball to tennis ball sized that makes up large portions of the hills. Running them isn't "technical" but I do do a fair amount of weaving to avoid the rough stuff even in shoes.
Would I be best off trying this in minimal footwear first, I know the rule of thumb is bf first but does that hold for things of this sort? Would it be safest to carry my frees or super old shoes that I've about worn the soles off with me just in case I end up needing them? I'm actually a bit concerned I'll end up killing my zems if I wear those. When you go to trails do you carry anything else with you? For instance is a first aid kit a good idea or total overkill?
And then my biggest question, what is the trick to running trail downhills. I've been trying to concentrate on how I'm going to do this bf, but while I'm wearing shoes it seems I either am constantly braking which could be horribly painful on the feet, or that I go rather fast and sort of feel like I'm going to fall. Normally with shoes I just run fast, have fun, laugh, and if I fall then so be it, but this seems like it would be dangerous without shoes. On my normal barefoot routes I don't have to worry about rocks, just finely ground gravel, so I just go. Which from my forum searching appears to be the consensus on road downhill running. I'm thinking this doesn't work so well when dodging rocks?
So do you try and run slow (and if so how), walk them, or do you just run it like you would on the road and hope for the best?
The trails I'll be starting on are alot of nicely packed dirt that I'm completely not worried about. The coyote poop is my biggest issue there. But some of the middle miles get decent sized rocks. Maybe golf ball to tennis ball sized that makes up large portions of the hills. Running them isn't "technical" but I do do a fair amount of weaving to avoid the rough stuff even in shoes.
Would I be best off trying this in minimal footwear first, I know the rule of thumb is bf first but does that hold for things of this sort? Would it be safest to carry my frees or super old shoes that I've about worn the soles off with me just in case I end up needing them? I'm actually a bit concerned I'll end up killing my zems if I wear those. When you go to trails do you carry anything else with you? For instance is a first aid kit a good idea or total overkill?
And then my biggest question, what is the trick to running trail downhills. I've been trying to concentrate on how I'm going to do this bf, but while I'm wearing shoes it seems I either am constantly braking which could be horribly painful on the feet, or that I go rather fast and sort of feel like I'm going to fall. Normally with shoes I just run fast, have fun, laugh, and if I fall then so be it, but this seems like it would be dangerous without shoes. On my normal barefoot routes I don't have to worry about rocks, just finely ground gravel, so I just go. Which from my forum searching appears to be the consensus on road downhill running. I'm thinking this doesn't work so well when dodging rocks?
So do you try and run slow (and if so how), walk them, or do you just run it like you would on the road and hope for the best?
