Mr. Izzo:Welcome to the
Mr. Izzo:
Welcome to the crew. This is a great group of folks to have as a reference and a pool of advisors. Barefoot running (BFR) can indeed do wonders for your form, joint pain, and the lifelong sustainability of your running. And dang, you are fast. I used to be fast; now I'm old and worn out. But I can still run BF. I'm an old soldier who wore down all of my joints, but particularly wore all of the cartilege completely out of my right hip running traditional heel-striking, long-striding and had the options of a hip replacement or no more running. I chose option 3, which is BFR. If I run 3 miles traditionally today, I'll be limping for 2 weeks. If I run 5 miles BF (which I'll be doing 6 times this week), I'll feel fine and continue to stay healthy and strong. I'm not fast anymore, but at least I can run now and should be able to continue doing so for another 50 years as far as I can tell.
Suggestions to successfully take up BFR:
1. Learn good form correctly and burn it into muscle memory before going all-out BF.
2. Take plenty of time to built up your plantar (sole) skin as well as all of your feet's connecting tissues and musculature that you don't use in shoes. Go barefoot as much as you can, and over as many different surfaces as you can.
3. You're very young and thus still very resilient, but BFR is very different, and you can hurt yourself doing too much too soon (TMTS). Listen to your body's feedback, and ask lots of questions here and of any BFRers you can find locally (try this site's Wisconson state chapter forum). I ran hard for 25 years myself and coached others; I stress fractured my left foot 30 days into transitioning by doing too much too soon. BFR is radically different than traditional running (which is why I can still do it with no cartilege left).
4. Be especially careful as you go back and forth between shoes and BF. I ended up with a left big toe "blacktoe" by running barefoot-like in traditional shoes during my transition. I only did it once, but that's all it took.
5. Enjoy running barefoot - it's lots more fun (at least for me) than running shod.
