New to BFR and looking for guidance!

[mcrunner92]

Hi all,

I'm a college runner and after missing almost the whole last year due to injury, i'm looking to give barefoot/minimalism a try. I am in the beginning stages of "converting" to barefoot running. I have a few questions and what not though. I have an idea for a plan I want to follow in order to get used to running barefoot and I was hoping for some input on it. I have a good background of spending almost all my time barefoot already so I skipped that whole transitioning and went straight into running. Before I started doing any research on barefoot running I put on my pair of VFF's and went and ran for a good 5 miles or so. I was sore so I took a day off and then the next day went and ran 6 miles in my minimus (which hurt a part of my left foot btw so i have a question about that later).

Everything was fine after all that but thats when I started doing some research on the subject and realized that I should probably go a little slower. Now I'm here!

I decided on a plan where I would just completely switch over and not do any running at all in my normal trainers, since normal trainers seem to be the death of me running wise. Anyways, I am starting off with 10 minutes running the first day and then every day thereafter increase it by a minute each day, and if i'm sore at all maybe take the day off and just do all cross training. Then if I'm feeling 100% during my run I will add 2 minutes a day instead of one. Is that a conservative enough plan do you think??

Also, when I go back to college I'll be increasing my mileage to 50+ a week so I'm gonna be in the market for a good minimalist shoe pretty soon here. My question is, how many miles do you guys think I should be able to run daily/weekly before I get a minimalist shoe? I also plan on doing a few runs a week barefoot when i'm at college.

Thank you in advance for anyone who has the time of day to read all the boring stuff I posted! I'm looking forward to some insight and guidance from all the veterans here.

Thanks!

 

[Barefoot TJ]

I think that's a very

I think that's a very conservative plan and won't get you injured, but you could try running 1/4 of a mile every other day for about two weeks, then increase 1/4 of a mile to a 1/2 mile for the next two weeks and so on.

You'll be fine. Welcome!

 

[mcrunner92]

Thanks for the advice TJ. Do

Thanks for the advice TJ. Do you not advise running barefoot everyday starting out? I have history of running barefoot in high school. Usually a good 5-10 miles a week.

 

[Neil_D]

Hi Mcrunner,That seems an

Hi Mcrunner,

That seems an awful big leap to me to be going from no barefoot running to 50+miles by the time you get back to college. I'm not sure what time frame that would be but it sounds a pretty steep changeover.

You are obviously a young guy if you are at college so you have a whole lot longer to learn barefoot running than someone my age. I have been a runner since school 15 years old and now over 3 times that age. To make it enjoyable you will need patience or you will end up being part of the crowd of frustrated runners that believe they can quickly ditch the shoes and carry on as normal. It's just not that simple.

You have an advantage in that you have not had as many years in shoes that cause bad form and injury so you may be able to get the correct form in a faster time. If you just concentrate on the miles rather than your form you will just get injuries such as calf strains and tendon problems.

It is better to take it slow, get someone to film you running to see if your foot is landing correctly. IT will take you a while to get the speed back, you will slow down.

If most of your running was cross country, in spikes or a thin shoe then that would make it easier to go to minimalist or barefoot but if all your running is on the road then you have to ask yourself, what was it that caused my injury. The shoe itself does not cause the injury, the injury is caused by the running style so you need to know how you ran when you got the injury so that will give you a baseline to what you need to work on.

Regards

Neil

 

[Barefoot TJ]

What footwear do you

What footwear do you currently run in? I don't mean just a run here and there, I mean your usual footwear? If it's not zerp drop, then it would be wise to take a day off in between your runs. You need to give your body time to adjust to the run you just took in zero drop footwear (or barefoot). Here's why: (From one of my previous posts to someone else.)

When we wear shoes with heels (of any height), our connective tissues (calves to Achilles to plantar fascia) shrink by the same amount in length of the heel we wear. For example, if the heel is 1-1/2", then your connective tissue has shrunk by 1-1/2". When you make a move to something with a zero-drop, in esscence, you are stretching out your connective tissues by 1-1/2". This is not something you want to do overnight, meaning, it takes time to do it right. You only want to run in the VFFs (or anything else with a zero-drop) for a short distance and at a slow pace.

Also, when you're new to something, having a day off will help you figure out if you developed any injuries from that run. Giving a day of reflection will help you figure out if everything went right or if not, what you may need to do on the next run to correct it.

Expect your calves to be tight.

 

[mcrunner92]

Thanks for the advice Neil.

Thanks for the advice Neil. My time-frame wouldn't necessarily be 50+ miles right when I get back, it would probably be close to that by the end of september. And not all completely barefoot, but probably at that time about 15 a week barefoot and the rest in shoes. Do you think 2 months is too little time to transition into that kind of mileage in a minimalist shoe/barefoot?

As a side-note, all of my injuries in the past year have been on my left leg. Recently I've been going to a therapist/chiropractor and he helped me with exercises and stretches to straighten out my pelvis (which was all jacked up i guess). Since then, when running barefoot I notice that my RIGHT calf gets sore and my left doesn't. I'm thinking maybe this is because when I was running in conventional shoes I may have been overstriding on just my right leg? Who knows. But anyways, I'm trying to find my video camera so I can have someone look at my form. Hopefully I will find it soon.

Thanks for the input!

 

[mcrunner92]

TJ-I was running in Brooks

TJ-

I was running in Brooks Launch. And thank you for the advice. Today instead of my 45 minute swim and 15 min run, I will just have to swim for 1 hour!

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Yikes!  Those are some

Yikes! Those are some monsterous shoes, no offense. ;-)

Yeah you! You'll feel better tomorrow for doing so.

 

[mcrunner92]

Yah I tried them on the other

Yah I tried them on the other day to finish up a run in them and couldn't handle it. They felt terrible on my feet and my knee started to hurt within 10 minutes.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

It makes us wonder how these

It makes us wonder how these shoe companies can get away with what they have done/are doing to people, doesn't it?

 

[Neil_D]

Hi Again MCIt is always very

Hi Again MC

It is always very hard to come up with rule of thumb numbers when it comes to changing an injury causing running style. All I can really relate to is my own experiences.

I know that when I did get injured during the transition it happened while wearing minimalist shoes (VFF) and running further than I should have been with an incorrect form.

If I had been barefoot on the run where I strained my calf there is no way I would have considered running a 12km, my feet would have put a stop to that. As they got no say in the matter it was down to my calf to get me to stop.

If you have any photos of yourself during a race that show your stride length and foot landing that is a good start point. To retrain yourself to land on your forefoot takes quite a while, the more you do it though the more hardwired it will become in the brain. You need to get it to the point where landing on your heel feels alien to you.

As I mentioned, as you do not have 20+ years of running wrongly embedded in your head the change should be quicker than it was for me. I would say that I am 90% there and this is 2 years after I started.

I ran 17km on sunday on a mixture of brick, bitumen, and sand with no problem except for foot pad tenderness which takes a day to subside.

Treat it like learning any sport such as golf or tennis I would say the time frames would be similar to get to a competant skill level.

Regards



Neil

 

[mcrunner92]

If I can find my video camera

If I can find my video camera soon I'll take some video on the treadmill and try and put it up on youtube or something.

 

[Phil Hart]

Mc:Welcome.  You're already

Mc:

Welcome. You're already getting some great direction from TJ and Neil. A slow, steady transition will serve you well, although it feels mighty slow while you're going through it. I skipped the slow transition and went straight to the left foot stress fracture, but I wouldn't recommend it. That set me back 3 months, and almost back to the point of having to start over. I was a traditional, shod, heel-striking, overstriding runner for 25 years before trying BFR, and my mind said "you're a runner - this is running - you can do this already." It was wrong. This is very different running, as it sounds like you know from your earlier experience as well as your current experience.

Take the transition slowly and smoothly, and enjoy it. I enjoy running much more now that I'm doing it barefoot than I ever did shod.

Again, glad to have you here. Ask lots of questions, and share with others from your experience as well.

Phil