Screw the Shoes

[Cozmos74]

About 2 months ago I ran my first Marathon it was actually an Ultra as it was 45km, The Great Ocean Road Marathon from Lorne to Apollo Bay, it was a very painful experience as I had contracted ITBS a week earlier on a 30km training run.

About 13km into the Marathon the pain struck my left knee and I wanted to cry. I so depreately wanted to complete the race, but every time the First Aid van rolled past me I only hoped they could see the pain in my face and insist that I drop out. But the didn't Instead I took it 5km at a time and stuck it out to the end.

After a week of rest I thought I might go for another run, it's just over 10 miles to work and I thought I would start to run in a few times a week to rain for some ultra marathons, but 4km into the second run the pain came back so I had to find out what was wrong I had done nothing weird to injure myself.

I didn't like what I found out about, ITBS sounded like the worst thing ever and it seemed like I was going to have it forever. So I started running in Vibrams and I bought a foam roller. To start with the pain went away and I experienced all those things you hear about running in bare feet. It was a truly excellent experience. But after a couple of months the pain came back into my knee as I was again running 10miles at a go.

The other day the pain came back while I was out in the Vibrams, it was night time, pitch dark and I was 3km from home. Every running step was agony, walking was no problem. But I thought i would rather not walk all the way home, lets see how it feels to move without shoes at all.

I was scared at first as my feet were soft and the roads out here are rough and poorly maintained. I live 400km from a major city.

Any way I ran home and everything was fine, there was a slight pain in my knee but really it was more like tension than pain, so when I got home I dumped my shoes on the lawn and went out for another 6.5km or so.

My feet felt a bit abused but my knee was fine.

I can't run with shoes any more, they are not a part of my idea of running anymore.

I am preparing for a 25km race in Canberra at the end of the month an will post pics for you all to see. I am so excited to be prepping for my first bff race!

Screw the shoes, live free.

 

[C. Beth Run.]

Woo hoo--so exciting! This is

Woo hoo--so exciting! This is inspirational to me!

 

[Barefoot Gentile]

Cosmoz,  your story is very

Cosmoz, your story is very similiar to what happen to me and ITBS. I ran my first marathon (26.2) this past May in Vibram KSO's. 3 weeks before the marathon I came down with a really bad case of ITBS during my final long training run. I barely ran for the next 3 weeks because I was so determined to run the marathon after all that training and wanted to get to the starting line somewhat healed. So on race day I was feeling great until mile 14 when my ITBS hit hard! I finished the race but with alot of walking and running. Even though I was in alot of pain it was a great experience.

Anyways to my point, after the marathon I decided to even ditch the Vibrams. For the last 3 months I have been running strictly barefoot and have seen a tremondous improvement with my IT band. After the marathon I ran a half marathon and a 20K barefoot with no ITBS issues at all. Next year I plan on doing my first barefoot marathon.

Honestly I can't stand any kind of footwear now. I will have to resort back to my Vibrams in winter, but I am going to hold out as long as I can being barefoot.



Good luck with race and I agree, screw the shoes!

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Those are both awesome

Those are both awesome stories. Why do you suppose that is though? Why do you suppose that the difference between a thin layer and nothing at all could be the deciding factor for whether you run with or without ITBS?

 

[fetish4running]

I was wondering the same

I was wondering the same thing, TJ. I find it fascinating that a thin little layer of rubber can make such a big difference.

 

[Jimmy Hart]

 the only thing you can point

the only thing you can point to is the change in sensory feedback changing the form just enough to upset something that is obviously easily upset in their bodies. the IT band is a querky little grouping and for some it is very easily bothered. i have seen a lot of people get great results from a muscle therapy called MAT, Muscle Activation Therapy. I practice it with some of my clients and they have seen their itbs all but disappear.

the problem is that after a muscle is abused for an extended period of time it has a tendency to shut down and just turn off. this is the body's way of letting you know enough is enough and you get pain in response to your efforts. we as humans are very stubborn and just try to push through it thinking that strengthening, stretching, or any other method of training will eventually get us through it but it wont. MAT is a physical awakening of the muscle through systematic palpating the muscles that weak or shut down and it works great. it's not cheap and it can hurt quite a bit while you're being worked on but the minute you get off the table you can tell a difference.

i would point to those issues as the problem for you two guys. the repetitions in the shoes shut down and irritated your IT bands and now they are really easy to upset again. getting them active again would go a long way to helping that problem though.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Thanks for that, Jimmy.  Very

Thanks for that, Jimmy. Very insightful. I would wonder if reflexology would/could have anything to do with their recovering (without shoes).

 

[Barefoot Gentile]

TJ: I have wondered the

TJ: I have wondered the same. Maybe my form was a bit off when I ran in Vibrams, and going barefoot completely makes me run the right way? I really don't know.



Jimmy: I should of pointed out that I also started doing hip strengthening exercises. I did that little test of standing on one leg and bending the knee. I noticed my right knee (the one with the IT problem) did bend in a little. I did the foam roller like a mad man but never saw any postive results from it. Once I started the hip strengthening exercises, the the IT band did improve.

I also have one of those elastic rubber straps and do various leg lifts with that. I really can feel the hips and the side of legs working when I do that. But before I started the hip exercises I still did notice an improvement with my IT band when I ran barefoot.

 

[jschwab]

I have superskinny thighs and

I have superskinny thighs and hips so I notice any new muscle in that area right away for aesthetic reasons and running barefoot really increased the muscle mass around my hips before I started doing hip strengthening exercises (I couldn't do any specific hip excercises due to injury for awhile). It really made a difference. I have IT band issues (minor ones) in the side affected by my injury where the weakness is but not in the other side. It's all been greatly inproved by going bare.

 

[capmikee]

I don't know if I have ITBS,

I don't know if I have ITBS, but I've had plenty of pain in my right knee when running. I started out in stability shoes and then moved on to the Vibrams, but the pain persisted. I was out on a 7-mile run with my wife and 3 miles into it, I just had to take them off. I barely managed to finish the run, but I couldn't have gone another step without taking them off.

There's something about the VFFs that makes me even more aware of the disconnect between feet and ground than regular shoes do. I also seem to "skid" in them.

Even going barefoot, I've still had occasional problems with my knee. Most often when going at a slower pace.

That MAT sounds like it has a similar philosophy to acupuncture, which aims to stimulate the parasympathetic "rest and digest" nervous system and give the sympathetic "fight or flight" system a break.

 

[Jimmy Hart]

 lots to cover hereAdam the

lots to cover here

Adam the foam roller is highly over used and for the wrong things. the foam roller is designed to relieve muscular adhesions. these are small lumps or hard spots that develop in the muscle due to inflammation like the kind caused from constant exercise stress. the foam roll should be a slow motion over the muscle with stops on the most painful spots that last about 20 seconds before moving on. most people i see rolling just move up and down the muscle which really wont do much other than give it a light massage. foam rolling will not activate a dormant muscle though so like in your case...it wont really help all that much.

capmikee you make a good point but the two systems are completely different in execution. acupuncture deals with nerves where MAT targets muscles and tissue. both have similar goals for the most part but on different systems in different ways.

jschwab, adam, and everyone else when you have a joint pain it almost always connected to a muscular issue somewhere in your kinetic chain. take adam's example of his itbs not getting better until he did some movement testing and found a weakness in his muscular system. strengthening his hips created a solution to the problem. the body is extremely complex but really simple at the same time. just go back to the old kids song. the foot bone's connected to the shin bone...etc. everything in the body is connected to something else and it all works together and against itself to keep everything in balance. get one muscle stronger than its opposition and you create an imbalance. something gets too tight and forces its counter to become loose and you create an imbalance that will eventually lead to pain and/or injury.

your goal should be to have your entire body completely balanced and equal. sounds easy enough right?

 

[Barefoot Gentile]

Right!   I love your input

Right! I love your input Jimmy, good to have you around here to break things down. You are right about the foam roller, I would say most people do it competely wrong, me included until I was taught the right way.

I was going to PT for a bit, and he showed me how to use the foam exactly how you described it.

 

[jschwab]

Considering I tore my ab

Considering I tore my ab mucle away from the bone, it doesn't surprise me I have lingering imbalances. I work on them twice a week with adjustments and ART. That and barefooting have helped me heal from a "100% surgery necessary injury". Most help came from postural adjustments targeting my neck, far away from the actual injury site because, yes, everything IS connected.

 

[Cozmos74]

 Hey TJ,I think the

Hey TJ,

I think the difference is that running totally BF enforces correct form. Every stride we take we have to be aware of protecting our feet. So when we protect our feet then it might follow that the kinetics through the whole action are less likely to cause injury or pain anywhere else.

I also have to confess to a crime; I have taken to ultra distance running with a passion and while it is no problem to run all day on the lovely surfaces with BF or Vibrams, I have to admit that running the mountain trails out here is impossible in BF or any other minimalist shoes. I tried the EVOs out but they are not so good.

Anyone have any ideas?

Keep on running

Coz

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Have you tried the Vibram

Have you tried the Vibram FiveFinger Treks yet? They're supposed to be just for trail running. The tread looks really grippy.

 

[Cozmos74]

 I have considered them but

I have considered them but as yet have not bought any. Actually I totally forgot! Thanks TJ

 

[Barefoot Mary]

Also sandals are really super

Also sandals are really super popular with barefoot trail runners right now. Barefoot Burt swears by them and he's Mr. 70-miles-a-week.

Luna Sandals: http://www.lunasandals.com/

And Invisible shoes (the cheaper option): http://www.invisibleshoe.com/

It's a very non-evasive footwear. "Shoes as tools" in the biggest way!

 

[nature runner]

As far as trail running, all

As far as trail running, all I have done pretty much with a few exceptions is trail running. For me barefoot is the most awesome way to run. There's nothing like bf trail running. I use vff's on pavement because of MT in my right foot. Running bare on trails is my favorite though. My trails here are thinking trails, you have to memorize certain parts of it as not to get into trouble. Some parts are rocky, but certain parts of the rocky are doable barefoot. You got to memorize those parts and then just go wide open!

 

[Cozmos74]

Hi Nature Runner,I really

Hi Nature Runner,

I really wish I could run on the trails around here totally BF. Reading the threads from the US makes me wonder if it is just that the trails around here are made of really gnarly rocks and such, or it is just that I have soft feet.

I swear there are some parts of trails that you could do BF, but generally speaking they are ROUGH as anything. Even coming back from a 30km trail run (I think this is about 18mi) my feet feel punished through the VFFs.

I would love any suggestions you could offer up, however, memorising trails is not really an option due to distance and variety. Also I can't remember anything beyond yesterday

Cheers

Cozzie