After my 8 mile trail run yesterday, and also after my trail Half in April 2012, I have reconsidered running in shoes. While the parts of the trail that are packed dirt with a cushion of dry leaves, cool mud, etc. are extremely pleasant to run on, the parts that are rocky or gravel cause enough bruising on my arches to make me want to strap something on my feet. I actually had my Bikilas strapped to my water belt just in case but I didn't "really" need them. I probably would have been faster and not having to walk gingerly today if I had put them on. My legs had miles left on them but my soles did not.
For those of you that run trails, especially technical trails, what do you run in? Do you train with a mix of barefoot and minimalist shoes? Would it be potentially harmful to do all my weekday roadrunning barefoot and my weekend trail runs in minimalist shoes? I have 2 Half-Marathon road races planned in October & November (that I'll have no problem doing barefoot) and Big Sur in April 2014 but outside of that I would like to focus on trail races- Halfs, Fulls, and eventually Ultras. I truly enjoy barefoot running- 100% of the time on roads and 75% of the time on trails.
I know I've talked about this before but humor me!
For those of you that run trails, especially technical trails, what do you run in? Do you train with a mix of barefoot and minimalist shoes? Would it be potentially harmful to do all my weekday roadrunning barefoot and my weekend trail runs in minimalist shoes? I have 2 Half-Marathon road races planned in October & November (that I'll have no problem doing barefoot) and Big Sur in April 2014 but outside of that I would like to focus on trail races- Halfs, Fulls, and eventually Ultras. I truly enjoy barefoot running- 100% of the time on roads and 75% of the time on trails.
I know I've talked about this before but humor me!