Barefoot Bit: The Runs

I completed my first week of my barefoot transition plan! I did it only twice because of a lack of time, but I would have liked to have run once more, but whatcha gonna do?

First run: 1 min run, 1 min walk X 10 (20 minutes)
Total distance: 1.91 miles.

Second run: 1 min run, 1 min walk X 10 (20 minutes)
Total distance: 1.70 miles.

Thoughts?

First of all, I LOVE it, but it’s so different! If you are only concerned with mileage and speed, this might not be for. In his book Barefoot Running, Michael Sandler says that you have to go slow to go fast. That’s true because running without any support hurts at first.

Another thing that I learned is that I have to pay attention. I started seriously running the summer that my older brother was at his sickest and running became my escape. It was my time to think about everything and nothing simultaneously. Recalling my best runs in the past, those are the runs where I totally zone out and lose miles. 8 miles later, I’m thinking, wow! that was great!

Not so with barefoot running. You have to be totally aware of the road, your feet and your form or else you are asking for trouble. Even during my 1 minute interval walk breaks, If I wasn’t paying attention, I’d trip over my big toes. At the very end of my second run, I lost focus and tripped and am SO thankful that I didn’t break my foot, because I easily could have. PAY ATTENTION and KEEP YOUR FEET UP!

In order to teach my body proper form, I removed my Vibram FiveFingers and ran nekkid for a cycle or two. When you are totally barefoot, you don’t do things like drag your feet or trip over your pesky toes.

However, that focus that is so hard to keep now is something that will come with practice. In the future the focus will come natural or my form will be correct and I won’t need that focus to stay upright.

When I’m not running, my feet are sore and they ache—but don’t worry, I know bad pain and this isn’t it. I’m using muscles that I haven’t used for most of my life. You know how you feel after a new workout? Yea, that’s how my feet and ankles feel. My calves felt like that for awhile too, but they aren’t sore anymore.

I’m looking forward to my next week of training!!!

Barefoot Bit: The Human Foot

Despite my absolute disgust in feet, the more I study barefoot running, the more I realize how amazing our feet are.

There are 26-28 bones (everyone varies), and 30 joints in the human foot. Those are all supported by over 100 muscles, tendons and ligaments. Those bones and soft tissue are designed to withstand the impact and disperse it throughout your foot (note: this is why we pronate). You knees and hips do not have that kind of shock absorber, so when we receive impact to those joints, the bones and cartilage take that impact even though they are not designed to do so.

So what do running shoes do? Nothing. Well, nothing good. The natural pronation of your foot is inhibited by running shoes. And, for the most part, that thick heel in running shoes causes runners to hit heel first instead of mid or forefoot first. When we heel strike, the impact is not absorbed by our feet, instead is transferred up the leg to knee. I knew of this but didn’t realize how serious it was until I was walking down a steep hill in my FiveFingers. When I landed on my forefoot, I felt no jolt or impact at all. So I tried landing heel first. Not only did I feel it in my knee, but the muscle groups directly above my knees shook from the impact. Crazy, huh?

The strongest structure in the foot is the arch. The arch has a reputation for getting stronger the more impact or stress it receives. Think of our body weight as that stress on the arch in our feet. Now, consider running shoes…what do they do? They put support underneath the arch. Any engineer or architect can tell you that that weakens the arch and that is just what we’re doing when we’re doing when we put on our shoes.

Another aspect of the foot is all of the nerve endings on the underfoot (who has ticklish feet?!). Your foot is wired directly to your brain to let you know if you’re walking on something you shouldn’t and gives you immediate information to change your stride or the way you’re stepping. That inch of rubber on the bottom of running stops this kind of communication altogether. It is no surprise that when running in shoes, you hit the ground with 3 times more force than when running barefoot.

Basically, the more I’m learning about feet, the more I see that traditional running shoes inhibit the body’s natural functions and cause, not prevent, the common running injuries.

In Born to Run, there is a chapter devoted to the anatomy of humans that proves our innate ability to run long distances.

They say we evolved to be runners.

I disagree.

I think it’s more powerful than that.

We are created to be runners.

Our anatomy is not happenstance, it is purposeful.

To waste it or use it improperly is an insult to our Creator.

****I’m going to try to post The Bare{foot} Essentials once a week and update you on my runs and on what I am learning about barefoot running. Stay tuned!

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