Hey, hey, hey!

Dave and I are going through some things and trying to pinch pennies. One expense that was cut was Comcast! That means no cable or internet! Gasp! How ever will I live?

All of this to say that my posts and social networking visibility might be inconsistent for the next month. But I promise to make a good use of my lunch break and catch up with yinz and what is going on in your lives! You all are like family to me, you know that?!

Well, today I have another Barefoot Running story from Tom, who is a reader. When I put out the call for barefoot stories, Tom wasted no time in sending me his. I’m so thankful for this story because I think it’s very real and also extremely informative. If you’ve suffered a running injury and are contemplating barefoot or minimalist running, you have to read this! Take it away, Tom!!

Earlier in 2010 I suffered from a knee injury – at the time I was convinced that it was from poor running form and overuse.  I traditionally have run in Brooks and for the last year it has been the Adrenaline GTS 9.  As I went through my recovery, I suffered all sorts of emotions.  I was sidelined from running for approximately 1 month – I would drive down the road and see others out for their afternoon runs and I was jealous.  Envy would set it, and usually it was followed by depression.

During this down time, several things happened at once – I began reading "Born To Run"; I noticed these strange looking "shoes" that some people were wearing, and – I happened upon Abby Normally!  I think Abby had just received her VFF’s and was putting together a plan on how to start training.

I figured that since I was basically starting over (the doctor told me that I should literally go back to running for 60 seconds, walking for 60 seconds) I would give them a try.  This started the great VFF search – nobody had them, nobody had plans to get them and if they were going to get them, they weren’t interested in taking my name and calling me.  Here’s where the beauty of Facebook came into play – one of the local stores had a page that I happened to have "liked" – they posted one day that they had just received a shipment of various VFF’s – I ran over at lunch and picked up a pair of KSO’s in camoflauge – absolutely the ugliest thing I’ve ever seen.

With all of my new found internet knowledge on barefoot/minimalist running, I set out to see what I could make of it.  I started slowly – maybe 100 yards at a time at the middle school track.  The first few attempts were no more than 1 mile and my body was not happy – I could hardly walk as my calves weren’t having any of this activity.  I stuck to the VFF’s exclusively for 1 month and built up to approximately a 5K distance non stop.

My initial reactions were that this was great – I wasn’t suffering from any knee pain, it felt very natural and once that initial calf pain was gone, I was feeling great.  Around this time I was about to run my first triathlon and was worried about transitioning to the VFF’s off of the bike.  With the KSO’s, it takes me a while to get into them.  I decided that I’d do the tri in my Brooks and went on to finish in a respectable time.

As early August came around, I was finding that the VFF’s were giving me some hot spots (mostly on the ball of the foot) from the heat of the roads and track.  Knowing that I was about to start marathon training (I’m doing my first marathon in December- Thunder Road here in Charlotte, NC), I had to make a decision – attempt to run my first marathon, only 4 months away, in VFF’s or go back to the Brooks.  I decided to go back to the Brooks, get through the marathon and then spend the winter cutting over permanently to the VFF’s.  I am running the Myrtle Beach half in February (delayed from my attempt last year when it was canceled due to snow) – my goal is to run that 13.1 minimalist and then make a final decision as to how to proceed.

I run now once per week in the VFF’s – usually my Tuesday run as it’s a recovery run from the weekend.  I do no less than 3 miles in them each time and it’s working well.  I almost feel as if it’s a good cross training event for the marathon, exercising some alternative muscle groups.

BTW – regarding the knee injury – many people will tell you that switching to barefoot or minimalist will stop you from getting injured.  I was one of these people – once I went to the VFF’s and the knee pain was gone, I was convinced.  Well, 1 month ago I started hitting the pool again – I want to do more tri’s next year and need to build up my swimming.  Shortly after starting up in the pool, I felt that same knee pain coming back.  It turns out that I am a horrible swimmer – I will freestyle for a short time, get lazy and start doing some crazy side-kick thing that I invented.  That side-kick motion is what killed my knee – not running in my Brooks.  As soon as I realized it, I stopped swimming and the pain immediately went away.  You readers should understand that barefoot/minimalist is not a magic pill for stopping injury – there are so many other things involved – sometimes you’ve got to do some self diagnostics and figure out what really is causing the pain.

Thanks so much, Tom!!! I can totally relate to switching between VFF’s and Brooks. Best of luck in your marathon this year! Please keep us posted! And I will be really anxious to hear about your half marathon in Febrary!!

If you have a barefoot/minimalist running story that you would like to share, feel free to send it to me at abby.normally.blog(at)gmail.com. I love hearing from you!

Do you, like Tom, ever have difficulty deciding what shoes to wear for races? I do! And have you ever had an injury and thought it was from running only to discover something else was the cause?

Did you miss Melyssa’s story? Check it out!

The Bare{foot} Essentials I
The Bare{foot} Essentials II
The Bare{foot} Essentials III
The Bare{foot} Essentials IV
The Bare{foot} Essentials V
The Bare{foot} Essentials VI
The Bare{foot} Essentials VII
The Bare{foot} Essentials IX
The Bare{foot} Essentials X
The Bare{foot} Essentials XI
The Bare{foot} Essentials XII
The Bare{foot} Essentials XIII