Heyyyy everyone! How’s your Sunday going? Mine’s good.. I’m thrilled with the response to my Unstuff This Turkey challenge! You all rock!

I have a special treat for you today! Matt from The Kitchen of the Runner is here to tell us about his barefoot running story…take it away, Matt!

I’ve been running for around 3 years, but only recently have I gotten into barefoot running. Recently meaning a week ago

I’ve always wanted to try it, especially after reading the book Born to Run.

It was just such a fascinating story about the people of the Tarahumara, a tribe of people living in the Copper River Mountains that is located in Mexico. The best part was that they could run 50-100 miles at a time EASILY.

So what is their secret?

Simple. They run barefoot.

When I first started reading about barefoot running, I thought it was the craziest idea ever.

Aren’t shoes meant to help support our bodies and help us run?

Unfortunately, and this is only my opinion, shoes actually cause more problems than they help fix. After reading the scientific facts about how our bodies are most efficient running in their natural state (barefoot) I vowed to give it a shot.

It took me about three months to finally give it a go, but this week I have been determined to dive into the world of barefoot running.

For the past few weeks, I have been experiencing some IT band pain that has severely limited my running. At first, I assumed the issue was overuse (I run quite a bit), but I really don’t think that is the problem anymore. I have been reading about a few other bloggers who run barefoot, mainly Abby and Teri, and they have claimed that barefoot has helped their injuries.

Since I am willing to try anything to get rid of this pain (and I have wanted to try barefoot running anyways), I picked up a pair of Vibrams.

I started out by walking in them. Over the course of Saturday and Sunday, I probably walked about 10 miles.

My knee felt great! I didn’t have any pain at all and walking even felt a lot smoother.

On Monday, I gave running a shot and started with .75 miles. Again, no knee pain

My calves on the other hand, that is a completely different story. They felt like they were working overtime! I’ve read that this is normal though as my body adjusts to running without shoes.

Here is my initial reaction to barefoot running:

• My feet feel a lot lighter and running feels easier.
• My stride feels a lot smoother.
• My knee doesn’t hurt.
• My feet and calves feel like they are working overtime.

Since I have only been running barefoot for about a week, I am hoping that Abby will let me do another post in a few weeks?

 

What do you think?

For now, I am sold on barefoot running. I can’t wait to start building up my mileage!

Thanks, Matt! Guys, if you haven’t been to Matt’s site, you NEED to. His recipes are amazing. He posted a recipe for pumpkin black bean quesadillas and drooled all over my laptop. I can’t wait to make them! You can also follow him on Twitter.

If you would like to submit your own barefoot story, email me at abby.normally.blog(at)gmail.com. I post a new story every Sunday!

Miss the other stories? Read them now:

Melyssa’s Story
Tom’s Story
Sara’s Story

The Bare{foot} Essentials Series:

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