Published by RunningPoint on Wednesday, 02 Mar 2011 10:45 EST
I realized yesterday while writing my Back to Barefoot article that it may be interesting to some of you to read how and why I started running barefoot. As I have mentioned previously, I have had a pretty long relationship with running. It has most certainly been on again, off again over the years but every time I return to running I always wonder why I ever stopped the last time.
My first experience with running began 11 years ago. I was young and living on my own, and had just gotten my first real desk job. In the past, I had always had an active and physically taxing outdoor job which required no exercise outside of the workplace. The desk job was a total culture shock and I slipped into a pattern of sedentary work and copious amounts of snacking. One morning, I found that my pants were uncomfortably tight and decided that something had to be done. I was at my heaviest, roughly 220 lbs on a 5'-10" frame with my 36 waist 29 inch inseam pants cutting me in half. My father turned to running when I was a small child to shed a few pounds, and I figured if it worked for him why not give it a try. I went to the local mall and found the highest priced pair of Nike running shoes that were on the best sale and bought them (this is a habit that I continued until I started to learn about minimal shoe running, but I don't want to get ahead of myself). I usually set a goal of $50 maximum price price to pay for shoes. I started slow and ended up becoming a daily runner. Over a few years, I shed 50 total pounds and never felt better.
Published by RunningPoint on Tuesday, 01 Mar 2011 14:20 EST
After a long cold winter of running in shoes, I am ready to start back running "barefoot". I started my transition from traditional running shoes to barefoot running last summer and was sidelined by both weather and a stupid injury late in the fall.
I had the unfortunate skill of stepping on sharp rocks with my left foot only, and always in the same spot at the uppermost part of my arch. I decided foolishly that this was a normal part of barefoot running (not actually barefoot by the way, but wearing huaraches) and that I had to condition myself to deal with it.
On that last fateful run, nothing went right. The run ended early when a sudden and intense new pain shot through my left foot and I was left walking/limping back to the car. After a painful month of recovery from what I think was a metatarsal stress fracture, I decided to ease back into running and bought a pair of Saucony Kinvaras and a pair of Brooks Mach 11 spikeless XC flats. I had read reviews on both and consulted a local running specialty store and decided that the Kinvaras would be a great minimal shoe that was padded, and that the Brooks would be a good minimal shoe to ease back to barefoot running.
Published by RunningPoint on Friday, 25 Feb 2011 13:25 EST
Here's a great video from the Natural Running Store on some quick easy changes to make you a more efficient runner and to help you transition to a minimal shoe or barefoot running. I love the huge change from before to after. Also, thanks to Altra Running for posting the video as part of their Learn To Run Initiative.