FitFeat

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Posts Tagged barefoot running

Built To Run, Even If You Don’t

Feb 25

Posted by Shari B. in Keeping Fit | 8 Comments

So I mentioned yesterday that I’d started the post about Born to Run by Christopher McDougall.

I’ve had a complete mental block about writing my thoughts for this book.  I’ve procrastinated nonstop.  And to be honest even after all this time, I still haven’t finished the last chapter. (I started this book in early January!)

I have this book in audio version on my iPod.  I’ve also borrowed the hard copy from the library.  Twice.

The book obviously hit home with me on a few levels, as it convinced me to start barefoot running and I have been raving about this type of running to all who’ll listen.  I now own my own Vibram FiveFingers, MSP just got a pair (they arrived last night) and my friend Scott also got a pair.  One of my coworkers has been running in his socks now on his treadmill thanks to all my raving!

But something about the book as a WHOLE did not grab me.  The chapters alternate between telling the story of the Tarahumara people (who are really fantastic runners) and the story of author’s own experience with trying to heal some running injuries and his journey to barefoot running.   I found the flip-flopping between the two stories caused me to lose interest.  I think I was looking for more of a “how to” and “why” for barefoot running, and less “play by play” commentating on the ultramarathons he attended.

I don’t feel I’d give a fair review if I tried simply because I’ve started and stopped so many times.  So I’ll tell you what I liked about it.

Overall, I do think it’s worth reading if you have any interest in barefoot running OR interest in running for the JOY of it. I thoroughly enjoyed the ’scientific’ chapters.   The gist of it is that as humans we truly are built to RUN.  Our bodies have evolved to make us good runners.  And there’s a lot of discussion about how with all of today’s fancy shoe technology, we’ve basically weakened the supportive structure of our feet and lower legs.

My favorite part of the book comes in chapter 25 when the author is discussing said technological advances in fancy running shoes:

… the impact on your legs from running can be up to twelve times your body weight so it’s preposterous to believe a half inch of rubber is going to make a bit of difference… You can cover an egg with an oven mitt before rapping it with a hammer, but that egg ain’t coming out alive.

Of all the words in the book, THAT is what stuck with me!  :) Not only did it make me laugh out loud, it really gave me something to think about.  Changing my footstrike to lessen shock of impact for one.  The fact that I don’t need $110 Nike SHOX.   Also, that I don’t need to get new running shoes every 300-500 miles.  I even dug out an OLD pair of worn trail shoes for the last long run we did, because I wanted LESS support so that I could run a bit more like I would if I was barefootin’ it.

Like the Tarahumara, run for the fun of it.  Stop worrying about what your numbers are, how fast you’re running, etc.  Basically slow down and smell the roses.  (Don’t stop and smell the roses, because then you aren’t RUNNING anymore!)

My most enjoyable runs are those where I’m focused on chatting with my running pals and the scenery around me, and less on keeping a certain pace.  Which is why training for a long event like a marathon is troublesome for me (but that’s a whole other post for sure!)

If you’d like to learn more about barefoot running, here are some links to articles and sites I’ve enjoyed.

Harvard University Footstrike Studies and Videos

Wired Article:  To Run Better, Start by Ditching Your Nikes

WebMD Article on Barefoot Running

TrueSlant/Running Shorts Blog Article by Matt Frazier of No Meat Athlete (one of my fave blogs)

If you are currently a runner (or if you’re not and want to start), I’d like to challenge you to grab a pair of old socks that you don’t mind getting filthy and run on the treadmill.  Notice how your gait changes in order to land softly.  Then try to tell me you didn’t have a little grin on your face!  I think it’s hard not to feel childlike when I’m running around without ‘real’ shoes on!

(Trust me when I say START SMALL!  You WILL feel your calves so keep the mileage low at first!)  Then come back here to FitFeat and tell us how it went!  :D

Have a fantastic day friends!  Make it a FIT one!

– Shari B. =)

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13 Weeks Till 26.2

Feb 15

Posted by Shari B. in Marathon Training | 9 Comments

Hi blog buds!

I hope everyone had a lovely weekend whether or not you were celebrating Valentine’s Day.  And a happy Presidents Day to you today, especially those of you who get the day off of work!  Guess what else it is?

It’s Marathon Monday!

We are 13 weeks away from the marathon.  Our planned long run for this weekend was 12 miles.

It occurred to me as I was getting ready Saturday morning that I’m a little neurotic when it comes to getting out the door for a run.   As you may or may not know, I’m a bit of an overplanner (remember when I was packing for my Michigan RV trip?)  I would love to be that person that just decides to take off running willy nilly when I feel like it.  But I’m not.  I have to plan for it.

You’ve read previously in my blog that a 90 minute rule works best for me before a run.  Which means that I have to eat any pre-run food no later than 90 minutes before.  Any closer and I get a crazy cramp in my lower left abdominal area that hurts so bad I can barely walk let alone jog.   Our start time this Saturday was 8:00 AM, so at 6:30 on the dot, I ate.  This time an Ezekial english muffin rather than Ezekial toast:

After getting dressed in my gear, it’s time to pack!  I have a little post-it note ‘checklist‘ that I keep because inevitably I will walk out the door without something, especially that early in the morning.  This week, without my handy note, I would have actually left without my Camelbak of all things!

Here’s the pile of stuff:

Crazy, huh? Questions for my running readers:   Do you do that when you have a long run planned?  Or are you a “roll-out of bed and hit the pavement” kind of runner?

When deciding what jacket(s) to wear, I checked the indoor/outdoor thermometer.  I can’t remember the last time I was so EXCITED to see 30+ degrees outside!  All of our training runs so far have been started in weather around 17 degrees!  This meant I wouldn’t have to worry about my water freezing in my hydration pack.

After last week’s unhappy knees, I made a few adjustments for this run:

1.) I wore a different pair of shoes.

After learning more about barefoot running and the importance of LESS support for your feet, I chose to wear my beat-up old trail runners that don’t have much tread left on the bottom in hopes that this would force me more onto the balls of my feet much like I am in my VFFs.

2.) I brought back an old technique that I sometimes used when I trained for my first half-marathon in 2004:  run a mile, walk a minute.

This strategy allows you to still build conditioning for the distance, but eliminates some of the fatigue your leg muscles will experience.  I’ve always liked this training method because it makes a long run more of an ‘interval’ workout for me when I know it’s broken into mile segments, so mentally I find it easier.  From a speed standpoint, we’ve been averaging 10 minute miles on our long training runs.  You would think adding these walk breaks in would slow us down to 11 minute miles, but it didn’t.  We averaged a 10:20 pace this week!  So when we were running, we were running FASTER.

3.) I iced my knees in the car on the way home from the run.

I didn’t have frozen peas, so frozen EDAMAME had to do the trick.  :)   And I had to pack them in a thermal lunchbox with an icepack to keep them frozen!

4.) I kept moving as the day went on.

Last week I was exhausted and just wanted to stay off my feet, so I caught up on some reading.  Unfortunately I think this allowed my legs to really tighten up.  So this time while I was pretty beat, I made sure that I kept busy and kept my legs moving.  We ran errands, went to Costco, and did some chores around the house.

***

Fuel during the run: 2/3 of a Coconut Cream Pie Larabar at the 5.55 mile mark.

Immediately following the run, while stretching: coconut water, glutamine recovery drink and a banana, plus a ginger root capsule for inflammation

Post-workout meal: vegetarian chili with red quinoa, spinach and nutritional yeast.

The outcome of the adjustments this week: My knees were a little sore directly following the run, then more sore later in the day, but almost back to normal on Sunday.  Whereas last week, I was still hobbled on Sunday.  So that’s a huge plus.  I also didn’t feel extremely sleepy as I had the previous week.   The bottoms of my feet didn’t feel ‘raw’ and I didn’t have any blisters.  So all in all I’m very pleased with how this long run went.

What’s a little daunting from here on out is knowing that all of our long runs will be more distance than a half-marathon.  Yikes.  I’m looking forward to 14 miles, because up until now I’ve only run half-marathons, so 13.1 has been the cap on my distance.  It will be fun to surpass that.  (I say “fun” now – let’s see what I say when I’m actually RUNNING it that day!) ;) This is where you dig a little deeper and remind yourself that you chose this goal for a reason and get EXCITED!

***

Don’t forget that we have FLEX-IT FRIDAY coming up this week, so get your ab shots in to my by Thursday afternoon!

Have a MAGNIFICENT Monday!  See you next time!

– Shari B. =)

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Well Hello Vibrams, We Meet Again

Feb 5

Posted by Shari B. in Marathon Training | 10 Comments

Oh yes, it’s Friday!  I’m so excited for the weekend!  It’s packed with plans: MSP is taking me out tonight for Birthday Fondue, I have an e-a-r-l-y 10 mile run planned for tomorrow morning, and a SuperBowl party on Sunday.  The weekend will be a blast and will probably FLY BY!

Lookie lookie what showed up yesterday!

My Vibrams are here! Weeeeeeee!  Aren’t they funny?  This pair fit PERFECTLY!  I wore them to the grocery store and Goodwill.  I didn’t notice anyone looking at me like I’m some kind of fool yet, but I may have been keeping my head bent low under my hat.  :)

I’ve been torturing my dogs with them. Riley can’t get enough sniffing:

And Rascal thinks they are some sort of strange playmate and keeps slapping his front paws down and wiggling his tail in an effort to engage this new friend in a game:

So far I’m LOVING them.  I wore them around for about 4 hours yesterday.  Some of that time included running 2.25 miles.  We’ll see how the calves feel later today – I hope I haven’t made them insanely sore for tomorrow’s long run!  :) (Which will be done in my regular running shoes, NOT these.  You are supposed to wear these for 1-2 hours a day while your muscles, tendons and ligaments get used to them.  Obviously I’m already bending the rules, but I’m not crazy enough to try 10 in them – yet.)

I will say that running in them on the treadmill was a vast improvement over running in my socks or even sockless.  I’m DYING to get outside with them to see what it’s like on the trails.  Maybe Sunday if my legs aren’t fried from tomorrow’s run.

A definite plus:  if you are feeling bored with running, this gives you a whole new reason to be excited about it!

I’m off to get in an upper body workout before the work day starts.

Which team are you rooting for this weekend in the SuperBowl? Since neither the Broncos nor the Steelers made it far enough, I don’t really have a favorite.  But I at least try to root for an AFC team, so I guess I’ll be cheering on Colts.  What I WON’T be cheering about is the halftime show.  The WHO?  Really?  Damn you Janet and Justin for forever messing up fun and edgy halftime shows!  That was the last good one!

Have a FABULOUS Friday!

– Shari B. =)

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There’s a Fire Up in Here

Jan 29

Posted by Shari B. in Marathon Training | 10 Comments

Good morning and HAPPY FRIDAY friends!  Wahoo!  TGITW (Thank goodness it’s the weekend!)

Sorry to disappear on you yesterday.  Tues/Thurs are my BIZ-EEEE days and I had two additional pieces of fun in my Thursday that kept me away from the computer.

One was a visit from one of my all time best buds after she got off of work, where we polished off about 3/4 bottle of our favorite Riesling and jibber-jabbered non-stop for two and a half hours.  It was such a wonderful time.

The other exciting thing on Thursday was my little brother and his wife welcomed their second baby into the world!  Unfortunately I live 1300 miles from them, so I won’t be seeing Baby #2 anytime soon.  Thank goodness for webcams!  :)   I was really hoping the new baby would wait until next Wednesday so that we could share a birthday, but she must have been in a hurry to meet her big sister sooner!

Speaking of birthday, MSP wanted to share with me what my gift would be a little early because it would require some ‘trying on for size’ before he could order the actual gift.  That got me curious!

In addition to reading “Born to Run“ currently, Matt from No Meat Athlete has inspired me to want to give barefoot running a go.

MSP heard that and decided to gift me with some VIbram Five Fingers!  SO EXCITED!!!

Image from Vibram FiveFingers

In anticipation of the arrival of my new fitness ‘gadgets’ I decided to get a head start on Wednesday.  Barefoot running is something you must start SLOWLY because all that running around in my fancy Nike SHOX will have changed my gait and most likely weakened some of the supportive structure of my lower legs and feet.

I did intervals of a different sort on the treadmill this time:  shoes on, shoes off, socks on, socks off, shoes and socks back on, shoes off, etc.

I did 3 miles, about two of which were ’shoeless’.

OK, first:  holy calves of fire, Batman!  Not so much DURING as much as the days following.  I have some DOMS going on in my calves the way I figure I would if I did 1000 sets of heavy calf raises.  You should see me trying to walk DOWN a set of stairs.  Comical.

Second, it was so FUN!  You feel so much ‘lighter’ on your feet, almost springy because it truly forces you into a completely different gait.  Apparently I’m a heavy ‘heel-slapper’ in shoes and that just won’t work barefoot.  You need to be more onto the balls of your feet, while still letting your heels come down lightly.

Afterward, I did about 15 minutes of deep yoga stretching because I knew my legs were going to need it.

Then yesterday I did another 30 minutes of yoga, including a LOT of downward dogs to hit those calves a bit.

I won’t be using my new “unshoes” during the marathon, because I don’t think there’s enough time to safely transition to that distance.  But I definitely plan to use them as much as my calves will allow during my shorter training runs.  Maybe the marathon after this one… ;)

And I have to give props to our good friend Bo, because he had FiveFingers YEARS ago before they were trendy.  And I think I remember teasing him about his crazy looking shoes. :)   Bo, I’m eating my words now and you can tease me all you want to get me back!  ;)

Today’s question:  Any barefoot running ‘aficionados’ out there? Read “Born to Run”?

Friends, have a FANTASTIC Friday!  I’ll be back tomorrow sometime after my 9 MILE training run.  I really hope my calves stop crying before I head out or it will be a L-O-N-G 9 miles…

– Shari B. =)

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