My last posting (November last year I think) was about my entry into the barefoot running world. I had to put on my five fingers when the snow came in December, but as soon the snow went away in Mars I have been running completely barefoot. I has taken time to adjust to barefoot running, but at last, I made my first 10K barefoot 3 weeks ago on asphalt, and it felt so good !
Why do I run barefoot ? I suppose you havn't missed the debate in media...It has made me relearn running, and forced me to run as I'm supposed to do. In addition, it strengthens the feet, ankles, knees and hips. I had to realize that I have been running with wrong technique for the last 30 years...
Here is my last run, from yesterday, barefoot on gravel: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192988140
Here are some pics from my Sunday run in the same area:
As you old blog readers might recall, I had problems with my hip and piriformis. I got some really good exercises from my new coach which has 1) made my hip and piriformis problems go away and 2) made me able to run faster with better running economy. (Mr L: these exercises are completely different to those I showed you last year)
My new coach also made me realize that I should be careful running too much barefoot, and also run with normal running shoes. (very difficult for me to accept as I got so absorbed by pure barefoot running) Both techniques complement each other because it adds a sound variation for the muscels. He also convinced me that barefoot running has some risks and for those reasons, running with shoes now and then will minimize the risks and also enable me to run more km's.
It feels that I now have a good base to actually begin aiming for a race, like a halv marathon to begin with. We will see how the summer goes, maybe Oslo halfmarathon or something will be achievable.
Wish you all a nice summer !
Why do I run barefoot ? I suppose you havn't missed the debate in media...It has made me relearn running, and forced me to run as I'm supposed to do. In addition, it strengthens the feet, ankles, knees and hips. I had to realize that I have been running with wrong technique for the last 30 years...
Here is my last run, from yesterday, barefoot on gravel: http://connect.garmin.com/activity/192988140
Here are some pics from my Sunday run in the same area:
As you old blog readers might recall, I had problems with my hip and piriformis. I got some really good exercises from my new coach which has 1) made my hip and piriformis problems go away and 2) made me able to run faster with better running economy. (Mr L: these exercises are completely different to those I showed you last year)
My new coach also made me realize that I should be careful running too much barefoot, and also run with normal running shoes. (very difficult for me to accept as I got so absorbed by pure barefoot running) Both techniques complement each other because it adds a sound variation for the muscels. He also convinced me that barefoot running has some risks and for those reasons, running with shoes now and then will minimize the risks and also enable me to run more km's.
It feels that I now have a good base to actually begin aiming for a race, like a halv marathon to begin with. We will see how the summer goes, maybe Oslo halfmarathon or something will be achievable.
Wish you all a nice summer !
Hi W ! Cool, so great to hear that you have now a good base (and also a good Coach I guess). Just let us know if & when you have decided your first LR race :-) Here we now have only two weeks left to The "Stockholm Jubilee marathon". Another supercool event that was finished yesterday is "Fotrally" The winner this year was out there for allmost 51hours. A short walk from Rålamshovsparken to Malmslätt (just outside Linköping). Next year I will participate, that's already decided :-)
SvaraRaderaCheck it up on "Fotrally.se" ....
Mr W! I have just finished the book Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. Have you read it as well? All of a sudden I am a little bit interested in the barefoot running thing. Some questions:
SvaraRadera1. Do you run barefoot or do you use some kind of shoe - like fivefingers or something similar?
2. What distances do you normally run? Do you think that you could run a marathon barefoot?
Why don't you run in Fivefingers all year around? Isn't it dangerous to run completely barefoot (broken glass etc)
SvaraRaderaI have not read born to run. I have only heard about it. The driver for me has been to become free from injury. At this stage I run everything from 4 to 10 km and expect to increase that over time, now we are talking 100% barefoot, no five fingers. Five fingers I put on in winter because I was freezing. It is not dangerous to run barefoot. Due to your interest, I will write a little bit more elaborating separate posting about barefoot.
SvaraRadera