Barefoot Running: The shizzle or the shizz?

[RobinFinderson]

Thanks for bumping this cowboy. I had completely forgotten to post about this. I bought a pair of Vibram Five Fingers at REI. I ran around the block in them, not great. However they are awesome on the boat!

What do you mean by 'not great?' They hurt Faith quite a bit in the beginning, but she is picking up distance, she is finding herself heel striking less, and her speed has significantly increased (she is keeping up with me now. I have always run faster, but she has had better endurance. I'm catching up to her in the endurance dept and she is catching up to me in the speed dept).

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

What do you mean by 'not great?' They hurt Faith quite a bit in the beginning, but she is picking up distance, she is finding herself heel striking less, and her speed has significantly increased (she is keeping up with me now. I have always run faster, but she has had better endurance. I'm catching up to her in the endurance dept and she is catching up to me in the speed dept).

It hurt the balls of my feet more than my heel. Maybe I was doing some kind of subconscious running on my toes afraid of striking my heal to the ground.

[RobinFinderson]

It hurt the balls of my feet more than my heel. Maybe I was doing some kind of subconscious running on my toes afraid of striking my heal to the ground.

That is sort of the point of the shoe. They naturally correct your gait, but it is supposed to take some time (and be painful) before your feet strengthen and adapt to the improved gait. As you feet strengthen they become more springy, and you get a bit more mechanical advantage out of them. But it takes some time.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

Do you wear those with the banana hammock?

You will find out tomorrow afternoon!

[mtnbiker]

You know, from this angle, those things look suspiciously like ballet slippers.

[HuskyFreeNorthwest]

You know, from this angle, those things look suspiciously like ballet slippers.

I will have to post a picture of me in my leotard!

[mtnbiker]

I will have to post a picture of me in my leotard!

Oh, please no! I'd have to scratch my eyes out.

[UtahDan]

Most elite runners are forefoot, or at least midfoot, strikers. I have a hard time believing that a college track team wasn't already forefoot-striking. I seriously wonder if they were messing with him with his study (or at least knew the objective and subconsciously played along) This isn't a new theory. Everyone has known for a long time that heel-striking is really inefficient and saps energy. The difficulty is that you have to run sort of fast to stay off of your heels. And most of us didn't grow up running every day of our lives to get that fast.

You're right about barefoot running bringing out your heelstrike. Once in a while, I'll do part of my track workout in socks-only and it's amazing how much I feel it every time I heel-strike.

I'm interested in what you think about the running-prey-down hypothesis. I first heard this on the radio during an interview with the author of Born To Run (a book about a native tribe in Mexico with more natural runners than any other population, and who run in sandals). Here's how I understand it. The human brain grew immensely about 2-3 million years ago. Such growth would require significant amounts of protein in their diet. However, the oldest tools we've found are only 100,000 years old. So how did they acquire enough protein in their diets to develop larger brains? As I recall, there was an evolutionary biologist from Utah who came up with this idea that the early hominids chased down their prey. Humans are fairly unique among mammals in their ability to sweat to dissipate heat, which usually took about 3 hours (coincidentally, the length of a fast marathon...hmmm). The idea then is that they would chase down their prey until it overheated and died from heat exhaustion. Scientists were very skeptical--how does a biped with a poor sense of smell chase down a faster quadriped being the main question--but they're starting to come around (as I understand things). He and his brother actually tested his hypothesis by chasing down an antelope. The point of this is that human beings were "born to run", i.e. our long-distance running ability is a major reason behind our existence as a species.

I have been thinking about this foot strike things lately. I started running four months ago and had no problems with my feet then the month of August sucked as I suffered with a nueroma which I have had for years but had only really popped up while playing hoops. Then this last month it has slowly disappeared again and I think it is because when I was first running, really no more than shuffling my feet, my strike wasn't aggravating it. Then i started to be able to "jog" and the damn thing caught fire-I I assume because of how my strike is during a jog. The last month I am finally at a respectable pace and doing what, at least feels to me, like real running. The faster I run, the less I have any problem with my foot. I have to think that my strike is just most natural at a quicker pace. But this is all guessing on my part.

[Coach McGuirk]

So did anyone end up trying the Nike Frees?

[MarkGrace]

A girl ran by me yesterday that was barefoot. I think I could maybe run barefoot on a treadmill, but outside it would freak me out. I'd be too worried about stepping on a nail or heroin needle.

[BigPiney]

A girl ran by me yesterday that was barefoot. I think I could maybe run barefoot on a treadmill, but outside it would freak me out. I'd be too worried about stepping on a nail or heroin needle.

Agreed, except my concerns would be rattlesnakes and goathead thorns.

[SteelBlue]

A girl ran by me yesterday that was barefoot. I think I could maybe run barefoot on a treadmill, but outside it would freak me out. I'd be too worried about stepping on a nail or heroin needle.

Amen brother. I have 3 or 4 spots that I run regularly and on none of them would I even attempt barefoot.

[Slim]

I've been running barefoot (even sans vibrams) for about a month now. I should post some pictures of the bottoms of my feet. They are extremely ugly.

When I run barefoot I have to stick to the sidewalk. Vibrams let me go off road but I'm not quite there yet completely unshod.

[Surfah]

I've been running barefoot (even sans vibrams) for about a month now. I should post some pictures of the bottoms of my feet. They are extremely ugly.

When I run barefoot I have to stick to the sidewalk. Vibrams let me go off road but I'm not quite there yet completely unshod.

How do you do that in AZ? It's been in mid 90's down there. I can't imagine that you'll be able to do that much longer.

[Slim]

How do you do that in AZ? It's been in mid 90's down there. I can't imagine that you'll be able to do that much longer.

It is getting hot. My unshod days may be numbered for the year.