My last post and back to the Bristol Half Marathon.  Come 2011 I ran it in my Evo II minimalist shoes.  I ran a minute slower than 2010 but came 100 places higher up the field – so a great result.

However, my calves were incredibly stiff for the three days following the race.  This is the one area where I find barefoot or minimalist running has a detrimental affect on my body – road running.  I don’t think it is the hard surfaces but the monotony of action on the body – there is very little change in terrain, pace, camber or motion and my calves seem to take a bashing. 

A lot of it is probably my lack of training on these surfaces, but this is not where I enjoy running most.  For me it is the woods, fields and hills of Somerset where I find barefooted joy.

By May the Inov-8 off-road shoes I had run the 2010 Half Marathon in had well and truly worn out.  My birthday was coming up in June and I was very excited as Inov-8 had made the move into truly minimal shoes.  So a month later I received a pair of Bare-Grip 200s – an off-road shoe with no midsole, no cushioning and no height differential between heel and toe.  

Again, a great pair of shoes.  There is no option but to run with your forefoot as you really don’t want to slam your heel down on a rock or root in these.  But they are fantastically grippy and responsive – the only problem is the lightweight mesh upper seems to be taking a bashing from not that much running, and tearing.

Using these shoes marked my transition to minimal running full-time on road or cross-country, something that I have stuck with ever since.  Any padding has now long gone. 

It has been a slower transition to true barefoot running, as I find it is so dependent on temperature and weather – rain means picking up sharp grit, and cold means numbness which reduces feedback and increases chance of injury. 

Throughout the summer I tried to get in one truly barefoot run each week, whether in town or cross-country, but that only lasted up until autumn.  This year’s project will be to increase my barefoot mileage and that may mean developing new tactics.

In February I went to Sri Lanka and while I was there I did a couple of runs – one on a beach and one round a town, in and out of the Evo IIs.  But after each I was hobbling.  And the hobbling continued for a good couple of days afterwards.  I had burning on the insides of my Achilles Tendons but didn’t know why.

When I came back I bought a small ultrasound device, after I saw a friend using one after skiing.  And I also went to see my osteopath to try and understand what had happened. 

Initially I put it down to a three-hour, relatively gentle, hill walk in Wellington Boots.  The ground was soft and so my heels may have descended below the rest of the foot, but I’m not sure this was the root cause of the problem, though it may have been a contributing factor.  In the end I had to accept that somehow I had overused or abused these tendons through the extra strain put on them by barefoot running.  I thought I had been so careful on my journey to barefoot running.

Reassured by my osteopath that my legs weren’t going to fall off, I cut back my running to very short distances – initially a mile – and increased only as far as I could run without pain during or after the event.  Over a couple of months I got the distance back, but still can get some pain or stiffness in the right one, especially after road running.  I don’t know if I can do anything to make this better, but at least I am aware of it and can keep an eye on it.

You can’t be too careful.

It’s been six months since my last post now but I’m still an aspiring barefoot runner, if not blogger.  Perhaps that should be a committed minimalist runner, which, for me, seems more practical in the UK.  To get up to speed and with the benefit of hindsight I’m going to reflect on the year between the Bristol Half Marathons of autumn 2010 and 2011 in four short posts.

In 2010 I ran my best time ever in a pair of low support, very Inov-8 flexible off-road shoes.  They still had some cushioning and a raised heel but were lightweight and free compared to the motion-control stacks I used to run road races in.

After that I made the decision to buy some truly minimalist road shoes and invested in a  pair of Vivo Barefoot’s Evo IIs.  These have been fantastic – very light weight, very flexible, and eminently wearable  – in fact I wore them as general shoes all throughout the summer.

I was about to write my first post on these wonderful shoes when I got my first barefoot related injury, which I mentioned at the time in an earlier post, but looking back I was very resistant to accepting it was a training/running injury at the time.

I’m 34 weeks pregnant now and can’t run for more than a mile without I need the loo! Sometimes I really do need to go, but often it’s a ‘false alarm’ and just an unpleasant sensation. It’s actually the biggest hindrance to my running these days I think. I don’t run fast enough to get out of breath, my legs get a bit uncomfortable as I mentioned in my previous post, but they do seem to have adapted to the increase in weight, and my bump is neat enough not to have affected my balance or gait (or so it seems).  

Total distance: 15km

Barefoot distance: 800m

Outlook: positive, although developed a bit of a pain in right calf.

It was cold last week.  Went out early on Sunday morning after a freezing night, it was beautifully clear and the common was covered in frost.  The ground was frozen and the patches of mud that are usually slippery in smooth soled minimalist shoes were hard and crunchy underfoot.  Took my shoes off for a bit and ran on the horseride, and a bit of rough tarmac.  The cold ground numbed my feet pretty quickly and meant I couldn’t feel the ground properly – despite the numbness, everything felt rougher than I’d expected and actually quite painful.  A few other runners and dog walkers looked at me as if I was crazy, and began to think they might have a point.  I couldn’t tell if I was trashing my feet or of it was just cold.  After about 800m I put my shoes back on and my feet warmed up quite quickly.  When I got home, I checked my feet and they seemed fine, so think it was just the cold.   

It warmed up later in the week, and after recovering from a stomach bug, I went for a trot at lunchtime with some friends from work.  Running with colleagues meant I wasn’t inclined to take my shoes off, partly because it was raining and although not too cold I worried about my soles getting wet and blistering, but being honest it was really not to look weird in front of people I work with.   I reckon that as I get more confident barefoot I’ll be less shy about it, at the moment it would just look odd to take my shoes off just so I could run slower for 800m, and then put my shoes back on. Running and chatting meant I wasn’t so focussed on my form, and probably sped up a bit as a result, either way I was relaxed and enjoyed the run (apart from what I fear is a slight strain in my right calf, which came on towards the end – perhaps because I was going a bit faster and not focussed on my form).  

I’d be interested to hear from more experienced barefooters what limits you find – how cold, how wet, does it have to be for you to keep your shoes on (or not go out)?  Does this change as you get more experience/confidence?  And what tips do you have for keeping feet warm?

Well I’m still running…..in a fashion!! Somewhere around the 29 week mark, it was like somebody flicked a switch and running became REALLY hard. I really noticed it on a regular 10k run one Saturday afternoon. It wasn’t that I was getting breathless, and it wasn’t even that my bump was uncomfortable. It was my little old legs – presumably protesting at the extra weight they were having to carry. I had to keep stopping to stretch out the muscles at the front of my lower legs – not easy at the best of times! 

I’m now over 33 weeks pregnant and, needless to say, things haven’t got any easier. Back then I was running 4 or 5 times a week and covering just over 20 miles per week. These days I aim for 3 runs a week, 3 – 5 miles, and 2 brisk walks of about 3 miles. Some of my runs are better than others in that I run the whole way. Hillier runs include some walking, but I have to say that running uphill is more comfortable than running down. The leg discomfort is still the limiting factor, but this does improve the more ‘warmed up’ I am so, ironically, longer runs are easier than shorter ones.

So, about 6 weeks to go and still running, but it’s fair to say that I’m a bit worn out and enjoy rest days more than ever before!!

Last year was probably the worst year for running that i’ve had.  I was training for the Paris marathon and was on track for a pretty good time when I got shin splints really badly and had to drop out.  Having recently read a lot about barefoot running I blamed spongy shoes and the forces necessary to control the foot on landing.  Seeking a solution I thought I’d try minimal shoes and went to a barefoot running workshop.  Running in Five Fingers was great, but i got carried away and ended up with achillies tendonitis.  Again, I blamed the shoes.  I blamed my old built up running shoes for shortening my achillies/calf muscles, and I blamed the Five Fingers for letting me do too much too quickly.  I tried barefoot as a way of regulating how far and fast I was running and got up to about 40mins on pretty rough surfaces but the achillies made itself known again.  Following the birth of my daughter I had less time for training so I cut back on running and focussed on kettlebells and conditioning.  Before I noticed, months had passed without running and I started really missing it.  I tried running again but each time after a couple of runs, the achillies would twinge and I’d be very disheartened.

In November I decided to do something more proactive and started a daily routine of calf stengthening and stretching, with a bit of self massage with a roller.  I bought a pair of Vivo Barefoot Aqua and started wearing them whenever I could.  Around Christmas I thought I’d give it a go and went out in some racing flats.  These have a small heel drop so I thought they’d be a good transition from my old shoes towards completely flat.  After a few runs it all seemed fine so I’m back running in Five Fingers and Vivos and taking it very slowly this time. 

I’ve also ditched my previous obsession with training paces and target times so my watch has stayed at home.  I’m trying to stop myself getting competitive, but I don’t think this will last..!  So far this year, the longest i’ve been out has been about half an hour(ish) - I’ve got a long way to go before I’m running a half.  I got my feet out for a stretch today and even though it was cold I loved the fresh air between my toes. 

Introductory Summary:

years running: more than 10, regularly for maybe 7.

weekly milage: very low at the moment, used to be 20-30 – more if I was training for something.

PBs:  Marathon 3:32 (shod); Half-marathon 1:31 (shod)

barefoot experience (apart from running):  10 years of capoeira 2-3 times a week;  2 years muay thai before that; always barefoot when using kettlebells or circuit training.

previous foot landing:  heel strike; transitioned reasonably successfully to midfoot in 2010, noticed an increase in speed, enjoyment, blisters and plantar faciitis.

previous running shoes: originally heavily cushioned, slight motion control shoes like Asics Kayano or Brooks Trance.  Moved to neutral, more flexible shoes in 2010 to complement midfoot landing (Mizuno Wave Rider)

Previous injuries:  ITB pain; knee fat pad impingement (solved when I switched to mid-foot landing in normal shoes); PF (started when I switched to midfoot landing in normal shoes); shin splints (recurring, but not recently)

If — like countless other runners — your warm up consists of a few minutes jogging, maybe some static stretches, then some fast strides then perhaps you should take a look at this excellent article about warming up before a race. As the author states, ‘If you want to do something you’ve never done before, then you’ve got to do things you’ve never done before’.

This session, is one of Frank’s ‘Golden Sessions’, it was published in his article ‘Twelve Things You Should Know about Marathon Training‘. The session is simple to describe and understand, but — like many of Frank’s sessions — not necessarily easy to run.

After warm up, run 25 x 400m laps as follows:
First 400m at 5k race pace, then straight into 400m at marathon race pace. Keep alternating the laps like this for 25 laps (10k).
If the pace drops then walk a recovery lap and continue.

That’s it — highy effective and simple, but not easy!

You can use our pace calculator to determine your lap times and the race time predictor if you are unsure about your 5k or marathon times.