Running Press

News and articles from Running Training Plan

The Barefoot Running Diaries

Between July 2009 and April 2013 we ran a project here that welcomed runners  to document their experiences of running barefoot.

Twenty six people participated, some wrote only an intro and maybe a post or two, others contributed more detailed reports. One in particular, Soul Man, wrote 74 entries on his journey into running barefoot.

There is no doubt the Christopher McDougall's book, Born to Run, created a huge interest in barefoot running and a major shake-up within the running community, from beginners, to coaches, to shoe manufacturers. Whilst much of the hype has now diminished, the legacy has been a re-evaluation of what it means to run naturally. These posts in this section provide a glimpse into the lives of just a few runners who tried it.

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19th August — Barefoot run 8

A fun filled day today, starting with a gentle hilly jog to work of 7.6 miles. No barefooting, but lots of thinking about it. Mainly how much I was beginning to dislike running in clumpy road shoes.

I was thinking that I would quite fancy some road shoes similar to my Inov8s; they are just the sort of minimalist shoe  I could do with for the longer distances on the road. Low and behold, when I get read more

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Transition from shod to barefoot runner

Most of us who run have a lot of time, energy and miles invested in our current state of fitness and we don’t really want to sacrifice any of that as we start to run barefoot. We know that we should start gradually, yet we don’t want to cut our mileage drastically and lose our investment.

Our feet have got used to the protection that running shoes offer and our running gait has evolved read more

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17th August — Barefoot run 7

This was not a totally barefoot run, I merely added a barefoot section to the end of my 7-mile road run this evening. With a mile to go, I ditched the shoes (Filas)  and socks, and ran up the hill home. I have to say, the feet were a little sore, probably a hang-over from the longer run in aqua shoes just 2 days before — also ending in a short barefoot section.

Of more concern is a noticeable read more

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Me? Recommend running shoes?

We had a prospective new member run with us at the club last week. He’s young, plays a bit of football and runs a bit of cross country. He was running in shoes that looked like the sort he might wear when playing football on grass or an artificial pitch; very little cushioning and no real support (and the necessary branding logo of course). After the run the usual questions were being asked read more