this is my second week of running in “barefoot” shoes made by terra plana, I was training for a half marathon aiming for a new pb of sub 1.35 and started to develop pains in my left foot under the arch and my achillies of my right foot, once I crossed the finish line of the half in 1.34.50 I decided that something had to change to make things more enjoyable and less injury prone.
I had been reading “born to run” purely by coincidence and hit the part about running barefoot in the next couple of days – this gave me the idea. I managed to get a cheap pair of Evo’s off ebay and once they arrived I started. run 1 was only 3.5 miles very easy , no problems. the next day I did 5 miles and then had a rest the following day as my calves were aching a bit but nothing too bad, I just didnt want to push things too soon.
The day after this I felt fine so tried a 10 mile hilly run (about 800ft of ascent and descent) all on tarmac. This went very well and I was actually a good few minutes faster than normal despite treating it as an easy run. the calves were a bit sore again but in a good way.
On the sunday I ran a very hilly 6 miles off road but in my trail shoes- it was a very rough path and I knew my Evos would get shredded. I didnt realy notice any change in anything like stride etc but missed the sensation of being in contact with the ground.
I had a few cross country races coming up and was a little anxious that I would find my speed lacking unless I mixed in the odd hard run in shoes. next week I hoped to turn the wick up a bit and increase my speed in the Evo’s.
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