Barefoot run 18
Yesterday was another longish run of 13 miles on the road. I decided to run the last mile without shoes, but I got a nasty surprise. The road surface looked pretty rough, no loose stuff, but I know it was resurfaced not long ago with quite chunky aggregate. After taking off the shoes I found I could hardly run on it at all, just too painful; even walking was very uncomfortable. I had no option other than to put the shoes back on. I took a closer look at the surface as I was bent down. It didn’t look that bad, but the stone chips had just not bedded into the tar very much. Oh well, a quarter mile further on the surface changed, and the older, more worn coating was much easier, so ran the rest of the way barefoot. I’m not sure if the difficulty was completely due to the surface or perhaps the fact that I’ve run quite a few barefoot miles lately. There are no signs of blisters but I think there might be some deeper bruising. Either way, it reminded me I’ve got a long way to go!
This morning, my left foot (the one with the plantar fasciitis) was very stiff. Not underneath, where it used to be painful, but the ankle itself. I rather think this is due to my recent increase in mileage and the fact that none of my running is now done in shoes with a significant heel. The Achilles soreness on the other foot is still present although it has not worsened. I will need to be a bit careful over the next few days.
Leave a Reply