{"id":1358,"date":"2010-06-13T14:13:00","date_gmt":"2010-06-13T13:13:00","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/index.php\/2010\/what-next-to-pad-or-not-to-pad\/"},"modified":"2010-09-07T13:19:29","modified_gmt":"2010-09-07T12:19:29","slug":"what-next-to-pad-or-not-to-pad","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/what-next-to-pad-or-not-to-pad\/","title":{"rendered":"What next? To pad or not to pad?"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/a><\/p>\n

I have to be careful – I have a faddish tendency.\u00a0 My modus operandi is to come upon a new project, throw myself in, become completely obsessed and then, without a second thought, drop it and move on.<\/p>\n

It took me a while to realise this and develop some skills in self-monitoring and self-control.\u00a0 Running certainly could have fitted the mould but by the time I started at the end of 2002 I was being more aware.\u00a0 I didn’t rush out and buy all the kit straight away.\u00a0 I made do with the clothes and shoes I already had – only buying new ones when the occasion or conditions really warranted it, as I increased mileage and started entering races.<\/p>\n

I have stuck with running and it has changed my life –\u00a0 I feel fit, well, and sane – not as easy as perhaps we expect it should be, so I’m not taking it for granted.<\/p>\n

After surviving the first month of running on my introductory training plan I decided I really did need proper shoes and like almost every one else I had my gait analysed and was duly fitted.\u00a0 In my case, as I overpronated, with the motion-control road shoes – a style I have been buying ever since.<\/p>\n

But this year I began to question the sense behind wearing this kind of shoe, as I began to build my training for a 30-mile cross-country hill run across the Mendips.\u00a0 Generally I was coping well with the increasing distance but whenever I did have problems – aches in my right knee, tightness on the top of my left foot, it seemed to arise from a conflict between the two types of shoe I was wearing.<\/p>\n

To build up the miles I began to run portions of my journey to and from work, parking my car further away each time.\u00a0 All this running was on tarmac or pavement, so naturally enough I would wear my usual motion-control road shoes. But there is no such thing as an off road motion-control shoe.\u00a0 On this uneven terrain you need flexibility, responsiveness and grip – not an inch and a half of foam under your heel.\u00a0 So I wear Inov-8 shoes, which have minimal padding and maximum flexibility and I get on very well with them.<\/p>\n

But surely this doesn’t make sense – how can I be wearing built-up, control shoes one run and pared-down, flexible shoes another?\u00a0 Well the answer is you can’t, which is why I was getting knee and foot niggles switching from one to the other.\u00a0 But which one was better for me – if any?\u00a0 I didn’t know.<\/p>\n

The situation was further confused when I got into the latter stages of training.\u00a0 Twice I ran 28 miles and in the final race 30.8 miles (I got lost over Cheddar Gorge).\u00a0 In the last two runs my arches became very painful and so I then wondered if I needed arch supports in my Inov-8s.<\/p>\n

The Mendip Challenge complete I needed to find out what the best direction for the future of my feet, and my running would be.<\/p>\n

Last week, driving in to work, I heard the US sports journalist and runner Christopher McDougall talking to Libby Purves on BBC Radio 4\u2019s \u2018Midweek\u2019 programme. <\/span> He was explaining the principles and advantages of Barefoot Running. <\/span> I was intrigued – could this be the solution?<\/p>\n

I hit the internet and started looking up barefoot running websites, articles and movies and came across a message board entry on Runners World\u2019s website asking about the experiences of runners just starting out on barefoot running.<\/p>\n

So here I go – I\u2019m starting out.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

I have to be careful – I have a faddish tendency.\u00a0 My modus operandi is to come upon a new project, throw myself in, become completely obsessed and then, without a second thought, drop it and move on. It took me a while to realise this and develop some skills in self-monitoring and self-control.\u00a0 Running […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":26,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[67],"tags":[114,6,155,153,159,157,160,154,158,156],"class_list":["post-1358","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-barefoot-running-diaries","tag-arches","tag-barefoot","tag-control","tag-fad","tag-inov-8","tag-motion","tag-niggle","tag-obsessed","tag-road","tag-shoes","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/26"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1358"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1449,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1358\/revisions\/1449"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1358"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1358"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1358"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}