After deciding to run barefoot, I did a little bit of research on the internet on how best to approach it.\u00a0 I ordered Barefoot Ken Bob’s book, “Barefoot\u00a0Running Step by Step” and started\u00a0searching the internet for more information.\u00a0 All the advice I found (from Barefoot Ken Bob’s website, Jason Robillard’s Barefoot Running University, the US Runner’s World barefoot running forums, plus Graham’s own website) suggested that the best way to\u00a0transition was to start small.\u00a0 So I added a half-mile barefoot run on the end of my usual 4 to 5 mile route.\u00a0 I felt a bit of a dope running along holding my trainers in my hands, but\u00a0running barefoot\u00a0felt\u00a0really good.\u00a0 My foot strike changed immediately to a\u00a0forefoot landing and it just felt a lot more effortless.\u00a0 I stopped after half a mile and put my trainers\u00a0back on for the rest of the run home.\u00a0 My feet felt\u00a0good,\u00a0I’d run\u00a0on\u00a0quite rough pavement, so they felt like they’d had a vigorous massage!\u00a0 There’s no other way to explain it really.\u00a0<\/p>\n
A couple of days later, Ken Bob’s book arrived.\u00a0 I devoured it, especially the form guide,\u00a0then\u00a0I went out for another run\u00a0to try and put the lessons into practice.\u00a0 I ran pretty much the same route as before, a 4 to\u00a05 miler, with about a half\u00a0mile of barefooting at the\u00a0end.\u00a0 I think this was a mistake.\u00a0 I\u00a0was concentrating on changing my form to what Ken Bob recommended, while wearing my trainers.\u00a0 All the advice states that you shouldn’t do too much barefoot at the start, but nothing about lowering your mileage in trainers when you’re trying to change your form.\u00a0\u00a0The day\u00a0after this run, I had pretty severe top of foot pain (TOFP)\u00a0and couldn’t run for a few days.\u00a0 The barefoot run itself was only half a mile, so I think the pain came from forcing myself (in my thick-heeled trainers) to forefoot strike over the 4 or so miles preceding it.\u00a0 The cushioning in my trainers obviously wasn’t thick enough to protect me from such a rapid and complete change in form compared to my usual heel-strike and my feet, unaccustomed to the pounding on the fore-foot, paid the price.<\/p>\n
This was about 3 weeks ago now.\u00a0 I went out for 1 more completely barefoot run about a\u00a0week after my TOFP developed, but\u00a0decided to take more time off to\u00a0rest after\u00a0the pain flared up.\u00a0\u00a0Once the pain went, I spent a week following\u00a0some foot strengthening exercises reccommeded by Barefoot Ken Bob and Jason Robillard\u00a0(barefoot running on the spot, picking things up off the floor with\u00a0my toes, walking outside barefoot, etc.) preparing to return to running.\u00a0 This is now my first week back, starting (as I should have!) completely barefoot with very short runs!\u00a0 Wish me luck!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
After deciding to run barefoot, I did a little bit of research on the internet on how best to approach it.\u00a0 I ordered Barefoot Ken Bob’s book, “Barefoot\u00a0Running Step by Step” and started\u00a0searching the internet for more information.\u00a0 All the advice I found (from Barefoot Ken Bob’s website, Jason Robillard’s Barefoot Running University, the US […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":31,"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":[],"class_list":["post-2352","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","category-barefoot-running-diaries","entry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352","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\/31"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=2352"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":2541,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/2352\/revisions\/2541"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=2352"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=2352"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/runningtrainingplan.com\/runningpress\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=2352"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}