Why Bare Foot Running

Like many, I imagine, I have been drawn to bare foot running after reading "Born to Run" by Christopher McDougall. Here was a middle age guy who it seems was less suited to being a runner (in the traditional sense of how we imagined runners to be) than I was, on the verge of giving it up, and now he's running better, further, and stronger than ever.

Like a lot of guys I was a talented age group runner, it was the late Seventies, early Eighties. I set a bunch of High School records at bunch of distances from 800m to 10K, won a few medals at State competitions, and competed at some Australian age group championships. So it seemed I had the build and talent to carry me through a life of recreational running.

Additionally it was the leading edge of the running shoe boom, and like everyone else I bought into it. As my running was important to me I bought top of the line running shoes from all the big names, Nike, Asics, Brooks. As I continued to run I was plagued with aches and dull pains, always in the knees. Fortunately I never had serious traumatic injuries, I just felt I was wearing down, at the joints, one step at a time. After a big run I had to take a few days off to recover. Chris McDougall's experience suggested there was hope yet, and the premise was just so damn strong.

Two years ago I made the decision to adopt the Paleo eating principal which has a similar premise, we evolved doing this so how can it be wrong.

So decision made, time to start training. But wait, there was just the small matter of an existing running injury to get over first. BBtR (Before Born to Run)I had worked out I must be doing something wrong biomechanically. Trawling the Internet I stumbled across POSE, it seemed to make sense, and worked for some top athletes, including an Aussie 800m Olympic medalist. In an attempt to achieve a fore/mid foot strike in over-constructed pronation controlling shoes I believed I hyper extended and injured my right calf.

In hindsight this may have been a good thing. I was stuck walking for the first two weeks. Everyday I would try to walk for an hour over varied terrain in bare feet. For the first week my feet would tingle for the rest of the day as my feet adjusted to the stimulation. It felt great.

This morning I went for my first barefoot run... ...Thats the next post.