My newly found inspiration to train for, and hopefully complete,
an ultramarathon in a pair of Vibrams Fivefinger Bikilas comes from a whole
life of running in shoes supposedly designed for running only to find myself
hurt and sore. I understand that muscle soreness is a part of running.
You have to be sore if you physically push your body. It's the
natural process of breaking down your muscles and then rebuilding them stronger
than before. The soreness that I found so defeating previously was joint
pain in my ankles, knees, and hips any time I ran for a considerable distance.
I don't have a medical degree to support any of my opinions, but I can
tell you what I've learned from experience. I've covered a lot of miles
in my life training for football, soccer, wrestling, and weightlifting in high
school, training in the Marine Corps as a sniper, and now simply running just
to run. Brute force has always allowed me to succeed in accomplishing
what I set out to accomplish, but I found training for the 2009 Seattle Rock 'n Roll marathon excruciating. By the time I got into the longer runs 16-20
miles I would be laid up for the rest of the day, and sometimes the next. My
knees and hips just seemed to hurt worse and worse the harder I trained.
When I finished the marathon I hobbled across the finish line at 4hrs and
22mins, but my split time was 1hr 53mins for the first half and 2hrs 29mins for
the second half. Once the pain really set in around mile 20, or so, it
was impossible to maintain a decent pace. After the marathon I hated
running. In fact, I didn't even run at all for about 2 months.
Since 2009, I've
kept active but only by doing everything but running. I've done mixed
martial arts, biking, swimming, crossfit. I even did a workout where I
just did jumping jacks for 30 minutes straight. Oddly enough, none of
these activities caused me any joint pain. The key to the jumping jacks
workout was that it was barefoot, and so was mixed martial arts. It was
only after reading Christopher McDougall's 'Born to Run' that I pieced together
why I could do all of these other physically draining sports, but running
practically crippled me. I just needed to run barefoot.
I went out to a
local outdoor store in Arlington called Casual Adventure, and picked up a pair
of Vibrams Fivefinger Bikilas for 40% off and after I did my first run of about
2 miles I was sold. I just knew that this was the way that I could enjoy running.
Since that first run I've probably logged about 16 miles in a bout 2
weeks. Making the switch to barefoot/minimalist running came with some
extreme soreness in my calves, but now I think they're adequately adjusted.
I'm still going to take it easy for the next 2 weeks, but come June let
the punishment begin :-)
Here is a picture
of the Vibrams Fivefingers Bikilas that I bought:
Here are a few
links which I found informative about barefoot running:
No comments:
Post a Comment