I run in my bare feet.
Not in those “barefoot shoes,” but in bare, unadorned, purely naked
feet. Why? It’s more natural. You’re less prone to injuries (though this is
still a debatable topic in the running world).
Besides, it feels great. But I
came upon this purely by happenstance.
I’ve been a long-distance runner nearly my entire life. Well, after a hiatus between college and
middle-age, where I resumed running after finishing all that schooling and
training to become a doctor. I ran my
first marathon at 43 years of age. I was
running one to two per of these a year, and just prior to my 50th
birthday, I ran two marathons and a 50K (31.1 miles) in a span of 4 months.
After my 50th birthday, I wanted to spice things
up. I heard and read about minimalist
shoes, how they mimic running in bare feet, so I decided to try a pair. I have a bent little toe on my right foot,
and no matter how hard I tried, I could not get it to fit in a pair of the
Vibram Five Finger shoes that look like gloves for the feet. So I tried a pair of New Balance Minimalist
shoes which didn’t have the little toes.
These, like the Five Fingers, have no cushioning under the foot.
I ran 3 miles in those shoes on my first try. Later, I did 4 miles, 5 miles and then one
day went out for a 7-miler. About 5
miles into that run, I felt a burn in my Achilles tendon. I tried to run it off, but it got worse until
I was forced to stop. I was still 1 ½
miles from the car and had to wobble my way back.
I couldn’t run for another 3 months until my Achille’s
healed. Darn!
I also hadn’t read the warning on the inside of the shoe
box, which said something to the effect that when using these shoes, one is
suppose to decrease their typical mileage by 90%. Ninety percent!
The problem was I still ran as if I were wearing normal
running shoes where most of the cushioning is at the heel. I still stuck the ground with my heel in
these minimalist shoes. I didn’t know
you were suppose to change the way you ran.
I was merely stupid.
So, I went back to normal shoes and eventually got back up
to respectable mileage and planned to run another marathon. I signed up for it, paid the fee, and made
reservations far in advance for lodging.
My son was to run a ½ marathon that same day.
As I was doing speed work around a track to prepare for this
marathon, I developed a pain in my right arch.
I’ve had this before—it’s called plantar fasciitis. In the past this resolved with rest and ice
and flexing my foot back with this contraption called a Strassburg Sock I
purchased online. It worked like a charm
in the past. But this time, I still had
pain well after a month. In fact, I
could barely walk let alone run. Two
months passed and the day of the marathon came.
As my son was still in shape to run his event, we drove and stayed
overnight as planned, but I couldn’t run my marathon. This was the first time I was unable to run
an event for which I signed-up.
Naturally, I couldn’t get a refund on my entrance fee of about a $100. But I later drank the free beer that came
with the fee.
So as my son ran his event, I decided to root for him on
various parts of the course. For some unknown
reason that baffles me to this day, I decided to do this without shoes. I jogged slowly a few yards at a time in the
grass. It felt nice, not nearly as
painful as running or walking in shoes.
Massaging my foot on the way home later, I decided to try
running purely without shoes.
I ran in the grass for about a week or so and noticed my
plantar fasciitis was getting better.
I’d read about barefoot running before, in Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, so
I knew there was some data out there that showed running shoeless was
beneficial. I continued running really
short distances, not more than a quarter to a half a mile at a time.
Being intrigued with this novel running style, I looked for
more books on the topic and found Barefoot
Running by Michael Sandler. He
advocated running only on hard surfaces such as concrete. This seemed counter-intuitive, but I figured
I had nothing to lose so I gave it a try.
I could only do a few hundred yards at a time, stopping
frequently since running in bare feet can really hurt, especially when stepping
on little rocks that are difficult to see.
I understood why he recommended hard smooth surfaces at first: you
didn’t want to step onto nasty things hiding in grass, like shards of glass,
large sharp rocks or splinters, discarded hypodermic needles or small pieces of
dog poop.
After two weeks I could run two miles nonstop in bare
feet. And my plantar fasciitis all but
disappeared! I was hooked! I was excited just to be able to run again.
The Mechanics:
With a conventional running shoe where the majority of
cushioning is placed at the heel, the runner will over-stride, landing on the heel with the foot way up front and past the body’s center of gravity. This results in a stopping or braking
action, and the landing forces are directed up the bones of the leg to the knee
and hip and spine. This bypasses the
natural shock-absorption features of the foot, ankle and leg, relying rather on
artificial cushioning limited to the shoe.
When running barefoot the key is not to over-stride but to
decrease the stride length (the distance between successive foot-falls). This requires landing on your forefoot rather
than the heel, a more natural process.
This allows the natural shock-absorber properties of the foot to come
into play. The foot has small muscles
and an arch for a reason—to act in a spring-like or bouncing action. This keeps the leg perpendicular to the
ground where the landing forces are directed 90 degrees upward to the leg,
closer to the body’s center of gravity.
The leg muscles engage with foot, like a shock-absorbing unit,
preventing transmission of forces up through the bones of the leg, hip and
spine. You’re using more of the muscles
of the foot and leg to absorb the forces rather than having them transmit up through
less compressible bone. As you can
imagine, hitting the heel on the ground millions of times during years of
running can lead to undesirable injuries such as shin splints, knee pain, hip
pain and back pain.
Running barefoot also requires a shorter stride, but to
compensate, the runner increases the stride
rate—the number of strides per minute.
Average recreational runners tend to run with a stride rate of around 150-160
strides per minute. Seasoned competitive
and world-class runners have a much higher stride rate—around 180 per minute. Think of it this way, the sum total of forces
to run from point A to B may be the same despite the manner in which you run,
but the amount of force per stride is decreased as the stride-rate increases. This is analogous to pedaling a bike in low gear: you
must turn the pedal faster (more revolutions per second) but each turn requires
less effort (force) compared to pedaling at a higher gear, where you’re
pedaling slower but at greater effort.
So if you are a runner plagued with injuries or simply want
something different to motivate you out the door, you might want to partake in
this wonderful adventure. Beware though:
take it slow and walk frequently. Don’t
expect immediate results. As with most
things in life, be patient and don’t push yourself to go too far or too
fast. From experience, I can attest that
doing things contrary to common sense only leads to misfortune. I’ve injured myself several times from over-use,
and I have no one to blame but myself.
Don’t be like me; don’t be stupid.
Take to heart the quote from Clint Eastwood’s Dirty Harry character:
“A man’s got to know his limitations.”
This goes, without saying, for adventuresome women too,
though women tend to have a whole lot more common sense than men. As always, use your brain and be careful.
Check out these two really good books on the subject: Born to Run by Christopher McDougall, and
Barefoot Running by Michael Sandler. They’re both great reads.
©Randall S. Fong, M.D.
www.randallfong.com
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