isanisan:

I can run 3 miles at a 7 minute mile, and I can run 4 miles at 7:30 pace, but my calf muscles give out if I go more than a mile at a 10-11 minute pace. If I speed up after a mile, I’m fine again. What is going on?

I have noticed the exact thing when I walk from work (it’s about 5km). I am not sure but I think I tighten my calfs more and don’t relax them as much as when I am running a faster pace. At a lower pace I tend to take less steps per minute.

But it’s just a theory… try running forward with a slow pace but keep moving your feet fast and see if it improves?

newstfionline:

By Gretchen Reynolds, NY Times, March 6, 2013
When Dr. Douglas Brown, a radiologist in Orem, Utah, noticed an uptick recently in the number of barefoot runners he was seeing with heel and foot problems, he wondered if there might be a connection between their unshod training and their sore feet. But he couldn’t find any scientific studies that had examined the issue.

So he approached Sarah Ridge, a professor of exercise science at Brigham Young University in Provo, Utah, who studies impact injuries in sports, and suggested she undertake one.

The resulting study, published last month in Medicine and Science in Sports and Exercise, is likely to add fuel to the continuing debate about the benefits of running barefoot or wearing minimalist “barefoot” shoes. Does the barefoot style reduce a runner’s risk of pain and injury (as barefoot enthusiasts believe)? Or does barefoot running simply contribute to the development of a different set of injuries in some runners?

To find out, Dr. Ridge began by recruiting 36 adult, experienced runners, male and female, who, until then, had run between 15 and 30 miles a week while wearing normal running shoes. She sent them to Dr. Brown for baseline M.R.I. scans of their feet and lower legs to check for current injuries or problems.

Those who believe in barefoot running often point out that humans ran and walked without shoes for millennia before footwear was invented. They argue that being unshod is normal for humans and should reverse past injuries related to modern running shoes and prevent future ones.

But anecdotal evidence, including from physicians who treat runners, indicates that some people who take up barefoot running develop entirely new aches and injuries.

Dr. Ridge’s shod volunteers all started the study with normal feet and lower legs, according to their M.R.I. scans, which were read by multiple radiologists.

She then randomly assigned half of the group to continue running as they had: same mileage, same shoes.

The other half were given a pair of Vibram Five Fingers barefoot-style shoes and asked to begin sprinkling barefoot-like mileage into their runs, but gradually. They were told to wear the minimalist shoes for one mile during the first week of the study, two miles the second, three the third, and then as much as they liked, which is what the Vibram Web site recommended at the time of the 2011 study.

After 10 weeks, both groups of runners received a follow-up M.R.I. There was no evidence of injuries to or changes in the tissues of the lower leg, like the Achilles’ tendon, among any of the runners. But more than half of the runners wearing the minimalist shoes now showed early signs of bone injuries in their feet.

Specifically, most had developed bone marrow edema, an accumulation of fluid, similar to what happens during bruising, in their foot bones. The radiologists graded the edema on a scale of 0 to 4, with 0 representing no edema and 1 the slight bone damage caused by simply moving around on and loading the foot. This amount of edema is considered healthy, a sign that the bone is responding to training and growing stronger.

Most of the runners in the control group, who were wearing their normal shoes, had edema levels of 1 throughout their feet.

But a majority of the runners in the minimalist-shoe group had developed at least a level 2 edema, “which indicates early bone injury,” Dr. Ridge said, and three had signs of more-extensive level 3 bone edema, “which constitutes an actual injury,” Dr. Ridge said.

Two even had full stress fractures or level 4 edema, one in her heel bone and one in his metatarsal, the bones that connect the ankle and toes.

Almost all of the runners in the minimalist shoe group were spontaneously running fewer miles at the end of the 10 weeks than they had been at the start, “probably,” Dr. Ridge said, “because their feet hurt.”

The results don’t mean that everyone who chooses to switch to minimal or no footwear will court foot injury, Dr. Ridge said. “But I would tell anyone who wants to try” kicking off their normal shoes, “to be extremely cautious during the transition period.” In her study, substituting a mere mile per week of normal running at the start with one in minimal shoes “was probably too much,” she says. So go slow.

Barefoot-style running may have been natural for our ancestors, Dr. Ridge points out, but it’s a new experience for most of our feet.

Your mileage may most certainly vary…

A couple of years ago I started running in minimalist shoes. I started out with a cheap pair of waters shoes, upgraded to Vibram FiveFingers and most recently bought a pair from Vivobarefoot for walking with a barefoot feel. After trying out RunKeeper, Twitter and Facebook, for updating training status I’ve now switched to blogging about my experiences and all posts tagged **barefoot** should end up here:

• danielnystrom.se/tagged/barefoot

Yesterday I went on my first real long walk barefoot and it was a great success! I walked around Årstaviken with my Vivobarefoot shoes and a small water bottle safely tucked away in a plastic bag.

I was not sure if my feet would cope, but it felt great and all that tip toeing on gravel has paid off.

I read on the minimalist runner maillist that you should try running on gravel as soon as possible while transitioning to barefoot running. As you learn to distribute your weight evenly on gravel, everything else should start feel like running on velvet…

It is a little harsh statement but I think it has a strange weird logic to it. I am a big fan of literally getting your feet dirty as soon as possible whilst learning to enjoy minimalist shoes. When I took my first run in water shoes and later bought a pair of Vibrams I found myself slacking in form and relying on the Vibrams to dampen my sensory input. Even the Vibrams put some distance between me and the ground.

No more fox walking

Long story short… while walking home from work and taking the dog for shorter walks I have started taking the roughest parts barefoot and trying to push the limits for what I am confortable walking on. In a couple of weeks I have learned to walk heel first on pavement and completely stopped fox walking in slow motion. Keeping a heel first strike is essential for covering some ground walking barefoot. Earlier on I have spent a lot of time feeling the road with the front of the foot, putting some weight on it awkardly and then slowly switched foot. It was impossible to keep walking a couple of miles touching the ground anxiously with the front of the foot every other step. I spend too much time hesitating and feeling for ouchies.

Running on gravel?

After I have learned to walk with the same stride as I had in shoes, barefoot on paved roads in just a couple of tries, I have decided to put my feet on some nastier paths. The next mission is to keep taking lighter jogs barefoot on pavement and walking as much as I can on gravel and dirt roads. Really pushing the limit for what my feet feels comfortable with. My goal is to be able to take lighter runs a couple of kilometers on gravel later this year. But I am not rushing this and I will have to listen to the signals my body sends. Maybe I will end up with another goal after a couple of weeks.

(Source: danielnystrom.se)

I began to skip the tram and subway this spring and started walking to work and home every day. It has been awesome taking a walk in the morning before work and so relaxing clearing the mind while walking before coming home. Walking aprox. 8-10km a day has put some strain on my feet though and lifted some questions on walking form and techniques.

The walking per se is not that hard on my body, but combining it with barefoot running is putting my feet and hips over the edge off what they can handle. I felt like my feet got stiff and had minor pains in the hip after a run. Even after the shortest runs.

So I started stalking the Minimalist Runner maill list and tried to research what my problems could be. After a couple of weeks on the mail list and reading a lot of resources about the transition from padded footwear to minimalist shoes I found this article in runningtimes.com about foot strength and mobility.

Essentially the article is about ankle dorsiflexion, big toe control and single-leg balance. My balance and ankle mobility is already ok after been running in minimal shoes for a couple of years and training martial arts, but my control over the big toes are awful. Reading the article and isolating the parts I have problems with have really spurred my training and I am trying to do the suggested exercises a couple of times a week. Without proper control of big the toe the rest of the leg is behaving awful, probably effects my hips and causes the strains I feel after runs.

The fun thing about running barefoot is that even with short runs (I never exceed three kilometers) I can never hide bad running form in padded shoes and my knees do not take usual pounding from my runs. I have always been a lousy runner and probably did more harm to myself chugging along when I ran in expensive shoes that supported my bad form.

(Source: danielnystrom.se)