Foot work

So the intellectual curiosity overcame me. Partly because business has kept me of the road work / treadmill and it was time to get back. Partly because I read Barry's blog entry on barefoot running. Partly when I first ran track back when I was a teenager, there was an article about one of the premier barefoot runner, a woman marathoner from South Africa (Zola Budd), and in high school I had tried it (very) briefly. It wasn't an absolutely new idea to me, but just the same I had no impetus to give a go until recently.

Today, I gave it that go. 3 miles at an easy pace (at the beginning of training it's my practice to do heart-rate training first, then speed work later, but that's just me, what do I know? I don't have a trainer anymore). I noticed a few things.

1) while I had paid attention to my stride previously, it was almost like a heightened awareness of my stride when going barefoot.
2) my cadence seemed to be faster. I attributed this to my stride being shortened so as not to reach with my foot, and land on my heel. This is one of the points that pro-barefoot runners make, it's better on the ankle and knee joints.
3) there is less temptation to land on your heel. It seemed more 'natural' to land on the balls of my feet when running barefoot, than even when I made a deliberate effort to run on the balls of my feet when I had my running shoes on.
4) for some reason, my knee didn't give me a problem. Since I was 19, it also took some warm up to loosen up my left knee. That didn't seem to even be an issue when running barefoot.
5) my biggest concern prior to running was my ankles. This proved to be poorly founded. No concern whatsoever. The ankles seemed stable and painless.
6) the biggest concern is something at end of my list: callouses (or lack thereof) on the bottom of my right foot. For some reason my left foot had no problem with this, but I could tell my right foot was tender. I imagine this will alleviate with time.
7) something that surprised me is that I had a more difficult time 'pulling' with my leg (i.e. making a deliberate effort to flex my hamstring in order to propel me forward, this in direct contrast to reaching or extending with the quads.) I'm not sure what to think of this, but pulling actually facilitates better form for me. We'll have to see with time.
8) I want to do it again! It felt more natural and free. With grown callouses, it will be even better.

I'll give it 3 days per week at about 3 miles for the first 2 weeks (remember, heart-rate training), then advance to 6 miles. When I introduce intervals, that may be a different story, but we'll see. That only means that you pick up the pace every 2 minutes, no big deal.

Let's see how things go in 2 weeks. (Don't forget to hit the jump on the title.)