Running Barefoot: an adventure

Fell running

2010-07-29T10:56:00.000+01:00

My enjoyment of completing the Snowdonia Marathon have inspired me to consider the sport of fell running. I spoke recently with a veteran of the sport, who founded the Cnicht race in North Wales - it sounds like a great thing to try. New challenges, such as navigation and being safe in the mountains. And, to my mind, it all sounds so wonderfully amateurish. A huge contrast to some of the larger "corporate" running events that are becoming increasingly consumerist and trashy - very expensive to enter, yet increasingly cheap and nasty. An example of a lack of correlation between cost and value. Ultimately, running barefoot exemplifies this in that it is "free for those who are rich enough to afford it, and very very expensive to those that cannot", to quote from a favourite film of mine, Withnail and I.

Just to clarify: I do not mean "amateur" in the pejorative sense: a faker, a cack-handed dabbler (as opposed to a professional) - rather, in the sense of amatorem - a "lover of" something.

I look with interest as running barefoot movement makes baby steps in awakening a paradigm shift in the running world, following the publication of "Born to run" and the Nature article on running barefoot. But not holding my breath...

Top running books

2009-07-11T11:48:00.004+01:00

Some books that have greatly inspired me in my running adventures

London Marathon Barefoot

2009-07-09T13:01:00.006+01:00

Following my adventures during the Snowdonia Marathon, one of the toughest but most scenic marathons, I have now applied for the London Marathon.

I aim to set a barefoot course record: at least one other runner has done it shoeless. I also hope to get a personal best: my fastest marathon time of 3:50 was achieved in the Lyon Marathon, another flat city marathon (so unlike the mountainous Snowdonia Marathon). And, this time was achieved in my 30's. I will be 40 when I run my next marathon. Yikes.

Snowdonia Marathon

2008-10-28T13:28:00.002Z

Finished!
Brutal course.
Weather tough too - constant, horizontal rain (gave up wearing my
glasses!) , sometimes chucking it down, coupled with gusting winds
strong enough to blow you off the mountain....

...All went well until final hill (200ft to 1200ft climb and then descent
to 100ft) at mile 23, feeling strong, but the path became a rocky
trail and I developed huge blisters on the forefoot. Final downhill
was treatchourus - slippy mud, people falling over or being blown off
the path! Had to abandon plan of a fast finish and go into survival
mode, and inch my way to the bottom. In places I gave up running on
the path and bounded downhill in blinding rain across grass thickets -
barefoot running "using the force" as it were.

Had a great time, was given "star" treatment by the organizers - who
even specially put in a velcro strap thingie in my championchip bag -
perhaps next year they will have a "barefoot" division! Met a nice
young man from Singapore to share some mid-section miles with,
amoungst all the toughened welshmen! Best hospitality I have had on
any race in the UK. Extremely friendly organizers, crowds and
spectators. Perfect organization, but not a race for the barefoot
beginner - some very rough sections, so in all:
Result:
4h9m
And some of the biggest blisters I have ever seen!
The BBC wrote an article about my plans to do this race, and then a follow up article to see how I fared.

PS My blisters went down in a couple of days - the skin simply re-attached itsself!

Training for the Snowdonia Marathon

2008-08-26T09:17:00.004+01:00

Living in London means that training for the Snowdonia Marathon requires a certain ingenuity to acclimatise for the hills of North Wales. Running hills barefoot is great - the extra control you get is so useful on those downhill sections.
There are few decent hills to run on here in the big smoke. Indeed, much of my running is done by water, a mini-countryside in the city and a generally pleasant, traffic free place to run.

A few weeks ago, I had a go at running up and down Parliament Hill in Hampstead Heath, which is nowhere near Parliament, but is at least a hill.
And, nearer to home, there is Springfield Park, near Stamford Hill, although not as high as the former hill.

Finally, I have also tried a new technique of cross training called "allotment intervals" which means saving all my heavy work on the allotment for my days off running. I can do much digging and anything else physical that is required for this patch of land I am cultivating. Allotments are the best kept secret in the world of exercise. Now, why would I go to the gym when I can do this?

10k in Hyde Park

2008-07-22T12:27:00.004+01:00

This Sunday, I met with Barefoot Rick and we did the BUPA 10k together in Hyde Park. The weather was perfect for the run and we both started out in the front wave, which was nice. A friendly girl came and chatted with Barefoot Rick about running barefoot. I think it was her first running event ans she was very excited about it all.
I was feeling in good spirits, it was very nice to be joined by another barefoot runner, and in particular with someone as sociable as BFR. He was in a mood for having fun that morning and have fun we surely did.
My time was pretty good - finished in 43:01. This is very close to a personal best for me, which I think is somewhere around 42:50 sometime in 2006, at the Greenwich Meridian 10k, although this course is much better suited to a PB since it is so flat and barefoot friendly. Nice to know I am in pretty good shape as I start to ramp up my miles for the Snowdonia Marathon in late October.

Barefoot runners untie..

2008-07-16T12:49:00.005+01:00

Two experienced barefoot runners will meet to take part in the BUPA 10k run this Sunday, the 20th July in London, Hyde Park.

I will be running alongside Rick Roeber, AKA Barefoot Rick, from Kansas in the USA. He has come a long distance to race against me in my home city. I wonder when I will return the compliment? It will be the first time I have ever participated in an event with another barefoot runner. It still remains a rare sport, even though the health benefits of all things barefootedness are gaining more and more acceptance amongst the more open minded. It makes much scientific sense for a variety of reasons. Indeed, some companies market "barefoot shoes". This is does seem like an oxymoron.

Barefoot runners untie!

I have also entered the Snowdonia Marathon in the autumn, and will run in the Bristol Half marathon a few weeks beforehand as a useful test of my preparations. Some fun to be had!

Lyon Marathon: My first ever marathon - barefoot!

2007-07-08T01:52:00.000+01:00

Yes, It has been a while since I updated my blog. Since my last 5k, I have run the Roding Valley 1/2 Marathon and the Greenwich Meridian 10k, as a build up to the Lyon Marathon in at the start of the Summer.

The Lyon Marathon turned out to be a great choice for a first
marathon, outstanding provision of on-coarse refreshments, great
organisation and small number of competitors, compared to the big city
marathons such as London, Paris or New York, where the sheer numbers
can become overwhelming.

Since it was my first marathon, I had some pretty clear goals: To
have fun, to run within my capabilities, not stressing my body too
much, and to do my best, weather permitting, to run the marathon in
less than 4 hours.

Having trained through the winter, I had no experience of running in
the heat. The few really long runs done in ideal running
temperatures of around 10 C.

So, I was aware that I had to err on the side of caution, and listen
to my body and drink water more often than I usually do. With the
temperature at about 20C when we left the house at 7:30am, it seemed
that the forecast of 26C was going to be accurate, so I decided to
take it extra slow to start with. Indeed, the weather did get hotter.

When lining up, wearing the RunningBarefoot.org logo on my back,
several people came up and said to me in French "Are you really going
to run the marathon barefoot"? I explained in my broken French that I
had run many half marathons and that this was my first marathon. I
said that a marathon is difficult for everybody, regardless of choice
of footwear. Many people said "Bon courage, pieds-nus!" to which I
replied the same and "Bob chance" or "Bon courage" back, or, "Merci"
if they were spectators. I realised that "Pieds nus"was the French
for barefoot. Repetition is a great teacher, so I'll never forget
what "pieds-nus" means, I heard it over and over during the marathon.

To avoid going out too fast at the start, I had in mind the Aesops
fable about the hare and the tortoise. A marathon is a long way for
me, so I wasn't about to rush from place to place like a hare. I was
going to start like a tortoise and keep it slow!
Also, the tortoise, by taking his time can appreciate the journey more
than the destination, instead of rushing from place to place.

Well, I started slow, right at the very back at the line-up for the
start. For the first few kilometres, I ran along very slowly,
overtaking people whenever I could, but without weaving and wasting
energy. I chatted to a few other runners in my limited French, and
all were friendly.

Many have said that Lyon is the food capitol of France, in a country
that is world famous for it's tradition for cuisine. Well, let me say
that the Lyonaise didn't disappoint in this respect for the Lyon
Marathon! When I arrived at the first refreshment station, which were
placed at 5km intervals throughout the course, I was truly amazed by
the buffet of natural food available. There was plate after plate
containing slices of peeled fresh bananas, slices of fresh oranges,
bottled water, dried bananas, dried apricots, raisins, prunes, dates
and sugar cubes (brown and white) and more I am sure!

After experiencing first-hand this array of food, there was much
temptation scrap my plan of being the tortoise and to sprint
(hare-like) between each 5km "buffet", and eating my fill at each
buffet table to recover between each sprint. In my view, it was just
perfect light food for eating on the run. Maybe next year, I will try
out a this novel marathon strategy - a series of 5km "buffet" intervals!

There are many famous preserved meat sausages in Lyon, and I was
hoping these would not be served on the run. I was right. These were
available at the end, for those who prefer to re-establish their
salt-equilibrium after loosing so much though sweating.

Personally speaking, since gradually adopting a low salt diet I don't
seem to excrete much salt in my sweat as I used to after sport. So
for me, the last thing I felt like was eating a plate-full of salty
food that was served to the runners at the runners village at the end
of the race. I was however, most impressed by this thinking, since
most endurance athletes do prefer to re-saltify themselves - it is
the current wisdom amongst the sport scientists, and many people drink
isotonic drinks that are supposed to do this. I really liked the
Lyonaise approach to this problem involving serving their traditional
preserved meats, instead of some kind of pseudo-scientific chemical
cocktail. Personally though, at the end, I had little appetite since
I had eaten enough light and digestible food. I had a good drink though!

Anyhow, back to the race. Despite the fine food, I stuck to my
original plan and kept moving slowly, tortoise-like. Instead of
walking through these early refreshment stages, I filled my large
expandable cheeks with enough food so to store for later on when I
was really hungry. OK, I made that bit up somewhere around the 30km
stage when my imagination started to wander into surreal mode. In
reality, I stuffed my short pockets with dried bananas, raisins and
sugar cubes.

Many people carried back-packs containing lots of fluids, and many
also seemed to have what looked like heavy looking army-style belts.
Goodness, they must have felt hot lugging around so much stuff! They
were kitted up to the hilt with an ammunition of every type of snacks
and drinks. Maybe they didn't realise there would be such an amazing
buffet available at every 5km mark.

There were also plenty of water-sponging stations to help cool off.
Towards the end, I tended to just ask a volunteer to spray me all over
with a hose, instead instead of grabbing a sponge for my head!

In a park, somewhere just before the 25km stage, I saw my supporters.
Firstly, my fiancée, who offered me a banana. But there was so
much food available on the course that I didn't need food, instead, I
had enough food with me in my pockets, I could have given my
supporters food instead! Her sister who lives in Lyon with her
Lyonaise partner and children were there to cheer me on, and cheer me
loudly they surely did. The younger one, who has just learned how to
walk, was overjoyed to see so many oversized "toddlers" and wanted to
join in.

Quite often during the course, people accompanied their friends on
bicycles and roller-skates. At the 32 kilometre stage, I even spotted
a car in front of me, driving along on the course! For a moment, I
though this was someone lazily supporting their partner by driving
alongside them, perhaps throughout the entire course? No. It was
some cheeky person driving their car through the coarse, for a short
period, rather to the disbelief of the other runners, one who was next
to me started muttering profanities to me in that seemed to my
schoolboy French to involve many different kinds of bodily functions!
The ignorant (and may I say young-looking and able-bodied) driver was
no doubt impatiently looking for a short-cut to drive their car to
their front door. I resisted the temptation to have a
rear-bumper-ride. Imagine the shame of being disqualified during my
first ever barefoot marathon for cheating!

Somewhere before kilometre 32, the course meandered through a park,
and headed along some rough stony trail tracks, for a couple of miles.
Some challenging barefoot running after running thus far! And I
realised I now had just 10 km to run, and that I had exactly an hour
to run it in to go sub 4h. I experienced some tenderfoot discomfort,
so I had to slow right down, and I tried when I could to run alongside
the grass, which was infrequent.

This caused me to loose my rhythm and started to feel a little tired,
and whilst previously I was pulling out a few 8 minute miles out of
the hat quite comfortably, it seemed that running "fast" at a pace of
8 and a half finite miles now seemed like hard work. I was still
overtaking people, as I had been throughout the course, having started
out right at the back. But, it almost felt as though my GPS was
malfunctioning. A brain malfunction, a shift in perception of time
and space was the far more likely explanation.

Somewhere after km 36, beside the river Soane, there was a nice but
very slippery marble-bottomed children's paddling pool, which
stretched along lengthwise beside the riverbank for about 50m. It
was a few centimetres deep at the sides, and towards the middle, there
was a "deep" part that was perhaps a foot deep. With so few children
using the paddling pool, I thought it would be a great way of soothing
my somewhat tender feet and I could cool off legs too by splashing
along. What a contrast from running on those stony trails! I had to
be very careful of my form to avoid slipping over. What a nice way to
practice form, by running on a surface that felt almost as slippery as
ice!

Towards the end of this long paddling pool, I cooled off by briefly
submersing as much of myself as I could in the "deep end", much to
the amusement of some spectators. But Oops, I had forgotten that I
had filled both pockets of my shorts with dried fruit and sugar cubes
for an emergency!

A few minutes later, I had to turn my short pockets inside-out and
into a bin, to empty the contents of the
sugary-dried-fruit-chlorinated-gloop into the bin. The English have a
bad reputation for our relationship with food over in here France, and
I no doubt reinforced this stereotype!

Somewhere just after the 41 km marker, I spotted my long-standing
French friend from Grenoble, who I lived with in London many years
ago. I'd previously arranged to meet with him and his new family at
the runner's village at the end, along with my other supporters. Much
to my disbelief, I thought he was running next to me. No. I must be
imagining it. How did he get there onto the course? I then realised
that yes, there he was, running right next to me! So I started to
strike up a conversation with my old friend. He put me straight:
"Stop talking: focus only on finishing strongly!" So, I took this
encouragement and headed off to the finish line, him running behind
me, shouting encouragement. "Well done, just 200m to go now!" He was
now really trying to push me: "Overtake those two in white". I then
turned the corner and saw a welcome site: the 42km marker on the road
and I then the finish line in the distance. My friend was politely
but firmly asked to leave the course. The security official then said
to him "Did you see that barefoot guy?" "Like you, he also didn't have
a race number, did he?". My friend explained that yes, I did have a
race number. Apparently the official simply couldn't believe that I
had run a whole marathon in bare feet: He had convinced himself that I
had joined in at the 41km mark like my friend had, just to sprint to
the finish!

I had something left in my legs to sprint past the two runners wearing
white shorts and vests. I spotted my friend again in the crowds right
at the finish line. Luckily he hadn't upset the security officials
too much, and they left him alone to meet up with me. I finished
feeling strong and well. Stronger in fact, than after my first half
marathon wearing shoes! To be fair, I was less fit overall than I am
now, but I am pleased that I finished so strongly compared many other
runners, the walking wounded and in such hot weather! It was around
26C when I finished. I had enough energy for the rest of the day to
catch up with my old friend and play "pass the baby" with all the
young children, all afternoon. Now, there's a a truly exhausting
past-time....

Times:
First half: 1h54 second half 1h56
Overall marathon time: 3h50m58s

First Race of the Season

2007-01-26T22:49:00.000Z

I finally broke the 20 minute barrier: my elusive goal for 2006. Finished in 19m49s, a new personal record(PR). I wasn't trying too hard, I was relaxing, enjoying myself. I enjoyed the friendly, informal crowd of enthusiastic athletes. And I enjoyed the friendly banter with some veteran runners at the start. It inspires me: these people above retirement age are fitter, faster and healthier than I was in my 20's. Scary thought, just how inactive I was. But, who knows, maybe some of them partied hard in their 20's too?

A nice person took my photo after the race. That's me standing still, tired after the race. The picture below is one of the veterans I admire, sprinting to the finish.

Then, off to visit Terra Plana, my sponsor. I needed a new pair of Vivo Barefoot shoes. Yes, I wear shoes! I have to for my job as a researcher in Medical Physics, not for running, mind you. And, you thought we Physicists only wore sandals...

Next, off for a photo shoot at the Waltham Forest Guardian. Look forward to seeing what they write! Some PR for my PR.

Next Race: a Half Marathon at the end of Feb.

Then, a 10k in Early March, and finally, the Lyon Marathon in late April.

Here's the article that appeared in the Leyton Guardian. A few factual errors, but the gist is both correct and positive.

Media coverage.

2006-11-22T16:04:00.000Z

Despite the colder weather, people remain interested in barefoot running.
I have just got to work after being filmed running barefoot to work by a BBC crew.
A video interview aired on BBC London news. You'll find me if you search on the BBC site for "Barefoot runner".

Yesterday, a full page article appeared in "The Guardian" newpaper featuring me barefoot running. The feature included a photo of me in action, taken in London's Hyde Park close to speaker's corner.

A piece of video art by New-York based "xplusrey" featuring me running barefoot through East London's Brick Lane. Despite claims of Nike involvement, this is not in fact the case!

Before my first ever barefoot Bristol Half Marathon, I was invited as a guest to the studios of BBC Radio Bristol to do a half hour live interview. I even got to play a request, so I asked for "Purple Haze" Jimi Hendrix, who probably never ran a mile in his adult life...

Bristol Half Marathon

2006-11-14T06:09:00.000Z

This year, I set a goal of running the Bristol Half Marathon in under 100 minutes. By the skin of my teeth I managed, with a finishing time of 99m29s. Phew!
Unlike last year, I didn't get a blister on my little toe, so that was a bonus. I did get some mild cramps in my calves during the last mile.
The official race results are here and there are some photos are also available.

Recent progress

2006-06-28T11:05:00.001+01:00

For the last few weeks, I have not run many miles. This is because I have done so much cycling to and from work and to and from Brighton.
Commuting to work by bicycle involves a 9 mile trip in each direction, which equates to 90 miles (=18*5)

And, for the week of the London to Brighton ride, I cycled 195 Miles! That is a record for me. But, how do I equate these to the more familiar "running miles per week" ?
People say that if you are cycling slowly, the mileage cycled should be divided by 5. And, if you are cycling fasted, then the figure is more like 3. This is to account for the increased wnd resistance. Since I was cycling slowly for the high-mileage week, I can therefore equate this to only 39 miles!
For my regular commute, I cycle rather faster, so I will divide by 4 meaning that this equates to around 22 miles.

This is enough to maintain my status quo.

If I wish to progress, I should supplement this cycling with perhaps an additional 20 running miles per week. This should be divided into a series of shorter runs to keep the technique going, and the occasional long run, to build more endurance.

When I start training for the Bristol Half Marathon, I should increase this to run up to 30 miles per week, perhaps even 40 miles. The one problem I need to take care of is my left hip, which is still adjusting to my improved form. I now keep my feet parallel, whereas before, my left foot pointed outwards somewhat.

Recent progress

2006-06-28T11:05:00.000+01:00

Half Marathon Maniac

2006-03-13T10:58:00.000Z

One day distance experiment by the natural scientist:
Two half marathons.
1h57m in the morning
Lunchtime party
1h59m in the evening.
Easy.

Greenwich Meridian 10k 2006

2006-03-08T16:38:00.000Z

They're off! The start gun fires and the elite pack races off to do the first couple of flat laps around the park. The brutal hills are later on, cruely close to the finish.

The elite runners zoom off into the distance, I stay in the middle of the pack for the first km, to ensure a measured start. Always important to be restrained initially, it's not so easy when you are pumped up with adreneline.

I am somewhere behind the runner in green.

Here I am, running along in my upwright way, feeling fresh and looking forward to an evenly paced race, aware that this will be hard for a course as hilly as this. I'm really enjoying myself here, since it is during te early stages and my legs are not yet tired.

One last push to the finish! I can see the line and have a good idea that a PB is likely, so I try my best to squeeze just a few seconds more, a few seconds in time, a few metres away from the origin of time in Greenwixh Medidian, here on planet Earth!

Final result: A very evenly paced race, almost a negative split, something like 21:10,21:39 for a time of about 42m49m (unofficial, so plus minus about 20s) This is about a minute faster than last year, on this tough course.

To ensure I enjoy the race, negative splits are the key, for me. What are "negative splits"? some kind of painful excercise? No. It just means you run the second half of a race slightly faster than the first half. It've found it works for me for several reasons.

This ensures I don't stress myself too much. Also, you get a better performance if you do this, based on the fact that many world record times are run in this way. But, mostly it is just more fun. As you gradually increase your pace, you overtake others in the latter stages. I find it is also good for another reason, the "I'm having a bad day" syndrome. Let me explain.

If I can start out the first few portions of a race slower, I can then accelerate towards the middle and through to the end. If I feel like it. If I am having a "bad" day, then I just continue at the same pace and don't have those "Why am I doing this?" moments, enduced by over exurting myself. Makes great sense to me, as a "natural runner", also. Why? Well, here's a brief theory.

Our ancestors, during a hunt, might chase our prey for a period and then move in for the kill as our prey wore down. Who knows?

Finally, all this "easy running" I have been doing, for the last couple of months, has not had an adverse affect on my speed, apparantly. So, that is interesting: no pain, some gain!

First 5K race report

2006-03-08T16:37:00.000Z

Just got back from my first ever 5k: The "Last friday of the month 5K" at Hyde Park in London, fantastically organised by the serpentine running club.

The race was spit into 2 groups, a fast group, group A and a slower group, group B. Since it was my first race of this distance, I thought I should start in the slower group, in case I went out too fast at the start. Group A set off first, around 2 minutes before group B. I think that there were around 100-200 runners in each group.

Everything came together and I had a perfect race! My aim for this year is to run under 20 minutes for a 5k, and I managed 20m14s, pretty close to my goal, considering it was my first shot! My 1k splits were near perfect:
3m55s,4m07s, 4m06s,4m06s,4m00s. The gods conspired to ensure immaculate pacing. I was amazed when I checke. Perfect barefoot pacing. Wow!

Lesson learned: No matter how well you prepare, there are times when everything apparantly falls into place, without any reason.

As an added bonus, I caught some of the runners who set off in the fast race, even though they set off 2 minutes earlier. I placed second in the slower group after having a fun race with the guy who lead for most of the race - I caught him on the last 1k and he then regained first place in the final 100m or so....

I'm still on a real high, so I better sign off before I start talking real nonsense!

5ks rock!

Yanni.
Barefoot runner since December 2004.

Activity Journal

2006-03-08T16:35:00.001Z

With the aim of exercising to simulate life as a “natural” human, I have recently been trying to run across more difficult terrain, such as through long grass, through woodlands, up, over and under obstacles, leaping over park benches, hanging off goal posts and sprinting up and down short yet steep hills. I hope to get more agile in movement and more sure-footed. I am learning to fall properly too, so that when I fall over, I am less likely to get hurt. Kind of like a barefoot stunt-man. It is another dimension for me, in addition to my “mindful” running where I focus on form.

I guess I am practicing wild running. Or, maybe you could call it “Free Running” or Parkour, the French sport of moving efficiently through your environment, although it does tend to incorporate more daring movements such as balancing on high walls, things that give me the heebie jeebies, but do not faze most fearless teenagers. I feel able to do all this, since I have built up a foundation of strength from a year of barefoot running. The whole world is my gym!

My body feels these new demands, in a good way. I am surprised that my stomach muscles are sore after all this clambering and jumping across things, yet I have not done a single sit-up. Boy do those muscles in my back hurt! I am excited that after around a month of this kind of running, I am having no alarming pains in my feet or joints, no messages telling my that my body is getting injured. Had I done this a six months ago, it would have been a guaranteed recipe for injury.

When I run across smooth concrete now, boy does it feel easy! I think that by running over more demanding terrain, I am making myself faster over easier terrain. I’ll have to see.

One problem though: How do I log this in an exercise log? I have really enjoyed logging all my miles over the last year, since I can see the progression over time. I went from running a regular 10 miles a week to a regular 35 miles a week, sometimes 50 plus miles. I love analysing numbers and guessing at trends and stuff, so this has given me some nice data to work with. It is bordering on obsessiveness, maybe it bourn out of a desire not to get injured? Maybe that’s the real reason that runners carefully log their weekly mileages, since we are used to always being injured and have to increase mileages in a slow and measured way?

Our love affair with the high speed transportation has meant that we have optimised our environment for the wheel. To take advantage of this, I often ride my bicycle to work. But, how can I equate bicycling miles to running miles? For me, it feels like 3 bicycling miles is about equivalent to 1 running mile. Any ideas there? Should I log those miles in my weekly mileage?

Basically, I am looking for a different way of logging “effort expended” to log my exercise over time. I am thinking that heart rate is surely a better way of doing this, since I am doing all these different forms of exercise.

I have tried out an inexpensive ($30) heart rate monitor watch and found it to be very quirky, despite putting the relevant conductive gel on the sensor. Perhaps the expensive ones are more reliable and do not give such spurious readings? Any ideas on how to extend my activity log to incorporate some of these aspects?

Running Free

2006-03-08T16:35:00.000Z

Having run barefoot for around a year, I have decided to start keeping an online record of my progress, since I have made such a huge amount of progress in my running in only a year. One of the main interesting things that has happened is that I have increased body awareness and a more complete understanding about what it means to be really healthy. My original goal was to simulate some of the things that our ancestors did, to put my body through the same kinds of demands that it has evolved to do, so that I would be living more in tune with our design, not fighting it or somehow trying to "overcome" nature.
With this in mind, I am constantly finding new ways of being a natural athlete. Something I have just read about is free running, or Parkour, which is something else I shall try to incorporate into my running. I am often tempted to leap up onto things as I run, to hurdle benches and up onto small walls, since otherwise, a kind of monotony can set in. Instead of doing boring press-ups and sit-ups, why not climb over walls and practice rolls to build further body strength? Which is more fun? Which is more natural?

Free running is not about leaping across building tops, but more a way of flowing around obstacles. Why not try to navigate an assault course Tai-Chi style? There are plenty of obstacles to find, there is no need to actually go to an obstacle course, just as there is no need to go to a gym if you wish to get fit. The location is immaterial too: urban, country. Imagination is the limit.

So, I am going to incorporate this third dimension into my running, to transform it from two dimensions by practicing some basic skills such as climbing walls and doing forward rolls to learn how to safely break a fall and to actively seek obstacles as I explore my environment. I look forward to improving my strength, balance and spatial awareness.

Half Marathon Results

2005-10-03T17:03:00.000+01:00

Well, I achieved a new personal best of 1h41m55s, around five and a half minutes faster than last year's time.

The race was a blast. As you can see, I had to resort to running on the pavements at times, since it was smoother than the chip seal road, which was rather rough in places.

Perhaps I should "slow down" as the sign suggests?

Thanks for all your sponsorship pledges for the hospice. I am very pleased that the total raised is in the region of £700.

The truth: Why I am running barefoot

2005-09-11T15:23:00.000+01:00

Starting out running:

Last year, I casually entered the Bristol Half Marathon, thinking that it would be an easy accomplishment. That is, until I actually tried running a few months in advance. What nobody tells you is just how hard it is to get started, for a thirty something desk-bound city dweller. Well, to cut a long story short, I managed the transition from a stagger from one lamp-post-to-the-next to what I termed “steady state” running. Once I could do that, I increased the distances so that I would be confident of running the full 13.1 miles, being outside and on my feet for about two hours. Painful stuff, this running, but boy did I feel better for it in general. I really felt alive again! My poor old knees, though, didn’t enjoy it one bit. In fact, I could barely walk for two days after a long training run.

This pain meant that I could only train once per week, since I was determined to build the mileage up to get used to running the distance.

The Bristol Half Marathon itself was a lot of fun though, and I really enjoyed the crowds and the people cheering you on. What a buzz!

After a week of rest, well, a rest from running, that is, I started thinking about the wisdom of the whole running thing. I had this great new mountain bike, a present from my sister. This had none of the detrimental effects of running yet all the positive effects, and more. I could get a great workout during my commute and never had injury problems. I was back on my bike again and really enjoying the freedom that it offers and the reliability and cost as a mode of transport.

Whilst I was increasingly dissatisfied with running to the point of quitting for the sake of my joints, I stumbled across a book called “how to run fast and injury free” by Gordon Pirie. In it, he talks about the poor design of modern trainers and how silly they are with their large cushioned heels that try to protect runners from their bad running form. He jovially refers to them as “orthopaedic boots”. He advocates racing flats and other such minimalist shoes, not only for racing at the track, but for all running. He also talks a bit about how to run and the posture required, how to bend the knees. Bent knees are far better at absorbing shock than a few centimetres of foam in a shoe. He recommends learning how to run before doing things like increasing mileages and doing intervals and speed training. He also recommends running barefoot as a method for strengthening the feet. It seemed like a very strange concept when I first read it, but how could I rubbish the advice from an athlete of the calibre of Gordon Pirie, especially given that his book was edited by a doctor of medicine?

I did further research and found little about running technique in all the books on endurance running I found. They only seemed to talk about how to increase your mileage and what to eat. I did find a book called Chi running by Danny Dreyer, which is devoted exclusively to running technique and combines Tai Chi methods with running. I found it an excellent read and try to use the described techniques. It sets out a method of running that is in contrast to power running.

But, he says nothing about barefoot running. There are other methods for learning to run, such as the pose method, which involves learning a series of drills to run more efficiently. But, it seems to me, that our own bare feet are our best teacher, they provide us with the sufficient information required to teach us to run.

I found the runningbarefoot website has much information about this subject, which I recommend the interested reader refer to. There is also a Yahoo discussion list, so that you can ask questions as a beginner and get advice from more knowledgeable and experienced barefoot runners, including Ken Bob Saxton, who set up this website and who ran 13 marathons barefoot during 2004.

My investigations were moving from theory to practice. Like a good scientist, I wanted to test these ideas to see if there was any truth in them. Inspired by my initial success, I thought I’d give running one last chance, to see if running barefoot would be the answer to my injury problems, since it still seemed contrary to me that running barefoot could cure me of my knee problems. I suspended my disbelief and gave it a try and was surprised that almost immediately, my knees stopped hurting. I was no longer crippling myself with my running technique, instead, I was taking each step gently and landing not on my heels but more towards the front of my foot. I had to take it carefully at first, since my feet had been weakened by a lifetime inside shoes. If you don’t exercise a muscle it degenerates, as do bones and connective tissues.

It took some time to strengthen my feet, but in time and with careful patience, it did happen, to the extent that after a few months of practice, I could run many times per week and run weekly mileages that were impossible when I used to wear shoes. Like most people, I started out too enthusiastically and got some blisters on the soles of my feet, but once I learned to run gracefully and with better economy, these went away, not because my skin was much thicker, but mainly because my gait was much improved.

Most people (myself included until recently) think they need shoes for running. Conventional wisdom leads us to believe that there are many reasons for needing shoes for running, Such as: “We weren’t designed to run on modern surfaces such as concrete” and “What about glass?” Well, yes, I do sometimes see glass and I have even run across glass by accident without it cutting me. I have occasionally got the odd thorn in my foot, which has not really been much of a problem. I say occasionally, I mean three times in nine months of running barefoot. How many blisters would I have acquired if I wore trainers?

I think that we have sensitive feet to give us sensory feedback, so that we can run gently and carefully, which has the effect of reducing the impact on the joints. We need all the biofeedback we can get to assist us in this endeavour and if we mask this sensory input with shoes, it actually becomes harder to run naturally. It is like learning a new language wearing ear plugs.

For running on modern surfaces, I’d say that you need all the feedback from your environment you can get, so that you can run really gently, carefully and relaxed. Many natural surfaces our ancestors must have run huge distances on were not groomed grass, but the sun baked dried river beds in Africa, littered with stones and other nasty things to tread on.

Conventional wisdom can be wrong, and should at least be questioned. It is an empowering notion.