This is the full barefoot story, unedited, unabridged uninterpolated (yep, just made a new word.) I wrote a little post on Barefoot Running back in May in response to a comment a friend on Facebook made and an article I read that was against barefoot running (which I recommend to my friend Jon who has inspired this particular post at this particular time. I don't know if the post of his is accessible to all, but here's the link so give it a read if you'd like http://www.facebook.com/#!/note.php?note_id=409842761731 I hope that's okay Jon:)
Last year I was getting back in triathlons. You have to know that when I was injured I started biking and swimming and this made me become interested in triathlons. The first triathlon I ever did was an Olympic distance and I had a lot of success placing third overall and posting a pretty good time. (You can take a look at my PRs and Times page if you're interested to know more.) Anyways, so I was getting back into triathlons, hoping to improve, which I did, and after my first race of the season last May 2009, I wasn't really enjoying triathlons. I wasn't really enjoying any exercise including running which I always had and I didn't know what I wanted to do.
So I prayed and I searched and I got an answer. The answer came at church, which is where it rarely comes for me personally. Don't get me wrong, I love church, but most of my answers from God have come when I have been alone somewhere. Anyways, at church this guy named Gian, who eventually became I really good friend of mine, told me he had read a book called Born to Run and that I would be interested. I read it and I can't share everything in this post, go read it for yourself, but it advocates barefoot running.
Since I wasn't really training for anything I said, "Well, I've got nothing to lose, I don't really care what happens right now. If this doesn't work at least I'll know it doesn't work, rest, recover, move on with my life and try something else." So I started running barefoot. Almost every single workout I did was barefoot. I never ran barefoot on cement or asphalt etc. Always at parks. Small parks, big parks, parks with lots of trees, fields with no trees. I did up to 18-mile runs barefoot. I did tempo runs, fartleks, repeat 400s, 800s, 1600s and obviously easy runs all barefoot.
Since high school I had suffered IT-band tendinitis and when I started running barefoot my injuries literally vanished, disappeared. The only injury I got was when I was crossing the street and I stepped on a rock and I'm pretty sure I bruised my heel.
One day I did a 4-mile time trial all out, all by myself and I did it as fast as I had done a 4-mile race when I was at my peak of running when I was a freshman at BYU trying out for the BYU Cross-Country team the first time. When I did that I knew that barefoot running had been an answer to my prayers, for me, and I started thinking about trying out for the BYU team again.
Unfortunately I got heat exhaustion right before the try-outs so I felt miserable, did half of the workouts with the team and then surprised myself at the 4-mile race running 30 seconds faster than I ever had before. Then I took a month off to recover from the heat exhaustion.
I came back thinking I would start small, like at the 4oo meters and work my way up and I started doing a lot of speed work on the track and some distance barefoot, but not much. With the sudden onset of intense exercise and with the exercise taking place on a hard-surface I was injured with either one or two stress fractures (the reason I say one or two is because it was confirmed in my right foot, but didn't tell the doctor about the identical pain the left foot because I didn't want to pay any extra money for x-rays and other stuff.)
Now, side note: One thing that critics say is that not enough real experts are coming out with evidence for barefoot running. Well according to my studies there's not a ton coming out with it against it either. I don't think many Athletic Trainers, Exercise Scientists, Exercise Physiologists and Biomechanic pros/experts/professors etc have done sufficient enough studies. Many people who argue against it or who don't have an opinion are the ones wearing a big swoosh (Nike) on their chest, arm, shorts etc. or any other sponsorship/endorsement. Don't get me wrong, I like Nike and I think their products are hot. So that's a point I want to make, that not enough research has been done.
I agree with my buddy Jon that evolution within humans has taken place. I think there is wonderful ground for argument there.
Something always has made sense to me, and you can see it on the videos I have here on my Barefoot page, is that running shoes create poor running form and biomechanics. With a huge heel, nice, cushy and heavy there is a tendency, almost a forced tendency in my opinion, to land heel first. I had a doctor tell to land heel first when I run. She was not a runner. Anyone who studies running knows that landing heel first puts on the breaks, creates more chance to get injured etc. Landing on the forefoot is where you want to land, but with running shoes that's difficult to do all the time, unless you train in racing flats or waffles or spikes which I prefer. Moral: improper biomechanics can cause any number of injuries, injuries I didn't experience running barefoot.
I guess to the critics, first, I love you. I'm glad you have your reservations because that's how we get answers. That's how discoveries and breakthroughs are made, keep it up! Second, don't trash it 'til you try it. Unless you have a major sponsorship with a major shoe company and your career and life on at stake and on the line I challenge you to try it. I was running 30-70 miles weekly barefoot, so give that I try before you analyze your way out of it. What do you have to lose? If you want to be a scientist, experiment. There's no better person than yourself to experiment on, unless you have a lot of money or a grant and you can pay people. Now there's an idea!
I've been running in the Vibram Five Fingers since last year too, a couple months after I started running barefoot. Then I was unemployed, was able to run a lot more, then I got a job and decided that the most economical, time-saving and practical thing to do was to run to and from work (13.5 miles total) which I did for a week and a half, all on roads and mostly in shoes and sometimes in my Vibrams. This last Wednesday I had sudden-onset Achilles tendon extreme pain, which never happened with barefoot. Who the heck know all the reasons why. I'm waking up super early, running a lot of mileage etc.
Other side note: Kenyans and Ethiopians are the best runners hands down. From the 800 meters to the marathon, they are the best, no question. Throw some Moroccans in there and bam! world domination. Many times growing up they train without shoes, not necessarily because the want to or because someone has told them that's the best way to train but because they don't have the means to get shoes. Yes, there are many other things to take into consideration: elevation, diet, lifestyle, physiology, economy etc. but the last time I looked they were human like us, only they didn't have shoes.
The last point has to do with grounding and connecting with planet earth. Removing the rubber barrier between us and Her. But if you want to know more about that you'll have to read about it yourself at http://healing.about.com/od/grounding/Grounding_Root_Yourself_Into_The_Earth.htm or http://healing.about.com/od/grounding/tp/grounding.htm.
That's my story and I'm sticking to it. Run Fearless.
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