First time out on a run with the Vibrams. Unlike Colin who dived right into FF and Barefoot running right away, mine was more of a transitional process from Heel Strike, to FF, to Barefoot...different for a few reasons.
1. Heel strike is...well....heel strike.
2. FF meant that I had to adjust my running style again, resulting in a slightly painful learning process that lasted 2-3 days of sore limbs.
Going barefoot, however, meant that this time round my runs were cushion-less, and when transiting from cushion to none cushion, the difference is pretty significant. First you notice one thing is that you land too hard on your front feet when you take cushioning for granted, even if you thought your landings were already pretty mild since there's no sense of "stomping" as you hit the pavement, going barefoot makes you realise that there's still work to be done.
Distance wasn't so much an issue, yesterday's whole day out with the Vibrams pretty much seasoned them for today's run. The timing is slightly slower than with cushioning, I think partly cause I had to close up my steps to prevent my feet from hurting so much when they landed. Took me about 1km or so to get used to landing FF without cushioning, quite an experience.With cushioning too you take another thing for granted...road conditions. My current route saw me run over stones, a train track, pedestrian bumps (The many circular bumps like you'd find at MRT stations), etc. Normally with regular shoes you just brisk pass them without a hitch, no biggie, hop on and be on your way. Vibrams, on the other hand, sucks when you strike pebbles, it's not a very pleasant feeling, you feel every bump under your feel, and you find yourself avoiding odd textured surfaces to prevent hurting yourself. One thing good about modern day footwear is that developers have made it in such a way that these are the things in life we don't have to worry so much about, kudos to them, Vibrams are more like a "deal with it" concept.
Overall the run was pretty decent on the whole, 6km wasn't that bad, but without the cushioning it meant that my shin felt a little sore after the run, maybe from the initial pounding when I was still adjusting my steps.
At the end of the day though, whether be it for cushioning, heel strike, barefoot, forefoot, mid foot, to sum up my thoughts of running...
It still kinda sucks.
@Ngau Kee & Meng Kee, I do this for you.
7 comments:
Feeling the terrain is one of the highlights of barefoot because it connects you to the ground you are running on.
And if it affects you too much, then you are definitely pounding too hard with your forefoot. It helps to think of yourself as a ninja, running through silently.
Sore shins are inevitable if you start running so far so soon. You were supposed to start with 1 to 2km only for new VFFs owners. =p
There was an interesting write up about VFFs in yesterday's straits times - sports section.
Lol I thought the 1-2km was referring to if your feet were not used to the shoes.
But ok la, shins hurt for only awhile. Now its gone.
Not sure about running Vibrams in KL since not used to it yet, hopefully can la. =)
Feet getting used to shoes is one thing.
Shoes being broken in for running is another..
You are on the express track already.
Hm, when do I know they are broken in? Cause they do feel broken in already though, no discomfort in terms of wearing and running, most of the "pain" didn't come from the shoe actually, more so the run itself and parts of the body that needed to get used to BF running
Hm, when do I know they are broken in? Cause they do feel broken in already though, no discomfort in terms of wearing and running, most of the "pain" didn't come from the shoe actually, more so the run itself and parts of the body that needed to get used to BF running
My feet gets uncomfortable and sometimes painful in my earlier VFFs just from walking after a few hours.
Strangely, I was out in my KSO yesterday but it felt fine.
Just focus more on your stride and landing. Now you know how it feels when I ran the Salomon trail race. I became a full fledge ninja after that. It was on the job training for landing.
Hm, I think the KSOs are pretty comfortable and easy to move around in, maybe it breaks in pretty easily.
Ya need to work on landing, so far so good la, I expect to get used to the technique by the next 1-2 runs
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