I was using Lynn as my sacrificial canary, she was running far ahead but everytime she wailed and started hopping from foot to foot I knew to make ever such a slight detour.
Not that it worked very well, we hopped and squealed almost evenly.
So marked the start of our true barefoot experience.
I’ve been trying out the minimal footwear such as Vibram Five Fingers and Soft Star RunAmoc for a few weeks but yesterday I was inspired to try running completely unshod. I had been listening to the rather excellent Living Barefoot Podcast which featured an interview with Michael Sandler. Michael is a hugely enthusiastic barefoot runner with a fantastic story to tell. I’ve heard other barefoot officianados’ say that you should really start barefoot before transitioning to a minimal shoe but that just sounded counter intuitive to me. Michael spoke at length in the interview and was incredibly infectious, so much so that today I managed to persuade Lynn to venture out of the door clutching our shoes in our hands.
We ran tentatively but were definitely up on our toes. With gritty tarmac roads for our debut attempt we wanted to ensure that our feet had only the tiniest contact with the ground. I was the slowest to become accustomed to the feeling but I developed a rhythm of two steps followed by a medial swipe down my inside leg – to dislodge embedded gravel.
We made it 300m before deciding enough was enough and we finished the rest of the mile – me in my RunAmocs and Lynn in my Nike Frees.
Originally published on my warriorwomen blog.
Topics: Running, Sport | No Comments »
