I know I have long been running in the wrong type of shoes. I am always running on grass, trails, or dirt roads, yet I wear the clunky, cushioned road shoes with a tall heel.
Not only is it easy to twist an ankle in the road shoes, but it makes my running form inefficient. Last year I made an attempt to run mid-foot, instead of striking heel first, but the bulky heels made it difficult to do.
I recently received a comment from Mazie, whom I did not know. I visited her blog, and found that she is a long distance runner who wants to run an ultra marathon before she turns 30.
In her latest post she writes of buying her first pair of trail shoes. I had been contemplating not only buying trail shoes during the past 6 months, but also wanting the shoes to be minimal, so as to mimic barefoot running.
I started running barefoot in my training last spring, and I continued through the fall season. When I started, the soles of my feet were soft and tender, so I could only run a few hundred meters on grass per session. By summer my feet had toughened, and I found I could run a couple of miles on the grass loop at the arboretum. In late autumn I ran 4 miles barefoot at 7:00 pace in a rainstorm with the local high school cross country team - I felt fast and happy that day!
Now that winter has arrived, I have not been able to run barefoot too often. I ran without shoes a couple of weeks ago, but my feet went numb from cold after 1 loop.
Thanks to Mazie's recent post, I was inspired to buy 3 pairs of minimalist trail running shoes online today, hoping they give me the feel and power of running in my bare feet. I also hope they make running mid-foot easier than my normal road trainers.
I am looking forward to their arrival!
The shoes :
Teva X-1 Racer
New Balance 790
New Balance Cross Country Spikes
One of my favorite Olympic moments :
4 comments:
Wow...what an excellent post. Thanks for mentioning me. I can't wait to hear how you like your new trail running sneakers! I should be getting mine in a few days! The anticipation is killing me!!! I love that clip of Pre. I have a big poster of him in my basement so I can look at it when I'm running on the treadmill.
Thanks for the inspiration, Mazzie!
I am looking forward to getting my new shoes, too.
I ordered another pair today, some Nike waffle racing flats, something for me to run 5k's and shorter trail runs in.
After years of plodding in boot shoes, I can't imagine how these new minimal shoes will feel.
Hope you are having a good week of training...
Huge fan of that clip too. Having been in my fair amount of 5k rodeos on the track, I wonder what was going through Pre's head over that last push. I have seen both movies (Without Limits and Prefontaine), and the have read the articles and books, but at that point in the race one's mind can do very interesting things. Pre was probably angry and spitting fire when he passed Viren that last time, but I wonder if Viren really did get into his head, just a little with his earlier astounding 10k win.
Rob,
Thanks for your views on this race. I am too slow to participate in a track 5k, but I can imagine it must be more mentally difficult than on the roads.
In the final turn it looked like Pre had made up his mind to sprint all out, it made Verin turn his head and look concerned. Then, as pre passed, he slowed down, allowing Verin to make his move for home - that seemed to be the high point of tension in the race.
I am looking forward to reading more of your blog.
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