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 :
