How many people run barefoot?

I'm thinking of giving it a try on some of the surrounding moorland more out of curiosity than anything else. But I'm such a jessie that the first scrape, pinch or nick will probably send me hurtling back to the shoe cupboard in a blind panic...

Its been a slow progression, moving from supportive shoes on roads, to more minimalist shoes on fells, to thinking well why not give it a try? I've found that the more I strip back the support, the less injured I seem to get.

Except when I fall over, which is happening a lot lately.

I had a 200yd jog across the field at Burnsall last summer without shoes after a wash down in the river following the fell race and it felt amazing. What concerns me is I already suffer with tight calves and the thought of making it worse by running without shoes. As it is I only wear Walsh PBs and Inov-8 285, which are both pretty lightweight and low-profile anyway

2 people "only run barefoot"?

Care to elaborate either of you? I'd find this hard to believe under normal circumstances. Is this during a current period of rehab from injury?

Hi

In my original post I did say I run in minimal footwear, VFF flow Treks. I have just found that whenever I do anything in shoes with cushioning I get injurerd. I seem to be doing fine without cushioned shoes, so do not feel tempted to try them again.

I do about half a mile a day completely barefoot and intend to increace this as the soles of my feet get tougher.

James

I tried 5mins of barefoot running on the treadmill last night. It’s a pretty old treadmill so if you run with a heel strike the whole machine rocks however when running with your forefoot, small strides and slightly bent knees there was no rocking or movement at all from the treadmill at all!

That's the idea - heel-striking when barefoot hurts, so the theory is that barefoot running teaches you to run biomechanically more efficiently, and by landing on the mid to forefoot there is less direct impact force travelling through the legs.

I've recently started doing barefoot running on a grass playing field as part of my interval training, up to about 1600m. Early to say about benefits, but it hasn't caused me any problems as yet and it feels great.

Interestingly, although I feel like I'm actually running with less effort (possibly from concentrating on where I plant my feet to avoid anything sharp and trying to land on the midfoot) my interval times are almost exactly the same as in my cushioned road shoes or fell shoes. I get the feeling that I could go much faster barefoot tahn with shoes once my confidence and technique has improved.

One thing that really puzzles me though, is why are minimalist shoes made with less materials more expensive than other running shoes? Does seem that this is a bit of a bandwagon being jumped on at the moment (and I'm far to stingy to splash out £100 on a pair of VFFs!)

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Originally Posted by stumpy

One thing that really puzzles me though, is why are minimalist shoes made with less materials more expensive than other running shoes? Does seem that this is a bit of a bandwagon being jumped on at the moment (and I'm far to stingy to splash out £100 on a pair of VFFs!)

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The cost of minimalist shoes if a good old fashioned protection racket from running shoe manufacturers... we've been hurting you for years without you knowing and now we're going to make you pay through the nose for not hurting you.

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Originally Posted by nikalas

The cost of minimalist shoes if a good old fashioned protection racket from running shoe manufacturers... we've been hurting you for years without you knowing and now we're going to make you pay through the nose for not hurting you.

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This might sound a bit simplistic. But couldn't you just land on the balls of your feet when running in shoes? If you knew you were supposed to be training towards that, you could concentrate on it.

I don't heel strike when I walk barefoot, but I do when I walk in shoes. Might the same thing happen for people who train barefoot sometimes and in shoes other times. If your goal is to learn to run properly in shoes, shouldn't you train that?

good point, I've been trying to run like this "in shoes" but its a concoius effort. but the "very few" test runs I've done barefoot I seem to run forefoot automatically.

I would be intrested in hearing if you can "re program" your gait by including barefoot into your training "unconcoiusly"?

I've just had an idea that will make someone a million dollars (maybe Zimbabwean dollars). It trains people to forefoot strike when running, without the need to buy faddy expensive "barefoot" shoes.

What do people reckon?

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Originally Posted by noel

I've just had an idea that will make someone a million dollars (maybe Zimbabwean dollars). It trains people to forefoot strike when running, without the need to buy faddy expensive "barefoot" shoes.

What do people reckon?

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Good idea Noel. Maybe step it up to a drawing pin for rapid adaptation!