Barefoot Runner

For several years now I've had a recurring discomfort and sometimes searing pain in my lower back and right sacroiliac joint. I can't pin-point any one action that causes the discomfort or anything that aggravates it, but it seems to crop up every 3 to 4 months and then hangs about for a month or two. Then all is well until it's next occurrence several months later.

I have managed to work out that if I am feeling the discomfort, it's easier for me to take things one step further into the world of excruciating pain if I sit a bit wonky on the sofa and get up without correcting my posture first. Thankfully I can catch this just as it starts to pinch and avoid the pain, though I have caught myself 3 times "pinching" something without any warning. This has left me almost immobile for a week at a time.

As this seems to be a recurrent thing that isn't going away, I'm off to the physio today to get a full assessment. Hopefully that will shed some light on the cause and provide a means to resolve it. I suspect it may be due to my slightly wonky spine.

On the running side of things, the last two weeks have been good. No problems with my running at all and I'm feeling great. I'm deliberately taking things quite slowly so I don't introduce any problems and have decided to follow a more structured training programme. Hopefully the gradual increase in volume and pace will keep things on course for a cracking race in about 16 weeks time. Until then I'll be keeping the racing to a bare minimum.

Woohooo!!!! I'm running again folks and boy does it feel good to be back out there running.

It's been just over 6 weeks since I hurt my foot and I decided yesterday was the day to finally head out and test how my foot has recovered. I can say it was a great success. I took a gentle 1 mile out-and-back run and all felt good. I could feel a slight niggle on the top of my left foot during the early stages but this soon disappeared as my muscles relaxed and I adjusted my form. As I was feeling so good, I threw in 4 sets of 10 burpees with each set immediately followed by a fast 50m run. Wow these felt good. It was tough towards the end but quite exciting to feel what it feels like to run on legs that feel like jelly again.

Surprisingly, my legs and feet all feel tip-top this morning, so 6 weeks off hasn't de-conditioned me much. That said, my feet are a bit more sensitive now.

The time not running wasn't all lost time. During this time I have discovered quite a bit about my stride, feet and legs.

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I know this is a bit short notice, but I've been a tad on the excessively busy side of things are work and really haven't wanted to touch a computer when I got home.

If you're interested in taking the plunge into barefoot running, but want to be sure you're doing it right or with a bit of guidance, why not take advantage of the Barefoot Experience Workshops Terra Plana are hosting next week...

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A couple of months ago Jason Robillard approached me asking if I'd be interested in reviewing his book The Barefoot Running Book: A Practical Guide to the Art and Science of Barefoot and Minimalist Shoe Running. Being one eager to see how others can learn about barefoot running, I graciously accepted Jason's offer and a couple of weeks later a copy of his booked dropped through the letterbox. Thanks Jason.

The first thing that struck me was the size of the book, or more precisely the lack there of. The book is A5 in dimensions and has only 52 pages of reading material, excluding the exercises and appendix at the back, however the lack of size is easily made up by the wealth of information contained within. The book is broken up into 5 progressive sections: Why Barefoot Running, Pre-running, Starting to Run Barefoot, Intermediate Barefoot Running and finally Other Topics which covers things like hecklers, training and cross training.

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A couple of weeks ago, I received the following query in a comment...

Hi,
I'm a Physio based in Guildford. I've been looking into barefoot running for the last 6 months having had repetitive shin splints from running in expensive shoes-and finally found some fivefingers on sale. So I've taken the plunge and ordered some kso's to test the whole barefoot running out of both personal and professional interest. Can I ask, how did you start out? What sort of training plan would you advise?
Thanks,
Joe

I started to write a response to the comment in the comments section of that post and realised it was becoming a rather long response and should probably warrant it's own post so others can find it too. So here it is and sorry about the delay in writing it Joe, it's been a crazy few weeks.

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Still annoyed by the fact I managed to sideline myself for several weeks, I've been reviewing my training logs and thinking long and hard about what I did to hurt my foot. Have I done this right? Did I do that wrong? Could I have done something different? And that's when it struck me: yes I could have done something different. I could have put my ego/desires in my pocket and listened to my body, but I didn't.

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It's been a week now since I ran the second Yateley 10k in which I cracked 45 minutes, but also developed a pain on the top of my foot and I think the top-of-foot-pain (ToFP) may be a stress fracture of the 3rd metatarsal.

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Wednesday evening saw the running of the second of the three Yateley 10k races in the series, and like the first one, I ran it barefoot.

I'd had a bit of a sedentary two weeks building up to the race following the onset of the early signs of the dreaded top of foot pain (ToFP) that cropped up during my piggies hill training session on 22 June. With only a single tabata rowing session done between then and the race I went in the race very relaxed and rested with my foot feeling good too.

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