For a long time I've thought putting kids in shoes too much and too soon is wrong. I spent a lot of my childhood completely barefoot as it's the norm in South Africa. Looks like forcing your kids to wear shoes may have a long term impact on their health and development.

Monday was a public holiday and it turned out to be a great day for running. The weather was warm, the skies clear and I was in the mood for some running.

I ran the Reading Runner's Shinfield 10k, my first 10k for the year. As this is known to be a fast flat course, I also thought it would be a good chance to set myself a new "since returning" personal best to get the running season off to a good start.

Prior to this race, my PB was 44:26 run on the Yateley 10k course. I've been training a lot more carefully and consistently this year so thought a PB was definitely on the cards and aimed for what I thought was a good time of sub-43 mins.

I started the race as I usually do - too fast - but for some reason it felt right and the pace - about 3:56 - 4:00/km - was very comfortable. Given I'm concentrating on 5k this year, I thought maybe it was because I've been consistently running as faster paces in training that this faster than planned pace felt so comfortable so I stuck with it in the belief I'd probably slow down dramatically at 5k or maybe 6. Well, I did slow down on the 5th km, but not because I was tired from going too fast, but because the 5th km had the water station in it. I've still not mastered drinking water from a cup whilst running and really miss the Miltons tasting water baggies we used to get in South Africa. The 6th, end of the 8th and all of the 9th kilometers were slow due to a strong head wind and I finished off the 10th nice a quick.

As the 8th and 9th kilometers were hard due to the wind and I like to push the last kilometer, I didn't actually check my watch for about 2.5 to 3km so had no idea how close I was to my goal of a sub-43 so imagine my surprise when I rounded the corner onto the finish straight to see the clock saying 40:30. Huh!!! 40!! I was shocked. Without even trying to I'd nearly run a sub-40 10k at the very beginning of the season.

In the end I finished in a time of 40:42 and was as chuffed to bits. I still can't believe I managed such a great time. I definitely believe I have a sub-40 min 10k in me this season but I wasn't expecting one until at least next year.

As this was a race and I'm now racing in minimalist shoes, I raced in my Vibram Five Finger Bikilas. What a good idea. Several large sections of the course had very questionable tar, some very course concrete and a long offroad section as we crossed a field between 8 and 9km. Had I been barefoot, I think my goal of sub-43 may have been a little over optimistic.

So all in all a brilliant start to the season. The official results are now out and I came 59th out of 696 runners. Not bad at all. I'll definitely be doing this one again next year.

In an attempt to deliberately drain the battery in my Garmin Forerunner 405CX to get it to correctly reflect it's battery usage (I'm sure this is a firmware bug, but Garmin don't seem to be doing anything about it), last night I set the backlight timeout to "never", enabled the backlight, enabled the GPS, started the timer and place the watch on my desk.

Today I imported the data (cos I'm curious) and check out where my watch went when I wasn't watching...

It managed to rack up 1.7km which is pretty impressive considering the window was closed too

My running is coming along nicely now and I'm regularly putting in the miles. Last year I only did 3 official races, other than the 3 free 5k Parkruns. This year I plan on doing quite a few more, so I've decided to join a running club.

At the moment, I don't need the services of a full running club. I have my own training programmes and goals and don't have the desire to join a proper running club and join in the club runs etc just yet. Most of this stems from the fact most clubs I've seen in the UK have a tendency to concentrate on the two extremes of running: marathon or track. They do a little in between like cross-country and shorter distance road running, but don't seem to put the same emphasis on these as they do for marathons or track. As I'm doing neither extreme at the moment so I decided to join an online-only running club, or what I like to call an "e-club". I've joined the...

For the princely sum of £16 (£15 membership + £1 PayPal admin fee) plus another £20.99 for the vest, I am now a fully fledged (well almost, I'm waiting for UKA to "unlock" my URN) club runner in the UK and I have the vest to go with it.

"So why join a club if you're not going to take advantage of the club runs etc?" you may be thinking. Well it's all about economics my dear Watson. Most UKA affiliated races in the UK charge on average £2 more for non-affiliated runners than they do for affiliated runnings. I believe this has to do with insurance. As an affiliated runner, you will be considered in county/country championship races (if you're that good). There could be other benefits with being affiliated but I'm not sure what they are. If anyone else knows, feel free to chime in.

One thing that struck me as a bit odd with the UK's licensing system, as becoming a UKA affiliated runner is essentially licensing, is how little is actually involved and how there is nothing to identify you to others that you're affiliated. I'm used to the South African system in which you register with Athletics South Africa and in return you receive a fabric race number to sew onto your running vest. This number is valid for a year and clearly indicates you're a licensed runner. This has the added benefit that you don't have to pin paper numbers onto your vest at each run (you need to do this in the UK) and thus you cut down on landfill, safety pins and paper cuts. In South Africa, as a licensed runner the only thing you get when you register for a race which doesn't provide it's own numbers like the Comrades or Two Ocean's marathons, is a little sticker in a small plastic bank bag which you pin to your shorts/shirt and then hand in at the end of the race. If the race uses timing chips, you don't even need them, but they're often used as a manual backup. Maybe we'll see something like this in the UK in the future, though I'm doubtful as there seems to be a fair amount of animosity towards UKA and the whole registering/affiliation thing. I'm not entirely sure why but I suspect it may have something to do with a change in the way the affiliation process several years ago. If someone has more details, I'm intrigued to know.

So I'm now an affiliated runner and have several races lined up for the summer.

In January I drew up a few goals for the year regarding the 5K distance, namely sub 19-min around about 2 April and then a sub 18-min 5K by the end of the year. Well, I think I was a little over-ambitious with these goals. The 2 April deadline came and went without a run. Problems on the home front meant there was no way I was going to be running that weekend, so I delayed my attempt. In training I soon realised I wasn't like to get sub 19-min this early in the season either, so I settled for around about 19:30 for the start of the season and we'll see how I get on from there.

Well, last Saturday I kicked off my 2011 season in fine form. It was a gloriously sunny day and I headed down the road for the Reading Parkrun, my first for the year. The weather was good and the turnout was incredible. At 9am we were sent on our way and I soon fell into the groove and had a very enjoyable run, in my Merrell Trail Gloves. I'd actually forgotten I'd set myself a mini-goal of 19:30, but ended up finishing 10th over all in a new PB of 19:33 anyway. Not bad if I say so myself. I definitely need to work on my speed, overall cardio levels and race pacing but I'm still way fitter and better than I was this time last year.

Things are going to be a little different this year on the racing front too: I'm going to be racing in shoes, well actually in Vibram Five Finger Bikilas on the road and Merrell Trail Gloves offroad. I've come to this decision for a few reasons:

1. English councils and the Highways Agency are currently in a rather frugal phase when it comes to repairing and maintaining roads. Potholes aren't repaired until someone loses their car in it and the current surfacing policy seems to be spray some sticky stuff onto the tar that's already there, throw some black stones at it and see what sticks. As a result, the roads are effectively big long stony paths with a nice build up of loose stones towards the curbs. This is a nightmare to run on barefoot and quashes any hopes of a good time.
2. I plan on spending a lot more time running offroad. I find running offroad very enjoyable and way more relaxing than running on the road. I've also got my eye on several races that are either entirely offroad or have sections which are offroad and these are generally not very conducive to barefoot running.
3. I'm gunning for some good times this year. I've got a good year's worth of training and running under my belt now, so I think I can start pushing things a bit and aiming for the times I used to run. I don't expect to be anywhere near my all-time personal bests, but I am hoping for some good times, and I don't want these attempts ruined by encountering one of the above issues.

I will however continue to do most of my training barefoot. Offroad training runs and recovery runs will likely involve shoes, but that's it.

Monday sees my first 10K of the season on the rather flat (apparently) Shinfield 10k coarse. As it's apparently a flat one and I'll be running in the Bikilias, I'm hoping for a good time to start the season off with. We'll see how it goes.

I enjoy blogging. I like to share my views and opinions and knowledge, but more importantly, I like to inspire, especially when it comes to running. The other day I received this great email from Jon which I thought others considering barefoot or minimalist running may find interesting and motivational...

Hi Colin

Just found your site (barefootrunner.co.uk) whilst searching for flat running shoes and have enjoyed what I've read.

Much like you I started running many moons ago, suffered shin splints and knee problems so gave up running, got into weights and then tried running every few years (only to find the injuries kept coming back).

A year or so ago, my wife started running, which gave me a push to try again - only this time I was armed with all the powers of the internet : ) I learnt about persistence running and decided to change how I ran and I've not looked back since - I now run mid / forefoot without any heel strike. I only run twice a week (both times off road, one 3 miler in the hills and one 4 miler on sand dunes). I wear a pair of hi-tecs with hardly any heel and virtually no cushioning at all (it's taken me several months to get to the point where I can run without the usual padding but it's so much been worth it).

I've taken it slowly as I herniated a disc in my spine 3 years ago which has taught me a lot about going steady and building on solid foundations. At the time, all the medical professionals told me that I had to give up weights but after a dose of hard graft I'm still training with weights and my back is getting stronger all the time. I'm certain that running has helped me get through this nasty injury and strangely, going through the injury has helped to teach me to be more adaptive. Consequently I am back running when before the injury I would have simply given up on it and said that "I'm not built for running" - how many times have you heard that?

I love barefoot hiking so barefoot running is something I'm working towards (or at the very least barefoot running technique combined with barefoot running shoes).

Anyhow, keep up the good work!

Cheers - Jon

And then in a separate email in response to the one I sent in response to the one above...

I like your goal setting page. I believe that setting (and attaining) progressively more difficult goals is very much the road to success - but I never forget to reward myself upon attaining them (achieving a goal is not always enough of a reward in itself). My running goal is far less specific than yours, since I'm not interested in competing (not that I currently could - LOL), all I want to achieve this year running-wise is to be able to run in the hills for an hour without it being too difficult. It's a very broad goal but with my injury I've found that broader goals are far less restrictive - but that's just me.

One thing I didn't mention was that in the last year or so I've gone from just shy of 14 stone to 12 stone and the only thing I've changed about my routine is swapping one of my 45 minute weights sessions for a 30 minute running session each week (and missing second breakfast which was a tin of rice pudding). Have I lost muscle? Probably some but since I continue to get stronger (I can deadlift 200 kilos, squat 140 kilos, bench 110 kilos and do bodyweight chins + 60 kilos) I don't really care - I'm done with looking big for the sake of looking big - functionality over form is far more my style now and running is an essential part of that functionality.

Anyway, I'm waffling, I'll let you know how I get on!

Thanks for sharing your experiences and for letting me post them here. Good luck with the running.

If anyone else has a barefoot/minimalist running experience they wish to share, feel free to drop me a line.

I've just been in Orlando, Florida giving a presentation at Collaborate 11 and just happened to come home with 4 news things in my suitcase...

A left and right one of these...

... and a left and right one of these (despite the picture, it comes with a right one too ) ...

I also got a new pair of the Vibram Five Finger Classics I already have - grey and orange - as they were on special as the colour has apparently been discontinued.

Thanks to a favorable exchange rate, I've saved an absolute fortune. Now to give them each a good spin and then I'll write a review on each of them. Both pairs of shoes have had a single 6km run and so far so good, but I want to give them a few more kilometers to get a good feel for them. Watch this space.

This week I find myself in the tropical (read: sweltering humid heat) of Orlando Florida as I'm presenting at Collaborate 11 on Tuesday morning.

Travelling always has an effect on my training in two ways:

1. It's much harder to find time to squeeze in the good workouts I desire, and if I do find the time, the lack of familiarity with the environment makes it hard to come up with good routes for my sessions. Thankfully, I had a bumper week this week on the mileage front, so I can take things a bit easier next week. A series of long gentle runs should be sufficient to allow my body to recover after last week's efforts, provided the heat doesn't kill me first.
2. My diet goes to pot. Restaurant food just isn't the same as home cooked food and often contains way more calories and "bad stuff". I also love the opportunity to try new food when in foreign countries (especially when I'm expensing my meals ) and I find I turn to the plethora of junk foods and sweets we don't get in the UK just to see what they're like.

Not this time. This time I'm making a concerted effort to keep my diet in check. No fast food and where possible no chips, potatoes, rice or bread. I've chosen these four ingredients to concentrate on as they are the fillers almost every restaurant uses to fill their plates. This inevitably leads to over eating and by the end of the week, the last thing I want to eat is chips, potatoes, rice or bread. Instead I'm asking for substitutes: extra veggies, beans, salad or nothing and I'll add a side salad. Oh yes, and NO fizzy pop. The US has gargantuan sized soft drinks and in this heat I can easily see myself gulping loads of fizzy pop, especially Mountain Dew and Coke, if I'm not careful. Instead I'm having beer (they're smaller than in the UK) and water only.

If I'm diligent with this, I think I may actually lose weight this week, eat better and feel better for it. I'm also hoping it will help with the jetlag and accordingly I've set it as a mini-goal for myself. If I don't lose any weight, so what, but if I do I suspect I'll feel better in the long run than I normally do when cross-timezone travelling.

Update - 19 April 2011: I can confirm I did indeed lose weight whilst travelling on business. Weighed myself today and clocked in at 80.7, down from 81.7. I think this is the first time I've lost weight whilst travelling, especially to the US.

Are you a runner - barefoot isn't essential? Are you a stickler for recording your training runs? Are you interested in helping a PhD student with her studies in the field of running injury causes and prevention? Keen on being a guinea pig in the name of science doing what you love? Fancy showing the world that barefoot running is good for you? Well, then drop Jenny Perkins at the University of Bath an email and offer your services.

To quote the article...

A University of Bath researcher is looking for keen runners to keep an online diary of their training habits and injuries, to help find out how they can reduce common running injuries.

PhD student Jenny Perkins, from the University’s Department for Health, will analyse the information to look at links between the type of training runners are doing, distance, age and injury.

She hopes to be able to tell runners what they can do to reduce their risk of injury, such as shin splints, back problems and knee pain.

Jenny is looking to recruit at least 1,000 volunteers from across the UK to the study, to log their training and injuries into a free online training diary over 12 months.

Runners of any ability are invited to take part if they are doing a minimum of three hours of running per week. Participants must be UK residents and aged over 18 years of age.

There is no upper age limit to the study and Jenny is particularly interested to find out about age-related differences in injury and training habits.

Being a barefoot runner, a stickler for logging my runs, eager to help others in their running and also eager to help add some barefoot runners to the study, I've offered my services and I think it would be great if more barefoot runners did too.

You can find more details about the study and contact details in the article I've referenced and on the University of Bath Running Injury and Training Audit (RITA) page.

And thanks go to Jonathan Gledson for making me aware of this study.

A great post in which Ian Griffiths smashes the 4 common myths used by almost every running shop and publication, including Runner's World, when it comes to selecting running shoes for a runner.

Whilst this isn't barefoot specific, it is running related and certainly worth a read.