A couple of weeks ago Chris McDougall caused another little stir in the barefoot/minimalist running world with an article for The New York Times entitled The Once and Future Way to Run. Within this article he mentions something called the 100-Up exercise...

Earlier this year, I may have found it. I was leafing through the back of an out-of-print book, a collection of runners’ biographies called “The Five Kings of Distance,” when I came across a three-page essay from 1908 titled “W. G. George’s Own Account From the 100-Up Exercise.” According to legend, this single drill turned a 16-year-old with almost no running experience into the foremost racer of his day.

I read George’s words: “By its constant practice and regular use alone, I have myself established many records on the running path and won more amateur track-championships than any other individual.” And it was safe, George said: the 100-Up is “incapable of harm when practiced discreetly.”

Could it be that simple? That day, I began experimenting on myself.

[... two pages later ...]

Last fall, at the end of a local 10-mile trail race, I surprised myself by finishing five minutes faster than I had four years ago, when I was in much better shape. I figured the result was a fluke — until it happened again. No special prep, awful travel schedule and yet a personal best in a six-mile race.

“I don’t get it,” I told Cucuzzella this past June when we went for a run together through the Shepherd University campus in Shepherdstown. “I’m four years older. I’m pretty sure I’m heavier. I’m not doing real workouts, just whatever I feel like each day. The only difference is I’ve been 100-Upping.”

Naturally, this last bit got everyone excited and within days, Justin of Birthday Shoes fame, knocked up a dedicated site - HundredUp - to raise awareness and put out a challenge to people to try it themselves for 30 days and report back.

Naturally, as I'm keen on learning about improving my performance, I read through McDougall's article, watched the video, and read through the HundredUp site. McDougall's demonstration of the exercise in the video in the NYT article instantly rang bells, but I couldn't place why.

It was only this weekend that I worked it out... this is a lot like the "tapping" and "change of support" exercises from POSE running, except with more emphasis on high knees than on bringing the foot up under your body.

Compare for yourself. First, the 100-Up video which shows the minor and major:

Next, the tapping and change of support exercises from POSE (the commentary is in German, but you're only meant to be looking at the pictures )...

Interesting stuff. Of course there will be some overlap in methods taught - I'm sure Chi Running probably has a similar exercise too - and for all I know, Dr. Romanov could have taken some of his inspiration from W.G. George's 100-ups.

Whatever the reasoning, I think any exercise that encourages people to land on their mid-foot or forefoot and that strengthens the muscles and tendons around that area is better than nothing at all.

Following on from my post about whether Peter should start with shoes and then transition to barefoot, or start barefoot from the go, I stumbled upon an article - The Barefoot Route - about running barefoot in which the following useful bit of advice is given on starting out...

According to exercise physiologist and Olympic marathoner Pete Pfitzinger, the key to starting out is to go slowly. He advises walking barefoot for a few weeks to toughen up the skin on the bottom of the foot as well as the muscles in the ankles and feet. Once you are ready to run, start with a mere five minutes, increasing slowly and running barefoot every couple of days. From there, build to up to 20 minutes over a month. After a few weeks of this, the feet and ankles will be stronger, thus reducing the risk of injury. Possible places to train include sandy beaches and golf courses.

The barefoot running technique has been described as falling forward. It has also been described as gently kissing the ground with the balls of your feet. If you need one more concept to meditate on while running barefoot, imagine that a log is lying across the path in front of you; you don’t want to kick the front of the log with your toes. You want to step over the log with each step, keeping your knee bent and placing the ball of your foot immediately behind the log as your chest moves over the top of it.

The article is a good read and provides some useful information and answers some questions people have about the thought of running barefoot My favourite question answered is...

“What do you use for arch support?” some might ask. “My arch,” is probably usually the first answer that pops out of the mouth of die-hard barefooters.

Damn right. That's what it's there for . Time for another barefoot run for me.

Oh, and if you think you get strange looks running with Vibrams, you should see the looks you get when running completely kaalvoet.