Early morning, the day after I had bought my vivobarefoot, I went for a first trial run. At this point I had not studied the barefoot running technique in detail, and in retrospect that is why I soon reached my limits. I knew that unlike with regular running shoes you cannot hit the ground heels first - the heel is bony and not elastic at all, so it cannot act as a spring to cushion the impacts from running.
After realizing that I had to do something about the situation, I browsed through the vivobarefoot homepage and acquired a style of running where one hits the ground first with the balls of the feet.
I am not sure any more, but I think in the beginning I even forgot to touch the ground with the heel at all. This is also a mistake, because you only move this way during a sprint - otherwise, the heel should hit the ground right after the balls of the feet.
When you start barefoot running, you will realize how much more of your calf muscles are being used that compared to jogging. On the first day I stopped already after three kilometers, but I still had the worst muscle ache of my life (so far). Even normal walking would be a pain for a week. At the same time, I did not feel my joints at all - which was in stark contrast to the time before when I was still going jogging style. Besides my calves, I also felt the muscles in my feet, which is good. Those muscles are crucial for cushioning the impacts, and they need some time to develop.
The first three weeks I only went running every 3-4 days due to the constant muscle soreness I experienced. Step by step I increased the distance of my runs to about 8km. I also started to do some short sprints on a meadow in between the laps. In the beginning, I did have some issues with the muscles in my left foot, so I had some breaks from sprinting as well. But in retrospect, that is not surprising since the strain on your muscles is several times bigger when sprinting than during normal constant runs. (By now, my feet are really well accustomed to even longer sprints)
Another issue in the beginning was the concrete on the roads and main ways. I ran many rounds through Wasserpark in Floridsdorf and tried to run as much on the grass as possible. With barefoot shoes you start to realize how much natural ground is compared to asphalt. So when you are a beginner of barefoot running, I recommend you to take your time and run somewhere with a lot of grass (a forest would also work nicely).
I got used to the almost omnipresent asphalt step by step. After about three weeks I was ready to run around the whole alte Donau for the first time after going barefoot - without trying to avoid paved ways as much as possible. Afterwards, I hardly ever had any more troubles like being sore, and my joint pains had gone completely. So it seemed like I was already fully accustomed to the barefoot running style.
Technique
The decisive progress came when, while looking for appropriate vivobarefoot shoes for everyday life, I came across the running-technique section on the homepage. They have a lot of informative paragraphs as well as several short videos that explain the technique really well. I will not go into detail about the barefoot running style here because I will do that in a separate post soon. What is important is that running the correct way (as opposed to jogging, where you land heel first) feels much more relaxed and less strenuous. After you are used to it, you will find that you can run faster and longer than before. After 2-3 trainings I had acquired the right style so that I did not have to think about the right way to land with the feet any more.
Keine Kommentare:
Kommentar veröffentlichen