Miles and Marathons: Drum Roll, Please...

Whenever I blog, all I can think of is Bob Loblaw's Law Blog. There, I said it. Now that that's out of my system, I can write what will probably be the most important post I will write on here. Not that my other posts aren't important, but this one is what the blog is all about. Whether you're one of the people who thinks I'm absolutely crazy or someone who is interested and is looking for information, I hope to settle the curiosity that is barefoot running here. Please bare with me, there's a ton of information on the topic and while I'll try to give you the highlights, I can't promise that this will be short.

Now, for a "quick" disclaimer: The closest I am to being an expert is having extensive personal experience, having read a great many articles and books on the subject over an expanse of time, earnest interest...oh, and I'm taking human biology this semester. I'm not a coach, I'm not a sports physicist, and I'm definitely not a doctor. That considered, as much as I dislike doctors, you should probably check with yours before changing any of your exercise and dietary habits, start a new exercise program, blah, blah, blah, and so forth. I feel like I have to put that in here. However, I do implore you to do some research of your own. You'll learn a lot that way and will be able to decide for yourself if barefoot running is something you'll be interested in trying. This method of running is a bit controversial, depending on which experts and research you chose to believe. I beg of you, please keep an open mind. I would never try to interest anyone in anything that I didn't think was worth their while.

That said, I suppose I should explain what exactly makes up barefoot running. There are three basic types of barefoot running. First, there's minimalist running. The style of running is the same as barefoot running, but the shoes are a little more conventional-looking. Should you get into running with minimalist shoes, for example, you'd be wearing something like these. Next is the type I'm into, where you wear something like a shoe-glove. While they look downright odd, they're as close as you get to running barefoot while protecting your feet from the elements. By "the elements" I mean broken glass on the side of the road. Not something you want embedded into your foot if you desire to run. For an idea, my shoes look like this:

The final style is running without anything on your feet, should you desire to be hardcore. When I ran the Eden 5K this August, one of the men who placed ran without anything on his feet. This man has more cahones than I could ever dream of having, mostly because I don't want to step on anything sharp. However, these kinds of runners eventually develop thick calluses on the bottoms of their feet which act as a protective barrier from sharp pointy objects and scalding hot blacktop. I don't have the patience to develop calluses of this caliber, so I wear the shoe-gloves. There is another kind of shoe one would wear, and it's more of a sandal that looks like you stole Hermes's shoes and ripped the wings off. More on that, later.

For those who are in the group wondering why on Earth anyone would run without arch support, I would like to ask you this: Were you born wearing shoes? In fact, when I was working back at the shoe store, we generally discouraged mothers from buying shoes for their babies until they learned to walk. Why? Babies need the sensational feedback from the ground to learn to balance. It's naturally how we learn to walk and run. Arch support is a modern convenience that man made to cushion the feet. However, arch support has a great disadvantage.

The Romans knew that the arch was one of the strongest architectural formations, which is why they used it to support many of their structures, most commonly seen on the aqueducts and the Colosseum. The advantage of the arch is that the weight applied to the top is equally destributed throughout the structure. However, should one put pressure on the underside of the arch, this completely defeats the purpose of the structure and the arch becomes weak. The same applies to the arch of your foot. By supporting your arch, you are weakening it.

Another issue with conventional running shoes is that they force one to land on their heel when running. However, when you run naturally, you land on the ball of your foot with your knee already bent slightly, and then come down to your heel before pushing off with the ball of your foot again. This is seen in the following video:

Also, the cushion of the shoes can be a menace. The cushion in running shoes is designed for shock absorption, which is designed to take the shock out of your knees. The shock is indeed absorbed by the shoe, but every action has an equal and opposite reaction. The shock is then bounced back up your leg, defeating the purpose of the shoe.

Some may say that they bought super expensive shoes because they either overpronate or supinate. Either one of these problems is characterized by hitting with your heel, and either rolling to the outside or inside of your foot before you reach the ball of your foot. Should you switch to barefoot running, you will naturally strike with the ball of your foot, eliminating the pronation or supination that is caused by a heel strike. Since many sports injuries are caused by such problems, by switching to barefoot running, you could eliminate such injuries altogether.

Barefoot running uses different muscle groups than conventional running. Most of the strength comes from your feet, calves, and abdominal muscles. The strength of your ankles will increase, as well, giving your better stability and balance. Don't be surprised if your feet become muscular looking. It's not my favorite side effect of running barefoot, but I prefer that to shinsplints and balance problems.

Should you decide to run barefoot, you'll want to change your form. Usually, this happens naturally as you get used to the shoe. For proper form, your shoulders should be relaxed, you should be hitting with the ball of your foot and rolling to your heel, and you should lean forward slightly from your ankles. This will give you the feeling of falling forward. This is what you want. Let gravity help propel you forward. Your feet should lightly hit the ground (no pavement pounding, ladies and gents) and then kick back toward your butt. You'll feel like you're shuffling rather than running, and you won't be taking long strides but your feet will be moving rapidly.

For those starting in barefoot running, I would suggest easing into it. It will take some time before you get used to the stride, the form, and the different muscle usage. However, the lack of injury and the natural feel are well worth the practice. If you are training for an event, please finish your event and then try running the new way. It will take a lot of getting used to, like I said, and that might interrupt your training if you're changing over before an event. This might mess with your time, as well. You'd only be shorting yourself on that one, so please wait until you are done with your event. In the meantime, try switching to shoes without arches (I wear solely flip-flops, ballet flats, and flat-soled boots). Walk around barefoot as much as you can. Naked feet are happy feet.

The Cons:

Of course, I will not tell you that barefoot running is for everyone. I strongly suggest that you do your research before starting a new running style. At first, your feet absolutely will hurt. They'll also ache after long runs. At first, it might be because you are used to pounding the pavement and you haven't perfected the form yet. With time and patience, this will go away. Once you get into longer runs and your form is correct, the soreness will be because the muscles in your feet are getting a good workout. This is easily fixed by giving yourself a decent foot massage. Actually, this is an excellent excuse to get your significant other to give you a foot massage and, by all means, you should take advantage of it.

Like I said, this will take a lot of time and patience; you will have to learn new strength training techniques and stretches. Never fear, I will post both of my favorites on here at a later date. However, I understand that barefoot running isn't for everyone, but I urge you to give it a try.

The History:

I would like to conclude this little lesson by talking about those sandals I described earlier. I first learned about them at the same time I learned about barefoot running. Those sandals are called huaraches and they are worn by the Tarahumara tribe in Copper Canyon, Mexico. The Tarahumara are known for their ability to run super long distances in these things. By super long distances I mean hundreds of miles. There is actually an ultramarathon in Copper Canyon, now, in which runners from all over compete with the Tarahumara. If you would like to know more about them, I recommend checking out Born to Run by Christopher McDougall. However, for the purposes of this post, the huaraches look like this: