What is with the barefoot running craze….

I recently read the book Born To Run by Chris McDougal (wonderful read, by-the-way, if you haven’t read it) about a tribe of Indians (Tarahumara) in the Copper Canyon area of Mexico that have a seemingly natural ability to run for incredible distances.  These people can knock out 100 mile runs without even preparing or training.  Most incredibly is the fact that they wear thin sandals made of old tires and cord.  That’s right, they do not worry about getting the “Stability” shoes as of a result of their “overpronation”.  They embrace a childlike joy of running that few of us experience in our “let me fit this run in before I go to work” lives.  The book spends a portion of its time going into the biomechanics of the human body and the foot and how running barefoot can cause you to run with better form and limit injuries.  According the to the research illustrated in the book, the human foot was not designed to strike heel-first as most of us run with our $100+ super supportive shoes.  On another interesting note, they have research that shows a direct correlation with the price of the shoes and the number of injuries.  Surprisingly, the more expensive the shoes, the more often the runners are injured.

For the record, I have to admit that I am curious about all of this.  I have not completely bought into the whole barefoot running culture, but I am curious.  To be exact, I am so much so that I have purchased a pair of minimalist shoes.  Nike Free to be exact.  They are supposed to be a close approximation to running barefoot without having to worry about stepping on glass, or sharp objects which appear in the everyday street running that I do.  I haven’t received them yet, but should be in this week.  I ordered them from roadrunnersports.com which offers a 60 return guarantee.  That way, if I don’t like them then they go back.  I will probably just start off using them on my speedwork days (Wednesday).  I will keep you posted on the results of my “trial”.  I am not quite ready to branch out into the whole Vibrum Five Finger shoes….they look a little too wacky for me at this point.  I have seen a few people at races with them on though.

One of the interesting characters in the book Born To Run, is Barefoot Ted.  He apparently won the LA Marathon running barefoot (maybe just his age group, I don’t recall).  Interesting guy….you should check out his website for a lot of resources on barefoot running.  Also, this most recent issue of Runners World has an article about barefoot running.  I haven’t read it yet, but this whole thing has gone viral..

As for my training…..I will post my whole program soon, but so far this week I have logged two easy runs of 3 miles each.  Tomorrow will be speedwork……..fun!

Mileage today = 3 miles
Pace = 9:30
Weekly mileage = 6 miles