Barefoot Running
Our early bust of summer weather prompted me to start running again – but with a view to avoiding injury and building up again slowly from scratch using forefoot running. For the first attempt I ran just 20 minutes on relatively flat Mizuno running shoes – btu still ended up almost unable to walk the following day due to calf muscle pain. Discomfort lasted for about four days, during which time I’ve ordered a pair of Vibram “Fivefinger” barefoot – running shoes. The hope is that with no heel raise on the shoe my heel will be in a lower position while running barefoot and this will remove the strain from the calves making the whole process more natural. Attempting to run barefoot style with running shoes incorporating a ramp angle or raised heel may be causing mechanical problems.
Prior to the start of last season I had been trying to develop a forefoot running style with normal running shoes and switched back to a heel strike with disastrous results – plantar fasciitis – which gave me excruciating pain under the right foot when skiing all season long. The injury did not happen when working on the barefoot technique – but on changing back to using a heel strike over long distances (18km plus).