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0 pointsasoneth4y ago0 comments

Tossing in a second datapoint in favor of adding some barefoot running to one's training plan.

I started running with classmates without learning proper form and had joint pain in knees and hips within the first 5 km. It never felt good and I never got faster.

I started practicing barefoot a couple times a week to work on form. After the first few (painful) lessons I managed to improve my form and I could run faster and for longer distances.

Eventually I realized I enjoyed the barefoot training sessions more than running in shoes and I (slowly) switched all my runs to barefoot shoes and sandals, though that may not be the right approach for everyone. I've done a few marathons since then and now my bottleneck seems to be free time -- I'd love to try a 50k but those longer runs eat up so much more time.

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dilyevsky4y ago

That’s just called gaining miles slowly in progression. Most everyone has injuries when gaining too many miles/week from basically zero. If you are prone to bone injuries all that switching to mid foot or especially barefoot without addressing bone density issues will likely do is trade your shin splints for those awesome metatarsal stress fractures that take forever to heal

asonethOP4y ago

Gaining miles slowly is excellent advice, probably the most important advice for new runners. It's a mistake I certainly made more than once both barefoot and not, though thankfully it never resulted in anything as severe as shin splints or metatarsal fractures.

These days I'm generally pretty good about listening carefully to my body and respecting my limits -- I'll stop the run or ride if something starts to feel off. It's an approach that's served reasonably well for more than a decade. Though I can afford to take things slowly because my long-term goal isn't to to set speed records but to keep running well into old(er) age.

jazzyjackson4y ago

I don't think this explanation really tracks with the parent comments, where we just never gained miles because it hurt to run, and after switching styles to mid-foot strikes, we can run as far as we want. For the record, my next injury was 'misaligned patella' because running was pretty much the only exercise I was doing and I strengthened one quad without strengthening the others, so my kneecap was being pulled out of alignment. Lesson learned, actually do a workout that targets opposing muscles, squats, leg lifts etc. Haven't run into any bone density issues yet.

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