I'm glad it worked out for you, Hooker. ANYTHING that allows or promotes people to run MORE (without injury) will likely help them. The best runner I personally know is a heel striker, too. He's a hair over 3hr marathoner......when he's.finishing Kona Ironman.
The Chicago Marathon was this weekend and I watched every runner and wheelchair racer at the 10 mile mark. Watching them was such an inspiration and was amazing to be a part of something with so many individuals of different ages, backgrounds, races, abilities,etc - and yet, everyone was one, together, in a goal to finish. And, in Ironman news, even though he isn't on BH.com - wanted to send a shoutout to one of my friends - he finished his 3rd Kona Ironman in 9:17:57. seriously. amazing. athletes. I will keep him and the Chicago marathoners in my mind as I run my 12mile run along the lake front on Sunday AM before the Bears game!
That's kicking SERIOUS ass! Congrats to him! If you think about it.....could you post up his splits (or PM his name)? I'd love to see where he REALLY (like he didn't EVERYWHERE) kicked it. That's an outstanding time!
On the barefoot debate. I did a ton of reading on it, and figured out what kind of stride I already had. I think from many years of being a sprinter, I never really had a heelstrike. So I made the jump, eased into them, maybe not as slowly as recommended, but they felt good so I kept going. My runs are now 3-4 miles in them. I have the KSO's and I think if I run across the Bikala's I am going to pick up a pair.
Awesome! I'm gonna need to get back into doing more cardio sometime in the near future though, especially considering I wanna start training boxing or similar.
I was a sprinter for a long time as well. I am more of a mid strike guy when I run. I think those shoes would help me. I might start running barefoot on one of the big soccer fields down the road from me just to see how I respond.
I kinda see this like arrow tuning..... Tune with a large, fixed blade BH....THEN switch to FP's. With running, get to (and maintain) 20mpw for a while.....THEN try the minimalist shoes. The simple act of running more will do wonders. Just my .02. I can't fathom how you know something needs improving, right now. PLEASE don't take that bad. I'm just discussing this. I don't know that much about running. But, I'm privy to some guys who are incredible runners (one guy I talk to almost daily has run over 2300mi. THIS YEAR).
Yeah, pretty spectacular. His name is Steve Johnson, was a personal trainer at my gym, Equinox Fitness. Rank:103/55/13 Age/Div: 34/M30-34 SWIM: 01:06:19 BIKE: 05:03:06 RUN: 03:02:51 TOTAL: 09:17:57 http://ironman.com/events/ironman/w...ace=worldchampionship&year=2010#axzz12LDL2LXJ
That's absolutely awesome. I know people who are faster on the swim and the bike. I know NO ONE who can put those three together like that. Huge props to your friend. I just went and looked. To put this is perspective, his run split beat 38 of 59 of the male pros......and his overall time beat 15 of them. Spectacular is a good description.
thinking about giving the knee a test run tonite... just around the block, see how it does with some impact since it has been feelin pretty good lately though I can still detect a little weakness/sloppiness in the joint... i'm just past the 2 month point of my recovery...
My goals for running & fitness in general are to be lean, strong and have endurance. I used to be more on the bigger bulkier explosive side, but as I get older, I've shifted my focus. I still want muscle mass, but not a ton. My goal (and big reason) for the barefoot running is injury prevention. While reading many of the information & testimonials, people claimed to encounter less injuries while running barefoot. I have a ton of old runner friends, and look at other message boards where people are always battling nagging running injuries. I view supportive/cushion running shoes as masking what could be an underlying problem. I have seen 1st hand how much more your lower leg muscles/tendons have to work when running barefoot. I can only see that as a good thing having more strength there. This will really get tested out next summer. Even when I'm in great shape, after a long day fishing & walking miles over even rocks along the streams, my knees & lower legs are very sore. By next summer I'll have almost a year of barefooting in and I'll see if I notice a difference after my long fishing trips. But for now, my barefoot runs are just so much more fun than my other runs, and I've already noticed my lower legs don't get nearly as tired when I first started.
The injuries??? Most of the things I've read were from people who were long time runners with nagging injuries. But once they switched over to barefoot, they injuries went away. There's a lot out there to read, I'm not sure what you are getting at Jeff.
No, no....I was asking in reference to this comment (sorry...I should have been clearer). I'm just intrigued.....kinda.
Avg. about 50 miles a week on my bike since bow season started. Wrecked the sum ***** the other day. Cost me a hundred bucks and I hurt my hip lol. Im getting old.
