Comments on: 40 minutes of light steppin’

By: susan

susan — Sat, 26 Feb 2005 02:59:45 +0000

I’m curious about this. You’ll have to keep us posted!

By: Pamalamadingdong

Pamalamadingdong — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 21:55:23 +0000

too much to think about! GAH!!!!

By: mark

mark — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 16:47:11 +0000

Thanks you guys and good point BD. I definitely want to build gradually. My strategy is to build up my barefoot miles in the same manner as new runners build up their running mileage. Run barefoot for a minute, then walk. Then, build up the repititions and gradually build up the time to 2 minutes, 3, 4 and so on.

By: BD

BD — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 16:24:59 +0000

I think it’s a good idea to move from heel striking to running more ball-heel-ball. However, I think it is important to make changes to one’s stride slowly because you have to develop new muscles to accomodate the new stride. It’s really easy to get injured otherwise. For example, for 2 weeks I ran 1/3 new stride, 2/3 old stride. The third week I ran 2/3 new stride, 1/3 old stride. Finally, on the fourth week I tried some shorter runs with 100% new stride. After that I began to run longer with the new stride. Just my 2 cents of input.

By: Chris Brogan...

Chris Brogan... — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 14:53:56 +0000

I think that’s really cool, that you modified your running based on what you could do for the moment. I like barefoot running as a training method. I’m not sure I’d do it for a whole marathon, but who knows? It’s a little weird on the trails, because of rocks and roots. Do-able, though. I imagine.

By: Jon in Michigan

Jon in Michigan — Fri, 25 Feb 2005 12:18:43 +0000

Good idea, Mark! I think the ChiRunning book was big on the same thing. I’ve tried to minimize the heal strike (shins, y’know?) and have about 50% success. When I get tired I can feel my form slipping and I end up hitting the heal again.