Shooby Doo

Today's run has made more more determined to begin some video comparisons of shoes vs minimal vs barefoot. I ran the 12 km loop today in shoes (Nike Bowermans - about as cheap and simple as they come - no fancy bits) and while it was faster, I couldn't say it felt nice.

One confounding influence today was a few solid hours of shovelling rock and dirt and doing some heavy lifting in yesterday's heat, leading to general soreness in arms, shoulders, lower back and hammys.

This aside, the run today allowed me enough time to examine what was going on:

1. It was faster. 12km  in 51:02 - I normally wander through this course in about the 60 minute mark.
   The pace comes from the longer stride, since the shoes afford me a heelstrike (no matter how I try to stay off it), I end up stretching out at a slightly lower cadence than usual. With legs like mine, I can get along pretty nicely.
2. Different hurts - The work hurt (not pain, as such - just the bits that complain) is in the hips, not the calves and ankles. Naturally, this is because I am impacting and not using the giant spring in the back of my legs.
3. Instability - apart from a general feeling of being wobbly with half an inch of foam under me, I notice that I tend to want to twist my feet as they land in shoes. I suspect, based on the feel of simply wearing shoes, that this is due to the toe box of this pair being rather narrow, and squashing my little toes inward. On landing, I feel this pressure and pull my foot round to relieve the toes. This makes the feeling of instability even more noticeable.

So, positives and negatives. Great, if shoes can be fast, then racing in flats will be good fun, when I can afford some. Clearly the minimal and barefoot work is making me stronger and solid on the ground - I have come to enjoy that feeling very much.

I may have finally wrapped my mind around a way to capture some real footage of my stride - I have a handy grabber on a lightweight pole at home, that will accommodate the camera very nicely. This will give me the front-on view that I want so much in real conditions - to show me how my toes come down. I am already comfortable with looking like a twit on the road, so stay tuned...

Tonight I was also constantly dry in the mouth and craving water. I have been hydrating well all day (though there was an altercation with a pair of short blacks earlier this morning). I am choosing to blame yesterday's home made electrolyte drink that tastes like licking a honeybee's butt. Next Recipe....

Overall, though, tonight's run was a pain free, relative straightforward return to the programmed running (told you the notion of 1 minute extra per day wouldn't last!).