Readers of this blog will be well aware that my minimalist running progress is going very well. I am enjoying it, maybe a little too much and in real danger of moving into the TMTS (Too Much Too Soon) category.
I have been lucky enough to find my mid-foot strike form quite easily and now that i’m 50+ miles into the barefoot running i naturally fall into and out of the mid-foot form depending on the shoe. It is with this in mind i decided over Christmas i would try to run parallel training patterns that will allow me to build my foot strength and elongate my barefoot runs while also running greater distances over all.
I want to be able to run my first marathon the end of this year or the beginning of next year. I have just signed up for the ING NYC Marathon in November. I will have to wait until April however to see if i have a number. So i want to get some distance running in, something i don’t dare do yet in my minimalist shoes. I have decided the best course of action is to continue to run my 5-6 mile routs in my Merrell‘s and Vibram‘s and build foot strength. A pace that some already consider to be TMTS, but i am happy with.
I have got what i consider to be intermediate shoes, like the Nike Free that will allow me to run with a mid-foot strike or heel strike and give me some padded protection for the distance. I decided on a pair of Saucony Kinvara
Saucony KINVARA
I felt this to be a good intermediate shoe, Limited support for the foot, a slight heel to toe drop and enough cushioning for me to get some distance in. I have done a few runs in the shoe so far and have been able to hold my mid-foot strike form in them. My last run in them is here. A nice 9 miles.
So going forward my plan is to run my 5k and 10k races in minimalist shoes and my half and marathon training and running will be done in the Saucony’s. I will be sure to label runs and posts correctly so it’s clear what i’m doing. To be honest it’s also nice to be able to wear some warm socks in this cold weather right now!
So lets see how this concurrent training goes and how easy i’ll be able to switch shoes and on occasion running form.
Sophie and Simon's new barefoot Merrell Trail Gloves
I have read a few reviews and criticisms of the Trail Glove which i feel to be unfair as the review seems to have forgotten that the shoe is a “Trail” (The clue is in the name) shoe and not designed for running on the hard top. For my part i have had nothing but a positive 3 months with my shoes. My 9 year old daughter also has a pair and loves them,
The Trail Glove is a 6.2 oz zero drop minimalist trail shoe. It has a Vibram sole and a 1mm impact plate in the mid sole to take some of the shock absorption away from the foot when hitting stones etc.
The inside is seamless and so designed for you to not wear socks with the shoe. The shoe required no breaking in and has never rubbed or caused any blisters of any kind. It also has a Aegis® antimicrobial solution footbed that claims to resist odor. Which i think works pretty well as they still smell pretty good and nothing like my soccer boots that i wear socks in. So a big thumbs up there. It also helps that the shoes are machine washable.
So far my shoes have shown very little wear and i would expect many hundreds of miles in the shoes. The soles being quality Virbram’s you would expect this and the uppers are the usual high quality you expect from Merrell.
The fit is great for my feet. My feet are narrow at the arch and then wide at the mid foot and toes. The trail gloves have been criticized for being too narrow at the arch. I feel this to be somewhat an unfair criticism as you need a trail shoe to be tight and glove like as you don’t want the the shoe to move independently underfoot when running on slopes or difficult surfaces etc. Something you don’t need from a standard running shoe. The toe box is very wide giving plenty of room for your toes to splay out and feel the ground as you are running. The rubber bumper around the toes providing you with that extra protection when hitting the rough stuff.
All in all i give the shoes a solid 8 out of 10. These are great minimalist trail shoes. High quality, offering you strong foot protection and still allowing plenty of feeling. The only downsides are potentially if the narrow fit around your arch is going to be a problem and they are slightly more expensive than the Virbram equivalents at $110
Had my first barefoot race today. The 5k Jingle Jog in the perimeter area of Atlanta. All in all it was a bit of a mare. Both Sophie and Ian were also running in the 1k version of the race. Noah my nephew was going to help out and run with them. In all the muddle getting to different starts etc I ended up have no warm up time and it was freezing.
The race was starting as i approached the line. So i took off in the Merrell’s with very cold legs and feet. Far from ideal and to top it off i’m starting from the back of the pack and the GPS would not start up.
My overall race time was 28:15, so my pace i think was pretty good. I started toward the back and so it took me a couple of mins to reach the start line as everyone shuffled off, The section missing from the runkeeper above was also down hill. So i would hazard a guess that my overall time was probably in the 8:40 mi/min range.
Finishing up though the i might have hurt my left foot. Running off when it was cold and not warmed up, it does not feel good at the moment. Lets see how its doing tomorrow morning for my run then.
Here is a great theory from Joe Maller (@joemaller) on the stress fractures that some barefoot runners or should i say minimalist shoe wearing runners are seeing when they try too much too soon. I had always thought that it was the impact that was causing the fractures in our feet. Due to not allowing out bones to strengthen properly.
Joe however put forward the theory that its the increased frictional forces that the minimalist shoes allow us to produce while running that are causing these. He specifically mentions that the injuries tend to happen several months into training as speed increases.
I find this a compelling argument as i am finding my overall pace increasing and i am running a full min/mi faster than i was prior to wearing the Merrell’s. It’s a great piece and well worth the read.
It came to me this morning during my run, Somewhat of an epiphany. After my rather heavy and laborious run of two days ago ( blogged about here in my “back to sneakers ohhh dear” post) in sneakers and then cruising through the exact same run barely out of breath and feeling no tiredness in the legs, running in my Merrell Trail Gloves. It came to me. It’s all about EFFICIENCY!
I have been really focusing on my barefoot running form and that’s going pretty well. It occurred to me when i am wearing my Merrell’s, several things happen. My stride shortens as i concentrate on landing on the mid-foot and in doing so find my stride landing below my body. Now I am no expert and as you can see from the video below i may still be slightly over stepping. I welcome your opinion on this. I have read that ideally I should be trying to land “behind” me.
This shortening of my stride must in turn be allowing me to better use the natural elasticity in my ligaments, in an overall more efficient running form. Noticeably so. I don’t know but i need to pick up a pedometer so i can check my stride timing. I must be closer to the optimal 180bpm running barefoot. Two days ago for the same run my legs felt tired and heavy, it was not an enjoyable run. Today felt fantastic as i cruised home effortlessly and could have gone on much further had my Achilles and calves been stronger.
I shot a short video of my form running in traditional running shoes as a comparison below.
So as usual my lack of patience got the better of me, i was itching to get a decent length of run in and wary of using the old running shoes that will encourage bring the heel strike back.
So i went for it in the Merrell trail gloves. Slightly shorter than usual but still a healthy 4.5 miles outside on varied terrain. Details can be found here at runkeeper.
Overall it felt pretty good. I feel i managed to control my running form throughout the run maintaining the mid foot strike. It is much easier to keep track of the form running on concrete than over grassy surfaces that are not flat.
I am actually pretty delighted with my progress. This is really only my 3rd real run in the shoes trying to adept to the barefoot mid foot strike and it seems to be going well. My calves are taking a beating from the change in foot posture but really other than that nothing serious to report.
The Merrell Trail Gloves feel fantastic with no blisters or rubbing problems to report. Which i am very impressed with as I don’t wear socks with them. I will write a full review post of the shoes shortly.
So this morning i had to have my work out on a treadmill. As it happens this worked out quite well. I decided i would go for 5k and see how it went. It turned out within the controlled environment and static terrain of the treadmill surface it was quite easy to concentrate on my foot landing and get into a rhythm. So i feel i hit my mid foot landing the entire time. Great practice and it felt much easier and more natural.
It also made a couple of observations. The treadmill had 3 default settings, walk, jog and run, It looked like the guy next to me had also set his to the “run” setting which was 6mph. With us both running, myself trying the mid-foot strike and he was firmly a heel striker i noticed a couple of key differences.
Firstly the sound. His was a clear “clomp, clomp, clomp” as his heel struck the matt and plastic frame of the treadmill, where my steps were clearly quieter and more of a “tap, tap, tap” sound. I am assuming this must be from the fact that my feet are now hitting the surface far more gently?
Secondly and granted he was taller than i am which I’m sure accounted for a large part of this, my stride was much quicker / shorter than his even though i think we were running the same speed (6mph)
So overall i felt really good about this run, lets see how the calves hold up later today. Then hit the treadmill again tomorrow morning.
The run went well but i could tell that i was not landing correctly, so i had Kris take some video and pics of Sophie and I running and the results were not good.
I have a real heel strike problem that i need to correct. Any helpful advice would very welcome. Sophie fared much better, in fact her right foot always seemed to land correctly, but the left would sometimes get lazy and heel strike
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Here is the video of the runs in slow motion. Overall i really liked the feel of the Merrell Trail Gloves.
barefeat 
