Running Rant #1

Dear bloggie,

Inspired by the book "Born to Run" and the kwai lou trainer from SCKLM clinic, I'm trying out barefoot running...

There is this believe that running barefoot is actually less injury prone compared to running with the high tech cutting edge modern shoes we are so accustom to wearing. The logic: modern day running shoes, are equipped with a ultimate cushion at the heel which soften the impact when we land. This ultimately can lead to us actually landing on our heel when we run (land on heels = braking effect = bad bad bad) and also as we rely on this cushioning, some muscle around the ankle becomes weaken.

Running barefoot indirectly solve both of these problems. First of all, when we run barefooted, we tend to use a different running form. I experimented with this and can confirm, we will tend to take smaller strides (shorter steps distance), we also tend to land more on the ball of the feet instead of the heel (painful to land here barefooted). Besides that, we also will take lighter steps as ramming our leg into the ground like we normally do while barefooted is painful. Also without the cushioning on the heel, our muscle near our heel will be able to develop to endure more impact. More muscle = more protection.

The creed for running barefooted is:

"Think Easy, Light, Smooth, and Fast. You start with easy, because if that's all you get, that's not so bad. Then work on light. Make it effortless, like you don't give a shit how high the hill is or how far you've got to go. When you've practiced that so long that you forget you're practicing, you work on making it smoooooooth. You won't have to worry about the last one - you get those three, and you'll be fast." - Caballo Blanco, Born to Run.