Barefoot Begins (again)

I am in the unenviable position having completed a couch to 10k barefoot in 2015 to find myself in a position of having to do it all again. Having been chronically ill, I have not run properly in two years. It’s been too long…

I have returned to running in the Vibram Five Fingers, I think the VFF’s are a really useful training shoe to build up strength and good technique, the soles are thick enough to prevent any cuts or puncture wounds and yet thin enough to retain a barefoot run in form and function - usually between 3 and 8 mm depending on the model.

 

I headed out this morning for a short run and what a pleasure it was to run on my toes and feel my calf muscles start to work again, for the feet and ankles to start to move and become a suspension system once again. A sense of the body coming alive: the whole body running not just the legs and feet. Running "barefoot" has a totally different gait cycle than normal running...landing on the toe and forefoot rather than the heel...

Although I haven’t run barefoot in 2 years, I have worn vivobarefoots most of the time for both work and casual so I believe this has been really useful in keeping the barefoot muscles and tendon strength to a reasonable level, they just need some practise now with running! I’m so grateful I can run again, after two years of chronic fatigue syndrome I am starting to find my feet again…