More Thoughts

As I'm getting further into Born to Run and researching barefoot running in general, it seems like people are missing a key point.  This isn't a new concept, and people are missing the bridge between barefoot running and shoe running: progressive overload.  

I don't think it has anything to do with shoes, really.  Well, no, what I mean is that you can run differently with the shoes you have.  People have talked for a long time about the Pose method of running, and while that is still somewhat controversial, I think we can agree that running on your toes/midfoot is much closer to barefoot running than a heel strike gait.  And that focusing on "falling" with your feet under your center of gravity is more efficient than throwing yourself forward.   I guess I can't speak for the world, but I know I got a heck of a lot faster and more efficient when I changed the way I ran.  Anyone who's looked at ground reaction force data knows that a heel strike creates a significant impact peak and that if you run on the midfoot, this peak is reduced.  It's gotta be absorbed somewhere else, but it seems to me that absorbing the impact by bending the knees, ankles, and hips is a better alternative than sending it shooting through the leg.  

It's interesting reading this debate because you read about the barefoot runners who swear by it and then you read about the old school heel strikers who think it's a bunch of baloney and say everyone gets hurt (yes, I said baloney).  They are ignoring the key concept of training: progressive overload.  You can't just go out and run 10 miles barefoot after you've been running in motion control shoes your whole life.  Similarly, you can't just go out and run on your toes for 10 miles.  You have to do it gradually.  It's like the people who got out of the World War II concentration camps and died because they ate too much.  Same concept, but no one talks about it.  

I hear you saying, "but Kelly, you get injured all the time.  How can you say that running on your toes is better?"  I think most of my issues come from weak hip flexors.  I've strained them so many times I lost count, and when you run on your toes, your hip flexors become essentially a spring.   Plus I think that a midfoot strike is the ideal compromise.  I am curious to experiment more with this whole concept, that if I strengthen my hip flexors and gradually start running again, maybe I can do it pain free.  It feels so far away, though, with hip surgery and all.  Oh how I want to go running.