Monday, August 10, 2009

10 August 2009: Shoes

Following a quick look at a very interesting link on Doug's blog, I decided to try it for myself. The original link was to a video comparison of running styles of a not-trained-to-run-barefoot runner:



"It's got to be the shoes," says the narrator. Interesting stuff. But is it repeatable? Well, I've never run barefoot much, although we used to have to run in those plimsoll things at Cornwood School (I note these are now brightly coloured and sold at ridiculously inflated prices under the name 'Converse' shoes). So, given the proximity of our local gym (just the other side of the bathroom at home), it was time to set up the camera and see what the difference would be.



These are slowed to half-speed and you can slow it still further in YouTube if you like. The interesting thing to me was the difference in angle of landing foot: when shod, I land heavily ankle-first; without, I land on ball of foot. Further thing is that the centre of gravity shifts further forward - with no shoes, the foot isn't so much in front when it lands as below, thereby allowing me to use gravity rather than quad-muscles to propel forwards. Doug also pointed out that (especially towards the end of the video) there's a lot more backlift without shoes, perhaps three to four inches.

Why do I post this? Firstly to say that it seems - as I remember when Kevin and myself went to Pompey to buy running shoes - that there's no effort on the part of the shoe manufacturer to correct running style, ever. Instead they aim to compensate for your running style, adding more padding and taking you consistently further away from the natural technique of no-shoe running.

Secondly, however, to say that if you DO change running style and attempt to land ball-first, you will notice several things: your calf muscles will ache, your shins might get sore, your calf muscles will ache more and then your calf muscles will scream out in agony saying stop stop please stop please stop now.

And, if you run barefoot-style while continuing to wear heavily-padded running shoes, you'll get shin splints and generally struggle. Just socks lead to blisters; nothing at all on feet leads to blood and possible sectioning.

Instead experts such as Barefoot Ted (and Doug, come to that) recommend these Vibram Five Finger things:



Me, I'm just wondering where my old Plimsolls went.

Footnote: Some very bizarre synaptic event occurred in my brain five minutes ago, leading me to think "where was I ten years ago today?" And I found out - well, not so much today as tomorrow: 11 August 1999, it turns out, was the day there was a total eclipse of the sun over south-west England. Remember that? I was in London (no vacation time left from QAS), watching a 98.5% partial eclipse from the courtyard at old town, while my family were down in Devon, under heavy cloud.

10 comments:

Kevin S said...

"there's no effort on the part of the shoe manufacturer to correct running style, ever. Instead they aim to compensate for your running style, adding more padding and taking you consistently further away from the natural technique of no-shoe running."

That sure rings true to me - the blurb on shoe adverts and descriptions is all in terms of compensating not correcting. Vested interest in us runners carrying on buying expensive trainers rather than sorting out our running technique...?

DuncMcRae said...

Yup. Of course, those Vibram shoes cost as much as your average Brooks padded shoes (maybe a little less), but they're built to last.

Becky said...

Wow, has the last ten years really gone that quickly? I was camping on Hall Farm up at Harford - watched the eclipse up at Hillson's House.

Becky said...

http://www.schoolpumps.co.uk/

Becky said...

Vibram must do soles as well: was just looking at my feet and realised that my Merrell trainers have Vibram soles. Fascinating *yawns*

DuncMcRae said...

Ahh... two pounds ninety-nine, that's how much sports footwear *should* cost!

Doug said...

further to this I was just looking at your vid and noticed something else, after switching to thin soles you'll lose the vertical movement that you can see in both clips, it takes a while for it to go because we're so used to bounding along but once you gain confidence that you're not going to fall apart after 5 minutes, you're not going to get rabies (except if you're in portsmouth) then your form will smooth out naturally - you shouldn't have to think about it.

I also think treadmill running can be a bit tricky and alters most peoples form a bit, I'm much more relaxed running outside - even if the broken glass and alcopop fueled pensioners do make for interesting obstacles!

FYI you can run on broken glass in those vibram shoes (apparently).

Doug said...

the lighter weight also helps with hurdling pensioners.

Devon said...

I have been running in ASICS running shoes. for years now. Excited to know about Vibram Five Finger shoes.

Becky said...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/sci/tech/8483401.stm