Anatomically we are built to run on our forefoot not our heel. You can do this little experiment with yourself; Take off your shoes and sock and try to run a bit back and forth. Did you land on your heel even once? Nope. Your body will not allow you to do that, it forces you to run tippitoe instead. Sure, accidents or miscalculation do happen and when it do you will feel pain in the heel from the impact which causes you to be more attentive to avoid that happening again. But, if you try to run back and forth with your shoes, likely not once will you land on your forefoot. Completely flips the anatomy.
Its a noticeable difference running in "barefoot" shoes versus regular running shoes. Your muscles will cushion your foot strike instead of bone and you will feel more "springy" in your stride. Surprisingly your body will feel less taxed from barefoot running than when using running shoes and your muscles will feel fresher after a run.
What is important to know is that it will take your body a long time to adjust to running "barefooted" for some distance, carefully and gradually expose the feet and legs to barefoot running, and I mean only run 1km at first, then weeks later go for 1,5km and so on. Otherwise you'll likely end up with injuries or pulled tendon or muscle. Because we've wrongly adapted our body through a lifetime to walk and run anatomically incorrectly so it stand to reason that it will take some time to reprogram the body and relearn the muscles for a different movement pattern.
@thefifthseason Switching to a forefoot strike was transformative. BUT what I don't understand, though I've read a book about it, is why barefoot running improves on forefoot striking and high cadence #running.
@MarvinFreeman@thefifthseason It read about this too (Born to Run 2), and I have no idea how to run at 180. Even at my fastest, sub-2hour half, I’m around 160SPM. I’m open to near-barefoot experimenting, but I am somewhat skeptical.
@MarvinFreeman@thefifthseason I hit 166 last week on my Wednesday 5k, but I was purposefully pushing hard. I'll be re-reading BtR2 and going over the extra bits "soonish”.
@Johan_Barelds@MarvinFreeman@thefifthseason I haven't read the first one, so I can't compare. I enjoyed the listen (as an audiobook), lots of interesting ideas that I will revisit soon.
@WTL
I found 180 spm when I was running on flat by trying to spend less energy. I am best at it for zone 2 runs. If I "try" to go faster, I open my stride up and that lowers my spm.
The weird thing is I ended up going a little faster trying to save energy so for me it was a win win. @MarvinFreeman@thefifthseason
@JustBrogrammer@WTL I’ve been seeing some things that talk about 180 being a baseline for elite-level runners that has kind of crept into the community at large.
@bomkatt
It absurd to me to think that it is what works for all runners. I cannot wear shoes that work for others but the cadence would be the same? Absurd I say @WTL@MarvinFreeman@thefifthseason
@bomkatt@JustBrogrammer@MarvinFreeman@thefifthseason Exactly. Like I said, I’m skeptical, but I am open to something that may be better/easier on my body. I just don’t know how to achieve it. When I have some spoons, I’ll do some more reading/watching/@listening.
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