Monday, July 9, 2012

Barefoot running at its finest

On Saturday, my wife and I had the rare opportunity to sleep in...oh wait...no we didn't. Our little one wanted to get up bright and early to play! After laying around for a little while we decided we had better get up and go out for a run before it got too hot. Honestly, neither of us really wanted to go, but we went anyway. Since we run at different paces, I decided to take the car down with the baby and the stroller and pick up the trail and run 3 miles and she would run from our house to the trail and meet me at our favorite quaint little breakfast place.

I started out running in my new Vibram Fivefinger Bikilas. I finally got the right size and they are now incredibly comfortable (which I didn't quite expect). But after about a mile, I was feeling very constricted, so I decided to take them off and go barefoot, I was hot, I didn't feel very good and I felt tired so I was unsure that I would even make it three today. After about two miles I was feeling incredible. It was weird how much happier and energized I felt after I took off my shoes. I don't know if it was the shoes (or lack thereof) or if I was just getting warmed up, but whatever it was made me feel amazing so I kept running, I ran past the 1.5 mile turn-around point. Then I ran past the 2 miler. Then the 3. Then I got to about 3.5 miles and my baby girl woke up from her nap, so I figured I better not be out too long or she might get hungry, also I didn't want to scare my wife with being out for too long when she was supposed to meet me back in town, so I turned around and headed back. She ended up meeting me part way up the trail when she decided I must have gone further, so we ran the last 3/4 of a mile together. 


Upon finishing the seven miles I can honestly say I have never felt so good after a run of that distance; I still felt energized, my soles felt good, I had no blisters and it was overall such a great experience. That was the first run where I truly felt like I was officially a barefoot runner, I feel like I have graduated from the training phase to just being a normal barefoot runner. I hope that you can all be inspired to start running barefoot! I promise you awesome results as long as you take things slow and focus on doing it right rather than fast. You will slow down from your normal pace at first and it won't seem completely natural in the beginning, but it will come quickly and before you know it you will be tossing those old running shoes out the window! I can't see myself running in conventional running shoes ever again! Good luck and please let me know how your journey is going!

2 comments:

  1. Hi
    A couple of weeks ago, I got a blister running in shoes on a ten miler. I took my shoes off and ran the last mile barefoot. It was heaven.
    www.barefootbeginner.com

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  2. Thats awesome! I am glad to hear that you really enjoyed it! It really is awesome.

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