{"id":1557,"date":"2012-09-18T21:16:55","date_gmt":"2012-09-18T20:16:55","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/?p=1557"},"modified":"2012-09-18T21:17:39","modified_gmt":"2012-09-18T20:17:39","slug":"25-miles-barefoot","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/americanbuddhist\/2012\/09\/25-miles-barefoot.html","title":{"rendered":"25 miles barefoot"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"25<\/a>
Running record for my last week via Runkeeper<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/p>

Well, sort of. As the chart shows, that 25 miles is spread over 4 runs and 8 days (11th-18th).<\/strong> And the barefoot isn\u2019t totally bare<\/em> \u2013 it\u2019s in a pare of Vibram Five-Finger minimalist running shoes, along with specially made toe-socks.<\/p>\n

How? Why?<\/p>\n

Just how<\/em> these strange little shoes work is one of those mysteries that only the so-called \u2018scientists\u2019 will ever explain. They\u2019ll give you \u2018evidence\u2019 and \u2018studies\u2019 and all of that \u2013 which you\u2019re welcome to look up and report back to me.<\/p>\n

Here\u2019s my explanation, followed by an informative video.<\/p>\n

These tiny shoes\u00a0force<\/em> you to run correctly. The correct way to run is with a light fore-foot strike with the heel barely touching.<\/strong> When we\u2019re walking, the heel-strike is fine, but when we\u2019re running, the best thing to do is lean forward, allowing gravity to pull us and then just using our feet\/legs to keep us upright. It\u2019s often described as \u2018controled falling\u2019, and usually kids and Kenyan runners are shown in pictures doing just this, while overweight urban white guys are shown trying to run in an awkward, elephant-like vertical posture.<\/p>\n

Thick, cushiony running shoes just mask bad running posture.<\/strong> By striking on the heel with a running stride, you send a shockwave up, through your ankle, to your knee, hips, and back. The cushion in the shoe softens this, which is good, but it doesn\u2019t eliminate it, which is bad.<\/p>\n

If you run correctly, you use the muscles in your foot (on the top) to transfer the strike to muscles in your calf. People who just start out \u2018barefoot\u2019 running often hurt themselves because these muscles are so weak that they can\u2019t handle correct running. You really<\/strong> have to ease yourself into it. These are muscles that you rarely use\u00a0at all<\/em>, thanks to modern shoes, and never in this intense manner \u2013 except perhaps when you were a kid and ran around barefoot<\/em>.<\/p>\n

So my thought is that these shoes just facilitate old people -like me \u2013 running properly for the first time in years. Read Born to Run<\/a>. And as promised, here\u2019s a video to explain all this:<\/p>\n