Allison's Big Toe

Is Barefoot Running Physical Therapy?

So, I have written but haven’t yet posted my Camarillo Half Marathon race review, because I’m still working on the video and picture component of the post. Also, many life necessities were neglected during my training, and I needed to get back to business in a few areas, like cleaning the house for 5 hours on Saturday. So you’ll just have to keep waiting on pins and needles for the review, as I’m sure you are.

This afternoon, after a week off from the road, I took my first jump back in to running. And it was a big jump; I think I ran about 5 miles, quite fast. I wanted to practice leaning from my ankles more and relaxing my hips, as I didn’t do this enough during the race and ended up with very sore hip flexors. But this meant I was falling faster and had to use more calf muscle to keep myself from face planting into the road.

As I was running, I had a few nice thoughts. Here’s what I remember:

1.The milk in the fridge expires today. I should drink it when I get home. Whole milk is such a treat.

2. I really think everyone should practice ChiRunning before taking off their shoes and trying FiveFingers. That way they’ll have a form to latch on to.

3. Now that I’m trying to eat more paleo-like and not consume so many grains, I only eat one meal with grains a day, namely my cereal for breakfast. Then for lunch I have tuna with avocado and tomatoes or something. But today the tuna made me feel heavy on the run. Soooo…why not eat cereal for lunch? If I’m going to have a meal with grains, shouldn’t it should be the meal before I run so I actually burn it off? If I eat cereal in the morning the carbs just get stored as fat by the mid-day. Hmmm…

4. Wow, my calves are going to be really sore tomorrow. They are so tight. But at least I have good form and won’t get injured. People who think barefoot running causes injury are so silly. *think…ponder…think* But actually, maybe they could be very right. Imagine having a cast on a broken leg for a long time and then taking the cast off. Most people and doctors would agree that physical therapy is a good idea after that. No one would advocate taking off a leg cast and then running a mile. That would be crazy! Instead, start building up those atrophied muscles sloooowwwllyy, until it is possible to stand, then walk, then run on the once wobbly leg. It seems that our feet are just like this when we take off our shoes: wobbly and atrophied. If we started running a mile on atrophied feet and legs, we could pull a muscle, overstress our tendons and joints, and especially if we didn’t have a proper form (ChiRunning, for example), a whole host of injuries like achilles tendonitis and ankle pain could arise. Going barefoot doesn’t solve any injury problems if there isn’t a proper form first and then gradual progress until new muscles build. Yes, running barefoot is like physical therapy.

What do you think?