Everything we know about running is wrong, or at least, everything the running industry told us about running is wrong.
I used to think that running injury-free was only a matter of having the right shoes, which one way or another I could never find.
Each foot contains 26 joints, 33 bones and more than 100 muscles and tendons, which is quite a lot. And the goal of running shoes is to support that already powerful structure.
But what happens when you wrap a powerful tool like the human foot in a soft shoe with cushion? It becomes weak, of course. So weak that if you try to run 1 mile barefoot, you might experience soreness the day after.
Stanford coach Vin Lananna knew this. When two Nike representatives visited the university a few years ago, they noticed that the students were running with… no shoes at all. The reason was that by including barefoot running as a part of their training, they were able to reinforce the muscles in their lower legs, and prevent injuries. The nice thing is that Nike was already sponsoring the university, so they could have chosen from every running shoe model if they wanted, imagine their face when they discovered that the students were running barefoot instead.
At that point Nike and other shoes companies began to take the problem seriously. After all, if the best way of running was barefoot, how the hell were they going to make a buck from it?
Each company released some new model, for example the Nike free are the result of years of study on barefoot running, yet they are often a joke among minimalist runners.
Lananna was not the only one who knew this. In those years many other people were discovering that by running barefoot, they could prevent injuries. For example, Ted McDonalds, also known as barefootted, discovered this by accident. He had just bought a new pair of expensive running shoes and began jogging around the corner, only to discover that his pain was still there. He threw aways his new shoes and decided to head bac home barefoot, discovering that his pain was gone. He run barefoot or with minimalist shoes since then, and it’s always present at ultra marathons (50, 100 miles per race).
The Tarahumara is a mexican population who lives outside of the civilized world. They are generally very poor except that they are recognized for their long running abilities. For long runs I mean something like 100 miles, which translates in two days of non-stop running. They have, of course, no running shoes. They just have sandals, dirty sandals they made themselves.
Born to run
What if I tell you that we evolved to run? I know that you would probably think it’s bullshit, like many others do. Still, I would not exclude this hypothesis, as persistence hunting through running might have been one way used to hunt food in the past. By the way there are still rare populations that continue to practice persistence hunting, so it’t not that impossible.
Christopher McDougall has written a wonderful book around this subject. He talks about barefoot running, the tarahumara and many world class athletes while narrating the greatest running race that the world has never seen. It all begun with a simple question: Why does my foot hurt?
At the time of this writing, the book has over 400 reviews on amazon in less than one year from its publication, with an average of 5 stars. It’s a tremendous book to read. Even if you are not a runner it could easily be the best book you’ll read in a long time.
Minimalist shoes
I personally discovered the power of barefoot running thanks to the Vibram Five Fingers shoes. These minimalist shoes are so minimal that they are almost like running barefoot, except that they provide some protection. I bought and reviewed a pair last year, which I used a lot for training outside during summer.
With the arrival of winter however, I had to wear normal shoes again, thus experiencing some pain on the knee. But after reading born to run, I knew what it was the cause of my pain and what I had to do.
At that point I bought another pair of Vibram five shoes, the flow model (picture below) and I began running with them. I tested them in different kind of roads, and so far I’m extremely satisfied with them, and the knew pain is gone again.
Last sunday I took a run with my normal running shoes, and guess what? Arch pain (note: I did not think about it, so I exclude a placebo effect). I think I now know how I’m going to run next.
Where I usually run
This is where I tested the vibram five fingers flow. The circuit is 5 miles long.
Conclusion
I don’t know if the human was born to run distances like a marathon or more, but I do know that some running is essential for our health. Up until now I had to avoid running too much because of the injuries and stress. Now I fully enjoy it and I’m starting to train for a marathon, simply because I enjoy it so much and it doesn’t hurt.
Resources
If you want more, here are a few starting places.