Barefoot running!

Less is more and naked is nice!

Could we MARCH forward faster and further, closer to earth? Could we learn to love our inner sole and get down and dirty at toe level?

Over the coming months the MARCH is going to blog its journey of barefoot ultra distance discovery….

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3 December 2012

Most of the leaves have descended and the night time temperature has descended further – dipping below zero – it must mean a month has passed since Camo’s last barefoot ballet – let’s hear how things are going:

“Curious game this – not sure if I mean the running game or the game of life. In the last month I’ve tasted and been intrigued by both.

We welcomed our new mini-MARCHer and barefooted ballerina Dulcie Audrey Meryl Lawes in to the world. At nearly 3 weeks old her toes remain happily shoeless and she seems none the worse for it.

And the barefoot running game? Well here’s the weird thing….I hit the inevitable and predicted obstacle of seriously sore calves. The knee and hamstring injury had lost their voice while sans shoes but the calves were singing a sweet and penetrating solo.

So what did I do? Well, I mixed in some new ingredients – with the mini-MARCHer’s enthusiastic help I added a daily dose of sleep deprivation. With two/three hourly feeds throughout the night we haven’t slept longer than 3 hours straight for the last 3 weeks.

There was only one solution. Slip on some shoes and blast out a 10 mile cross country gallop. Make or break – boom or bust. And guess what?? I felt absolutely amazing. Infinite energy. I was in total flow. Still heel striking of course, but I felt lighter. My lungs felt larger. I didn’t think I could tire. I wanted to go faster. I felt like the faster I went, the fresher I would feel. What was happening?

I decided to push the empirical study further by maxing up with therapeutic alcohol and takeaways by way of 2 day recovery food. Stirred in some more long sleepless nights and hit the infinity button again. 3 days later I decided to smash out a half marathon cross country….

And guess what? I felt even fresher – and faster still.

For as long as I can remember I have felt like gravity was a horizontal headwind. Forcing me to drag my deadweight through an invisible force field. But twice in 4 days I have bounced forward with lunar lightness.

Maybe it’s the lack of sleep. Maybe it’s the stress. But just maybe, those short sharp shoeless sessions have added a new dimension?! I’m not planning a double blind study to find out – I’m just gonna keep working out barefoot!”

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31 October 2012

It’s a week since the barefoot journey below began. Let’s hear from Camo:

“Naturally I am not just doing things in the wrong way, but also at the wrong time….

With a non existent English summer skipping straight to a very present English winter I might not have picked the best time to start trotting round the streets of London barefoot, but hey! Ultra distance running is two parts pain, so I reckon it stacks up!

But in truth, the issue in week 1 was more about my predilection to do things the wrong way….

I’ve always dismissed the threat of broken glass, thrown in the direction of any pioneer out there smashing skin on pavement. But I overlooked the sharp threat of home bound dangers. Fumbling to put on my limited edition Suunto Core Everest Extreme – made to celebrate Apa Sherpa’s 20th summit of Everest (a climbing god – he has now climbed it 21 times) – I managed to drop it from chest height. I watched it pirouette downward in slow motion, accelerating only to smash through my glass of water – helpfully left on the floor beside my bed. Lamenting the chunk of Core Extreme now missing from the watch case I applied my normal housekeeping approach. With a brush and pan far too distant to consider I picked up the main shards and carried on my barefoot bedroom ballet….A dance that swiftly ended, without applause, when I found the remaining large shard and forced it firmly in to the sole of my foot!

And that was day 1, before I had even hit the pavement….

But I continued my obsession with doing things my way and pressed on – the next day I started my barefoot campaign. I took matters slowly. 30 mins of traditional shoe shod heel striking before ditching the shoes for a 5 min barefoot session along the Embankment, followed by a 10 min barefoot power walk past my usual suited and booted haunt – the Royal Courts of Justice.

First impressions?

Apart from the pain from the bleeding hole in my sole, a pain free encounter. The nagging ache in my right knee, that settled in a month or two back, vanished. The sharp pain in my left abductor, that has been a familiar companion for a year or so, left for sunnier climes. The right calf, that decided to express itself forcefully 2 weeks ago without reason, suddenly lost its voice. All in all I hurt less and felt funkier.

True, biomechanically it felt a bit odd. Like I was having to learn a new dance that wasnt entirely familiar but also not completely strange.

True, I tried it again too soon and discovered a new pain. A piercing pain in the ball of my foot, like I had bruised some bone that wasn’t used to taking the impact of my crashing body weight.

Will I try it again?

Will I keep trying this new way to MARCH forward?

You bet ! I cant wait to get out there tomorrow and feel the air on my feet as I bounce barefoot down the pavement!!”

Over the coming months Camo is going to record his shoeless experiment and work out whether he can MARCH forward faster, and further – closer to earth. We would welcome all comment. We know its been done before. How did you find it?

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24 October 2012

Now, barefoot running is, of course, old news. Everyone has read the excellent (read it now!) Born to Run and jumped on the barefoot bandwagon. But here at the MARCH we like to think we are old skool. Survivors from an earlier age – and first movers in a modern one….

Since the dawn of vertical time Camo has enjoyed the sense of naked skin on earth. Let’s hear his plan and his explanation:

“I’m going to start with the plan….

Less is more and naked is nice. I think it’s time to start feeling my inner sole.

Could I run 10 km barefoot? Could I run a marathon barefoot? What about an ultramarathon? Would I want to? Would it work for me?

In the coming months I am going to find out. And I mean real barefoot. No five fingers for me. I’m going native. And I’m going to blog my thoughts, pain and pleasure as I MARCH forward shoeless!

And the explanation?

Well, 14 years living in the middle of London hasn’t dented by naked enthusiasm to shed a layer of clothing and get down and dirty at toe level.

Growing up in NZ kicking around barefoot was no big deal. Everyone did it and it made perfect sense. Arriving in the UK with no idea and no plan made great sense too back in the day – and so did kicking off my shoes at every opportunity. That pleasure and passion hasn’t really changed. I am 40 now, stuck in a suit all day as a Partner in a big London Law Firm, but I still walked back to the office after a training run at lunch time today barefoot. I tell (kid?) myself that clients, fellow Partners and staff know me well enough to understand….

But I know it seems odd to most. When I first met my wife, 10 years ago, it took a little explanation. Particularly when we kept getting kicked out of supermarkets because I was barefoot – for ‘elf n safety reasons of course…! Walking to the corner store for milk I regularly discover bare toes a magnetic excuse for comment and criticism – none of it witty.

So why do it?

Over the course of the coming weeks I am going to explain my reasons. Lets start with a little twisted logic.

For the last 5 or so years, spending time barefoot has been a big part of training my feet for desert ultramarathons. Wearing shoes, I ran 7 marathons across the Sahara Desert, and the same across the Gobi Desert, and never got a blister. Doing the same across the Atacama and Jordanian Desert the tiny blister I got was an embarrassment. Lots of things go in to that but I reckon a big one is my time barefoot. By the time I hit 50 degree celcious desert heat, and slam my feet in to the hard rock and soft sand each day my feet are pretty tough!

But why go further?

Endlessly searching for new kit I was introduced to Hoka One One running shoes this year. With a Maori name and a sole 2.5x the normal depth they were hard to miss – particularly as they were worn by the winner of a 3 day Coastal Ultramarathon I completed in March. I watched him bounce up the steep rocky trail and figured he had something I wanted – and not just his supreme fitness and dedicated training schedule. Chatting to him after the race each day I realised the one thing I could have was his shoes.

Despite the litigator in me forcing a quick cross examination of the UK distributor (doesn’t this technology fly in the face of modern thinking of less is more in sole depth, aren’t we meant to be running barefoot etc etc) I couldn’t get my credit card details across my tongue quick enough. Slapping down £135 to secure a pair in the next shipment from France I was convinced everything would be sorted and I too would be ‘flying’. Not only would I become an ultramarathon gravity defying god, I would banish the endless injuries I seemed to suffer these days….

So what happened?

Errr, I didnt fly and I didnt bounce! Everything hurt, with pain striking the few parts of my body that weren’t already injured.

My answer?

Binned One One! And then some. They were the first of 4 pairs of running shoes I bought in the build up to the 7 day ultramarathon across the Jordanian Desert in May this year.

Something wasn’t computing. Nothing was working. And it seemed to start and finish with my shoes (at least that theory meant I didn’t have to give up the takeaways, beer, and long days hunched over a desk – and god forbid start stretching…).

I’ve struggled on since Jordan. More shoes. More injuries. And more pain.

It’s time to try something different…!!”

Over the coming months Camo is going to record his shoeless experiment and work out whether he can MARCH forward faster, and further – closer to earth. We would welcome all comment. We know its been done before. How did you find it?

 

 

 

 

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