Friday 26 October 2012

Put your best (front) foot forward - a fresh start

Ok, so I am back blogging again.

Catch up on the months that have passed and my progress has not been where I have wanted it to be. I've had several periods where I've just not run. This has been down to time, priorities, stress, injury and plain laziness.

Since my last post, my best 5k time is around 28 minutes. My longest run is just 8km unfortunately.

I've helped my Dad (61 years old) get through C25k and we've been running 5k's together once a week on a Sunday which we both really enjoy.

Over the past 3-4 weeks though I've noticed that I've had a lot of leg pain and numbness in my outer right foot, so I am hoping that this is mainly down to my shoes showing their age. But if I am honest, I've pretty much never had a pain or discomfort free run, not one. The last run I had, I had calf and shin pain and most disturbingly, my entire foot went numb near the end.

I've decided to have a go at relearning how to run from scratch and with that a switch to minimalist running.

STEP 1: New Shoes.
I find the concept of barefoot running quite appealing. It makes sense that our bodies would work best when unencumbered by modern comforts doesn't it. The problem is simply that the streets of this not so beautiful UK city are littered with glass, cans and other such delightful debris. Sensibly I think, I'm moving to a "Zero Drop" shoe. Here's what I've chosen..
New Balance MR00 Minimus Zero Drop

They arrived today and they are super light. Really amazingly so!

I've done some research online about the minimalist / barefoot scene and picked up some nice tips. The advice is to start of VERY slowly at VERY short distances. So onto my first 1km run...

Well, I'm pretty sure I was running front/midfoot, it definitely felt different. The run was easy enough being only 1k, but worryingly, the outside of my right foot went numb again.

I'm back to biking as my main exercise whilst I build up muscle strength for front-foot running, but I'll build up slowly and surely.