Saturday 16 March 2013

Long time no barefoot

Well it's been a pretty poor start to the year.  We were plagued with illness over the festive season, with my other half ending up in A&E with the start of pneumonia, and we all had coughs, flu, sickness etc etc.  Then we had the freezing weather, and running was hazardous to say the least.  Lastly, my mum's cancer returned with a vengeance and after a month of racing back and forth across the Severn Bridge, she finally lost her battle on Valentine's Day.

So running has taken somewhat of a backseat, though I have managed a few soul searching runs with my husband and dog.  For these runs I have stuck to trainers, simply because concentrating on something else seemed too much to deal with.

But over the last week I've taken to my old habit of removing my trainers for the last 0.3 miles of each run, and I haven't been disappointed.  Yes, my feet have softened up a bit, and the ground seems super prickly, but I don't think my form has suffered, and I've not had any worrying aches or pains.

So yesterday, I took the plunge and wore my Vivos for a 4 mile run.  I was a little dubious about this, because I'm very conscious that I've not put in the work in bare feet for a while, and the last time I made that mistake (ie running too far in minimalist shoes without the barefoot groundwork before it) I ended up with a stress fracture.

However, the run was absolutely great.  My feet felt very light (after wearing heavy trainers), I felt like I'd retained my barefoot form despite not having run barefoot for well over two months, and I really enjoyed it.  I did suffer a small developing blister on the top of my foot from the shoes - just another good reason to go without!

Today I did another 2 miles with the dog and wearing my Vivos.  For the last 0.3 miles I took the shoes off and let the dog carry one for me.  The blister formed by the Vivos developed and now I've lost a bit of skin on the top of my foot, but my soles are doing well and I'm definitely back in the game.  I hope that my mum is watching me from somewhere xx.