First time one hour (M+1)

That is it, I have past a first milestone today, I have run more than one hour barefoot. It is the first time that my barefoot running (green bars in graphs) is longer than my shoed one (blue bars). Mainly on concrete, with a bit on dirt path, it also included ~25 minutes on the running tracks. It was definitively nice on the tracks. I started slowly, at a pace of 4'23/km, speeding it up to 4'00 and finishing at a pace of 3'43, then a recovery km at 4'56. That is also the nice bit on running on track, is that you can really pace yourself accurately. I was barefoot and it had snowed two days ago in town, so there was still some small puddles of really cold water on the tracks. Well, surprisingly, it felt really good to step barefoot on the cold water. It was very refreshing. Normally with shoes, you always try to avoid the water, barefoot, it fells really good, it cools your feet down, very nice.

Anyway, I think I have passed an important first mark today, running more than one hour barefoot. Now, I will increase the time spend barefoot and decrease the time with shoes. I will still keep the Wednesday shod because that is when we go out for the big tour with colleagues. But that should be the only thing I do with shoes.

After a bit more than a month, exactly 42 days to be precise, I have passed the first cap, one hour barefoot, without major pain. It has been a relatively smooth process so far. On schedule for the half in four months. Now I have to increase the speed and the frequency. See you soon.

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Barefoot on snow, not good (M+1)

That's it, first snowfalls in my German town. That might delay a bit my training. I just went out there, just to see what happens.

I did it! Honestly, it is crazy, don't even try it. I went out barefoot on the snow. After 3 minutes, my toes were frozen and I had to come back. It feels really good on the toes when you stop. Don't even try it barefoot.

I guess the snow will now delay a bit my schedule but that's OK, I knew this would happen. I still have four months to be ready for the half-marathon. 

Went with shoes for 40 minutes the day after, all fine, I will try to go barefoot tomorrow, not much snow left in the city, should be OK.

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Saturday wet and cold (M+1)

Longer run today, went out barefoot for 40 minutes. It felt good and I slowly increased the pace for the second half. I wanted to keep going, it felt good in the legs, but I had to pick up my daughter and couldn't run more. Another family constraint. Anyway, just to tell you, that I am doing fine, well on schedule and ready to go for more. As you can see in the graph, I am around 2/3rd of my normal shod distance and time, and really looking for more. Next goal, one hour barefoot. I don't see why this should be a problem.

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Another day, another barefoot run (M+1)

Couldn't resist and went for another 33 minutes of barefoot running around here, normal pace. Mainly on concrete but with some small passes through the woods and on rocks, mainly small pointy ones. Everything all right, mainly wanted to prepare for this weekend's longer one.

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Pretty slippery Wednesday run (M+1)

I went for 15 minutes barefoot on concrete before the classical Wednesday run. Slow pace, 3 km. It felt good. I then switched to the shoes and went for the 15 km. It was raining and pretty slippery. I was very tired for the last couple of km. Probably because of the barefoot before. I also felt very hungry. All good, I will try to go for a longer, 45 minutes, barefoot run during the weekend.

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Classic monday run (beginning M+1)

Just went for another long run with shoes. Not much to say. Ran our usual Monday course in a normal time, just below 13 km in 60 minutes. I went for a couple of minutes, before with the five-fingers (5Fs)  just to keep the momentum. The fact that I am able to run the normal course in an usual time just goes to show that there is no problem with doing both, that running barefoot does not impede one from running with shoes.

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Getting serious (M+1)

It is now a month since I received the barefoot five-fingers. I thought it was about time to get serious, do something more than a short warm up, followed by 10-15 minutes. It was time for a longer run. I went out five-fingered on concrete for 35 minutes. It felt incredible, really good. However, I now realized that I am getting blisters just at the edge of the feet, at the beginning of the toes. Really small and tiny blisters, one in each foot, but blisters. I opened them up, dried them and it is fine now. However, the feet felt weird for a couple of hours. No pain but just like when a wound is curing. Some itchy feelings, some sensations that you cannot really define or associate to a particular area. May be it is just my feet growing. I realized that I probably don't use them five-fingers enough. Using them principally over the weekend only is unlikely to be sufficient. I should probably wear them more and walk around. However, with my job, that consist mainly of sitting down all day, there is not much else I can do. I will have to satisfy with this. Surely I would be best to wear them more, not only for running, but just walking too, just for the feet to get used to.

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Back to long shoed run (D+27)

I eventually went back to a long run after two weeks of limited runs because of heavy travelling. I went to our classical 15K track in a somehow slightly slower but still satisfying time of 68 minutes. It might seem slow, but it is actually hilly, very hilly. It felt good too. Absolutely no signs of problems below the feet. Looks like I am back to normal. The weather was fine, no rain, good temperature, cold but not too much. Felt good, will be back to barefoot on concrete this weekend. I will try to go for a longer one this time. Stay tuned!

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After a few Belgian Beers (D+26)

And I am back. Sorry, I have been traveling for a few days again, guess where from the title. So I started having some pain last Tuesday. It slowly disappeared during the week, but I still had some feeling on friday. I went shortly around in barefoot while abroad but nothing worth appearing in the graph.

Back for another slightly shorter run today. The front sole of my right feet was still slightly inflamed. I thought it was ok walking with shoes, but as soon as I stepped with the fivefingers, i could feel that it was still slightly swollen. Nothing at all, I could still perfectly run, but I felt it. So I will not score it on the pain factor in the graph, it barely deserved a 1, may be a 0.5. It feels actually quite good now that it is still warm from the running. Despite this slight discomfort, I really like the barefoot sensation. I can't wait to go for longer runs. It feels good, I like it.

Back tomorrow for another shoed run, I realize that with all the traveling, I haven't had a serious run in more than two weeks. How could this have happened?

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Post first pain, back to OK (D+19)

Just went again. I know I shouldn't have because of what happened last week. But I needed to go. It was fine, I just went for 8 Km in 10 minutes. I could steel feel it, let's say 1 on a scale of 0 (not noticeable) to 10 (unbearable pain). It went slightly up to 3 at the end of the run and after it, I could feel it, not even painful yet, but more noticeable. It is down to 1 now, 20 minutes after the run. Let's see if it gets worst when it cools down. As I say in the title, it is back to OK, not to normal. Meaning I can still feel it, but it is not an issue of concern at the moment.

Important advice to beginner potential barefoot runners: Get use to it on the street first. Get your feet used to it on an even pavement. Then go out in the woods and irregular soil, but get used to it before that. This is the main conclusion I draw from my experience so far.

4 hours after running, cooled down now, it is still there with a 1 on the pain scale, which barely qualifies as noticeable, not painful at all. So the plan is to go running on Friday, in three days, since I will be traveling tomorrow and the next. It should be fine by then. See you then!

Recovering (D+18)

So, after a weekend of complete rest, the feet are OK, thanks for asking. It also started on the left foot somehow not so important at the end of the day last Friday. But it is OK now. I could feel it on both feet during the weekend, but nothing that was a problem. I did everything normal, in soled shoes during the weekend. now it is better, but I will still rest them today and go for another run tomorrow.

First pain (D+15)

Clearly I have spoken to fast on my last post. And I don't write that because of the last post. Today, around 2 hours after my run, I began to develop some pain below the right foot. Clearly at the area of landing, at the edge between the toes and the sole of the feet. There is the beginning of a small inflammation, with redness, swelling, and some itching. I had something very similar shortly after my last full marathon, that I ran with thin soled shoes, followed by a lot of falling on my feet while climbing. So I know the feeling and this is clearly similar. Meaning that I have probably done too much of it too hard. Nothing serious though, I can still walk and the pain is barely noticeable. But still a reminder that I should be careful. I did really enjoy my run though. And I don't know if this is due to the running in itself or to stepping on a pointy stone right at this location of the feet.

Let see how this evolves during the weekend.

Third week (D+15)

As you might have noticed, I haven't been running for a few days because I was out of town for work. However, I took my five fingers with me and today I was walking around the town with them on. Some people looking strangely at my feet, even a few cops when I was asking them for directions. Was good but now I feel that my feet are tired, or at least that they have been working. Tired. Will take it easy tomorrow.

Just went for a 20 minutes run. It is getting real cold here. I could feel it on my toes. However, that was still supportable. The stones are also an issue, but it is ok. It is clearly more enjoyable to run on concrete, but the woods are fine. The run went fine, but now, I can really feel my feet. Lots of sensations down there. I guess it is a normal reaction from the stones and the cold. But it is fine.

Rereading the past posts, I realize that may be from the outside, it all seems to easy. May be I should start describing some problems, if not, you out there will stop reading this blog and just go running barefoot without consideration. It might be true that this is so far going well, but as I mentioned previously, I believe that this is thanks to the fact that I am taking it easy, attempting to do a smooth transition, keeping my classical shoed running and slightly replacing it by barefoot. So far it has been well, but I had some 'feelings', not real pain yet to confirm that the 'take it easy' option is the good one. So we will see, may be I'll run into troubles soon, but please take it slow.

My body is changing!

Could not sleep Monday night, after my first hill run. Did not know why. I was tired. All day in meeting, giving talk, lots of stress and concentration. I should sleep immediately. But I couldn't. That is when I realized that the problem were my feet. They were itching, disturbing sensation that impedes you from sleeping. I felt like an adolescent growing, in development. That might be an indication that something is happening. I am growing again. Back to adolescence, 20 again. Yaouw!

I love it! + first hill (D+10)

I just love it! Running barefoot is so great! Despite the pain waking up last night, my feet felt perfectly fine today. I knew I shouldn't but I guess a lot of runners out there would understand. So I couldn't resist and went for a new run. I felt so good that I slightly increased the time and distance, went for 5-6 km in 25 minutes, including my first hills. And I JUST LOVE IT. It is difficult to describe, but running just seems easier, just seems to be free of going anywhere, doing whatever, apparently with less effort. I still feel close to the ground, but don't pay much attention to the irregularities on the ground. I went on concrete, so it is easier. I just love this sensation. I thought I should let my feet rest after the pain yesterday, but couldn't and went for another one. I wanted to keep it low, max. 15 minutes, but I felt so good, that I went for 10 more minutes and had to force myself to stop. I also went for my first hill, just to see. At some point, at the beginning of attacking the downhill part, I slapped my feet flat on the ground and felt that I should try to avoid to do that again, but that was all. Apart from that, nothing noticeable at all. It all went fine. After 10 days, I am up to 25 minutes, at a satisfying speed. It looks like I am well on schedule to do a half-marathon in slightly more than five months. Let's see how my feet react to this longer run. Stay posted. Cheers.

First pain (D+9)

Today I woke up with pain on the upper side of the left feet, at the base of the big toe, just at the point of flexion between the toe and the foot. I could also see a red dot of the size of the nail right there. It went better after a couple of hours, but this just goes to show that you should take it easy, and even if it looks like I am going slowly, I am probably doing good not to overdue it too fast.

I also do a lot of climbing, and I frequently have some kind of overstretching of the fingers. The feeling in the feet is very similar, which probably shows that I am close to the physical limit of my feet. I have to take it easy and let the feet adapt, grow muscles, ...

No so fast, take it easy seems to be the key to a successful adaptation to barefoot running. After my run of Yesterday, Friday, I was feeling really good and wanted more. I was planning to go for half an hour on Sunday. I will see how the feet feel, but I think I'll probably rest a bit more.

Cramp again + graph (D+8)

Went for another run today, slightly increased the distance and the speed, almost up to 15 minutes at a good speed. But I am still happy to take it easy. After 8-9 minute, I could feel some stress at my right middle toe. Nothing painful, nothing worrisome, just a feeling of enough for today. I finished the run for 5 more minutes. I went once again swimming just after the run. Again cramp at the right foot. Long time since I had cramp. On the other side, it is also the first time I go to run just before swimming. So, it is probably nothing.

I will introduce graphs of my runs, both time and distance. It is not very meaning full now, but will slowly build up and illustrate the transition.

Midlife crisis?

A running colleague of mine triggered an interesting reflection. I was asked if all this, the barefoot switch, the blog, was the result of midlife crisis. May be I was going through a midlife crisis, reaching 40, and may be that was the reason why I wanted to switch to barefoot. I actually never though of it like that. After thinking about it for a while, including while running, I can safely say that the answer is 'NO!'. I am pretty happy with my situation, my family, my sport. I am not going through a midlife crisis. Or at least, not that I know of. After all, what is midlife crisis? I don't know. May be I'll look back in some years and actually realize that I was going through it. At least, if that is what I am going through, it is pretty nice, painless. So far.

No, I think this is more due to the fact that with age, you pay more attention to your body, you listen more to it. You also want to try new things, want to improve the way you are doing what you are doing. By example, a couple of years ago, I bought a book about how to improve your swimming. Despite the fact that I was swimming for more than 10 years, I did learn something, there was still interesting tips and I am still trying new tricks while swimming. I could have started a blog about 'How I improved my swimming'. What about that? No midllife crisis, in fact, the inputs were varied. I started to hear about barefoot running, started to read about it, was prompted by friends, colleagues. It is a long time since I was tempted by a safer way of running. Like a lot of people, I was just not convinced by the whole barefoot propaganda. Now, I am at least convinced enough to be willing to give it a try. And I have to say that so far, it has been very positive, in many aspects. I haven't run for very long yet, but I can already feel interesting changes in my body, the feet, the posture, ... . So far, so good. But no midlife crisis, no.

Another barefoot attempt tomorrow. Cheers

Posture! (D+6)

Posture, it is all about it. I went for my third small run barefoot today, only 1.5k in 8 minutes, but this time in the woods. It is clear that you have to be a bit more careful. Small pointy stones, holes big or small, any relief on the ground are directly transmitted to your feet. Surprisingly, it is actually easier to run on concrete than in the woods. Concrete is much more even, no surprises to expect, in the woods, you have to be a bit more careful about where you step. But it was nice, I can clearly cope with the inequalities on the ground, while enjoying the barefoot sensation.

After this small barefoot run, I slipped in my soled running shoes and went for my usual Wednesday run. This direct transition from barefoot to sole made me realize that it is all about posture. And it even seem that running barefoot helps me to keep a correct posture while running soled. Or at least to think about it. The little barefoot experience I have made me realize that I run soled much more pulling on my back, while barefoot I seem to be leading the pace with my chest. I had read similar things, which is probably why I realized it, but feeling it while barefoot definitively helped me to change my posture while running with shoes. This posture comes naturally while barefoot, and it is only then that I realized it.

My feet are fine, no more sensation at the sole, looking good. I like it. I definitively want to increase the distance barefoot next time. Stay tuned!

Second run (D+4)

While walking around at work today, I realize that my feet are more sensitive. Indeed, I can feel, specially below the ball of the foot that I have been walking barefoot for more than one hour yesterday. Which, to me just confirms that I should take it easy. The feet need time to adapt, develop muscles, ...

Anyway, that is it, I went for a second run. I did the same distance, but unwillingly went a bit faster. Everything fine. Really the sensation of running barefoot is amazing, I stronly recommend it to anyone. However, I can also feel by now that something is happening to the sole of my feet, specially where the toes join the foot. It is a sensation difficult to describe, no pain at all, but not specially enjoyable, but not disturbing neither. Clearly something is happening down there and it all started with those shoes. Am I going to fast? Should I allow my feet to rest more? Or should I on the opposite enjoy the momentum and go for more, faster, higher, longer? If you guys know something about it, let me know.
Noticed a little redness just below the ball of the feet, just where I could feel something. Nothing special, it disappeared after a day.

Whatever is happening right now, I clearly enjoy the sensation of running directly on the ground. Let see if it keeps going that well. I'll let the feet rest tomorrow and go for another slightly longer run on Wednesday.

Cold feet (D+3)

After letting the feet rest on Day +2. i went walking around for more than one hour on Sunday (Day +3). It went fine, but I could also feel the cold, and most importantly, that the feet need to get use to this. Below the toes, at the bone level, I could feel tiredness, nothing disturbing or pain, just that it is time to switch back to soled shoes and let the feet rest. So far, I think I am doing fine, not going to fast, letting the feet adapt and taking it easy.
Will go for another short run tomorrow.

First sensation. (D+1)

So this is it, the shoes arrived and I had to go give it a go. First thing to say is that the shoes are actually very comfortable. It just feels very natural, This feeling of not having the toes clamped together is very nice. So size wise, if you have to order through the net, your normal size might just do it. Or may be I just got lucky.

Now of course, I wanted to take it easy and just go for a slow five minutes run. It feel so good that I did ten. However, during the last two minutes, I could feel some very minor feelings in the toes. Nothing really, but just to let me know that it is enough for today and time to let my feet rest and start to adapt. The running in itself was very interesting, you do really feel close to the ground, in close interaction with it. I know it sounds stupid to say, but you ought to give it a try to realize that. Of course, you also feel any minor defects on the ground, a stone, a small hole, anything is immediately noticed, but so far, that has not been a problem, that is why there is a very thing sole and not just barefoot.

So the first sensation was definitively enjoyable. Let's see wait for next time. Something worth noticing though is that I went running just before going to swim. While swimming, I had cramp in the sole of the feet, something that didn't happened to me since a very long time. I don't know if it is related to the barefoot run just before, but I just wanted to let you know.

See you next time, for another barefoot attempt.

Here they are! (the Day)

Great news, the shoes just arrived. Now I promised to go slowly. So take it easy, be patient. From what I have red, this is the key to a safe transition. And that is the main motivation.

Of course, I couldn't wait and had to try them on. Hmm, interesting. After fighting a bit to get the small toe in his pocket, and it is not totally there yet, I have to say that this is quite comfortable. Nice feeling. Of course you do feel much closer to the ground but the very first feeling is good. Very positive, I like this sensation. At least inside. Have to go out.

That's it, just came back from running in between the buildings. Colleagues looking at me like I am crazy, all formally dressed up and running around with almost nothing on my feet. But it is nice, I like it. So far, it was only on concrete. I was a bit afraid that it would be too hard and hurt, but nothing like it. It actually feels very good.

Ok, so the shoes just arrived. Because I told you it is all about a slow, gradual transition, I will start a graph of soled vs bare runs. The idea being to gradually replace the former by the later.

So stay tuned, because the big experiment is about to begin.

Motivations I and II: Safety and time.

While waiting for the shoes to arrive, a bit more about the motivation to switch to barefoot. Three bits of motivation in fact.

So why barefoot running? I never really had big running related injuries, apart from a few ankle twisting, but nothing serious. On the other side, I frequently had and still have now minor feelings, they don't reach the painful or disturbing level, but they are still there. Specially in the lower back. Nothing really serious, too disturbing, but just annoying. Small sensations below the feet, on the knee, or hips, some back pain too. And not all the time, but enough to be disturbing. I am sure a lot of runners out there are feeling the same. This of course might be linked to my job, which requires me to be sitting all day, specially the back pain. And I have to say that running might help, it feels like it gets better after running. However, I also have recurring sensations that are definitively linked to running, in the sole of the foot, the knee cap, or the hips. Once, I even went to one of those sophisticated machine where you run on a detector which supposedly tells you what you are doing right or wrong, and of course, which type of expensive shoe you need to buy. Needless to say that the expansive shoe I bought didn't change anything at all to my running, my time or my injuries. So one hope is that barefoot running will alleviate or even make disappear those sensations, by being more gentle on the articulations. I will keep you informed on the evolution of those things.

One, the first motivation, is to get read of theses running related issues.

The second motivation, is related to the first one. It is running a sub-three. Once you get serious about running, after running a few marathon below 3h30, the sub-three becomes a possibility. I would guess that most marathon runners dream to run at least once below 3h. When I began to get serious about running, this obviously began to tickle me. However, I could not. I cannot say “No matter how hard I tried”, because that is exactly it, I couldn't try harder. I seemed to have reached my physical limit. I don't mean my muscle limits, but more like the bones-joins limit. When I tried to increase my weekly time or distance, I began to run into body problems, mostly related to joins, hips, knee or even sole of the feet. Articulations pain, micro-fracture, ... all those started to kick in, clearly running related. So it really feels that I had reached my physical limits with shoes. Let's see if barefoot affords me to break the 3h. First test will be in 6 months.

As a first test to run a marathon below 3h, you should try to run a half marathon in less than 90 minutes. I already tried that many times, specifically the last two, where I though I was pretty well trained, in good shape and close to my physical limits of training. Well, I got close, 1h35 and 1h32, but impossible to go below 1h30 on the half. So I hope that I can run barefoot a half marathon just 2 minutes faster. I give myself 6 months to get ready to run a half marathon barefoot. If I can just finish it barefoot, I will be happy. But if I can finish it below 90', that will be very nice. And that would mean a lot for those shoes.

So, first test in six months, end of April, Heidelberg half marathon. Of course, the real test would be latter on to run a full marathon below 3h. At 40 years old, that would be pretty good.

The second motivation is thus to run faster, or as I said in an earlier post, to be more efficient in my training.

Third motivation in the next post. Can you guess what it is? As a hint, I can tell you that I am a scientist.

Ihre Bestellung wurde versandt.

Just received an email from the firm saying that they have send the shoes and that they should arrive soon.

"Ihre Bestellung (2011/11/05/16219) wurde heute versandt und sollte in Kürze bei Ihnen eintreffen."

Coming soon! Stay tuned.

Just ran my classical Wednesday ~15k in 1h05. Feeling good, the weather is beginning to get cold here in Germany. Time to get the gloves out. No knee cap feelings today. May be it is linked to the temperature, I wore long legs today. Just mentioning that because not everything has to be linked to the shoes.

Personal history.

Hi, as promised, just a little background about myself. I have been doing sport since I can remember. I use to play football (the one that is played with the feet) since I can stand, and this implies a lot of running. Mostly around the field which is pretty boring, but I use to play a lot of soccer during school recess too. Around age 20, I was introduced to serious running by a colleague, but didn't really pick it up before around age 25. It is only then that I happened. I discovered the joy of running for running, not to keep in shape, not to chase a ball, but just for the pleasure of it. Related to this 'Joy of running' a friend of mine wrote a very interesting evolutionary post. I would invite any interested runner to have a look at it. It contain some interesting speculations. Anyway, this discovery of the joy of running happened thank to a colleague. This day and this colleague, I will never forget. Since then, I am now almost 40, I have run around 10 marathon, with a personal best below 3h10, and plenty of smaller races, too many to count them. I run regularly since at least 10 years, with at least twice one hour per week. Unfortunately, running is not my only sport, I have a family and a work. Thus, I don't have enough time in life to do all the sport I want. So twice to three times one hour a week is pretty much all the running I can afford. Although running is mainly an individual sport, I run frequently with a group of colleagues. It is also nice to share thoughts and discuss other issues at least during the first half of the run. For the second half, most of us are too focussed in their legs to talk anyway.

Just checked the web site, shoes should arrive in a week. It is exciting. I have ran my usual 13k in an hour today. I had some itchy feelings in the lower part of the knee cap, not really pain, but a sensation that it could become one. One of my hopes is that barefoot running will provide me with a safer, more natural, more relaxed way to run. It might be that I am a bit tense while running. Basically, to get more out of my running. Enough for today, see you next time, bye bye.

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Let's get started.

So that's it, I have simultaneously taken two big decisions in my life. The first is to switch to barefoot running, the second one is to start a blog about it. It has been a while since I have been tempted by both, but never really found it into me to get started. After having heard here and there about barefoot running, watching movies on YouTubes, and reading some articles, I was always tempted by the philosophy, the fact that big cushioning soles are counterproductive, that this is imposed on us by big corporations, and that this is in fact a safer way to run. I have also had a few run related injuries, but have had some friends with pretty serious ones. I have had some friends that tried it and immediately go hooked and this has confirmed so many articles I have read about similar immediate addictions to minimalistic shoes. After reading a last article send by a running friend of mine  "The once and future way of running", on the NY times, I decided to get started and ordered my very first pair of VIBRAM FiveFingers SPRINT Goblin Blue.

I can't wait to receive them and get started. On the other side, I have read that it profoundly modifies your own body. It seems that it is not so easy because you need to change your running style, the key apparently being to take it easy. I read lots of comments of happy runners AFTER they have made the transition, but couldn't find any about runners actually in it. Well, I have decided to be the one to document this transition and I will regularly update this blog about my running and what is happening to my body. I hope that it could be of interest to any open-minded runners out there that are hesitating to make the switch and are willing to hear about a real-life story. So here we go. I just ordered them. I live in Germany and there is so far no dealer of VIBRAM in this country. I had to order them online. I choose the most likely size for me. If it is not the one, I will have to send them back and wait another week or two.

Next time, while waiting for the shoes to arrive, I will tell you a bit more about my running history.

That's all for today, take care, run safe.

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