Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Rubberized Rob

Unlike the wild and crazy Bill, my feet were farther from the running surface than ever during today's run. I put my first 6.5 miles on a new pair of New Balance 1063s.
Like Bill, though, I have been trying to be less of a heel striker for a couple of years now. I keep reading that you are less liable to injure yourself if you can land more toward the mid-sole. To do it, I've tried to shorten my stride, which has the added advantage of increasing my turnover and, in theory, my speed. I don't know if it's working - certainly no one's going to accuse me of being speedy - but I haven't had a lower leg or foot injury for over a year, and I used to be plagued by plantar fasciitis, achilles tendonitis, ITB and hamstring problems.
Today's run was at a tempo pace of 9:11.
Keep running, everyone. -- Rob

2 comments:

The Men's Running Club of Kansas City said...

Rob -- my right calf is very sore. I think I ran too far on my first barefoot outing. Question -- as you shortened your stride, did it put increased load on your calves at first? I'm thinking I just need to carefully ramp my miles into this new stride, as I'm starting from such a non-existant base. -- Bill

Rob said...

I don't recall having any particular soreness from it, but I wasn't shortening AND going barefoot, which has to be more stressful.