Sunday, August 21, 2011

Barefoot With Strides

I have been feeling a bit beat up the past few weeks with running. Just little aches here and there, most come and go in a matter of hours or at the most a few days. Running barefoot seems to help with that since the pace is easy, the soccer fields I do them on are soft, the legs get more extension and therefore more stretch, and it's also good for running form.

On that latter point on form work, Tim had suggested a few times that I try incorporating some barefoot strides as well. I thought about it during the run, wondering if it was a good idea because I was feeling a bit beat up, but I ultimately decided I'd try a couple and take them a bit slower at first and see how it goes.

So, after about 4.5 miles of running slowly, I did a couple of them, running from one soccer net to another. I felt fine, so continued on, then taking the amount of acceleration and top speed to close to how I'd do them on the track or other hard surface. Finished with 10 X 100M and enjoyed it. Hard to measure how much it helped the form, but being barefoot it doesn't allow much room for error, which was nice.

Ran 5.2 miles @ 7:58/mile pace (includes 10 X 100M strides)
Grassy fields.
Flat.
Mid 70s to around 80, sunny, humid.
Barefoot, shorts, short sleeved shirt, cap.

No comments: