New beginnings hurt in new places

OK - so the blisters have dried up, but my calves are still killing me after my first barefoot running experiment. The cobblestones of Prague are still covered with a mixture of snow, ice and "frozen snot", so I made my way inside to the gym on Friday for day one of the barefoot experiment. The goal? To test out some of the stuff I've been reading about in Christopher McDougall's "Born to Run." Namely - modern running shoes may very well be reason for my chronic heel pain. Here's how McDougall puts it - in a 2 minute video clip on YouTube:

As eager as I am to try out something new... I don't want to break things while doing it. Especially if those things are what keep me mobile. So I started slowly. I cranked up the treadmill to a nice, slow 10-minute mile pace. The goal for the first two kilometers was to keep the shoes on, but focus on landing on the balls of my feet instead of the heels. In other words - run like my two-year-old does.

It felt... weird. Kind of like I was tiptoeing while running. I started feeling it in my calves after the first kilometer or so. You know - that feeling you get when you're using a muscle you're just not used to using. There's a mirror set up right next to the treadmill I was using, so I snuck peeks at myself as I went along, and noticed something interesting. When I ran like a toddler, it automatically made me straighten my back up. Most of my motion seemed to be up-and-down, without a lot of side to side swaying. A little like what you'd see if you're hopping in place. I'd switch back to "normal running" for a bit and see an instant change in my posture. I'm 6 foot 4, 180 pounds, and usually move with the grace of a drunk giraffe. The mirror told me that when I run, I lumber - swaying side to side with each stride. That swaying motion goes away when I transition to my new "toddler run."

At kilometer three, I took off the shoes and socks. Not a whole lot of difference at first. What seemed like a forced technique while wearing shoes became the only technique barefoot. I tried a couple heel-strike steps barefoot just to see what would happen - and thought the thuds on the treadmill would bring down the house! About halfway through the barefoot kilometer, things started to heat up. What began as a tingling feeling in my toes and balls of my feet started to smart... and then burn a bit. By the time kilometer 4 rolled around, I was ready for socks. I made it another 500 meters or so, and then popped the shoes back on to round out the 5K.

Not sure if it was heat or the abrasive surface of the treadmill - but the soles of my feet hurt the rest of the day. I got home and confirmed my suspicions - blisters on three or four toes, and burning red soles. I had a rude awakening when I got up the next morning. My calves were complaining - bitterly about all the new work they'd been forced to do.

Today, the blisters are dried up, my feet no longer feel like they've been massaged with sandpaper, and my calves? Well, they're still a bit sore. You know what though? My sore muscles tell me that I'm doing something different than the way I've always run. Right or wrong, I'm learning a way of running that's very different than I've been doing it for years. The sore calves? I'm sure they'll just get stronger to the point where they're trained to expect the kind of abuse I throw at them.

You know what else though? My heel didn't bother me the whole run!