I've been running in Vibrams since October. Since wearing them my easy pace has really sped up. It wasn't until today that I realized why. My husband has been telling me for years that I brake when I run and that if I stopped braking it would really help my running. Well I'm not sure if it's the Vibrams or all the trail and ultras that I did over the past summer but I am no longer braking. I was telling him how as of late I've noticed that I' running leading with my hips, something of which I just noticed as of late along with how much faster I am going at what feels like a much slower pace. Anyway part of me really believes that getting out of shoe's and into V's have really helped with my running!
Your toughness is made up of equal parts persistence and experience. You don't so much outrun your opponents as outlast and outsmart them, and the toughest opponent of all is the one inside your head." - Joe Henderson
That's awesome news, congrats. I too used to brake, but it was more from the heel strike than anything else :-)
Creator of RunForth | @robraux | shodless.com
Go figure I was one of those forefoot strikers that still braked.
Half Fanatic #846
That's great, Pam - I think you've got a valid observation there. I'm still working on figuring out the "leading with the hips" part, though. Wow, you really are a long distance runner. What - you couldn't just stop at 100 miles???
I started running BF about half my weekly mileage a year or so ago & transformed from heel striking to mid-forefoot striking (which relieved my heel-striking related injuries). Then, a couple of months ago, I made a conscious decision to improve my easy pace as long as it came naturally. I guess before I was "slogging" through runs and subconsciously trained myself to run very slowly - easy pace previously being in the 13 minute range . Easy pace instantly improved by about 2:00 m/m to 11 something & race pace improved.
In retrospect, beforehand I was probably braking hard, was definitely a heel striker, and had taught myself to run very slowly. It didn't help that whenever I started feeling very much discomfort during a race, I would simply yield to the temptation to slow down too easily. I like to think that barefoot running and wearing minimalist shoes most all the time has helped me to speed up, too.
Now I'm adding speedwork once a week and I'm sure I can eventually get my race pace down another minute to the 8 min. range which will be super for me. Still slow, but hey I didn't start running till I was 58, & that was 6 years ago. BTW,. I ran 13.4 miles easy 3 days ago at about 11:25 pace - and totally barefoot the whole distance, so that's my BF distance record so far.
"I don't always roll a joint, but when I do, it's usually my ankle" - unk. "Frankly autocorrect, I'm getting a bit tired of your shirt". I ran half my last race on my left foot!
this is cool. you dont usually hear about people getting faster in them, its usually the opposite.
I pretty much started running in Vibrams, so my pace only had one direction to go.
not bad for mile 25