Beware, batbear...
2014 Goal -- Run 5X per week, pain-free (relatively) by end of summer.
Professional Noob
Roads were made for journeys...
Certainly Something...
Barefoot and happy
Imminent Catastrophe
"Able to function despite imminent catastrophe"
"To obtain the air that angels breathe you must come to Tahoe"--Mark Twain
"The most common question from potential entrants is 'I do not know if I can do this' to which I usually answer, 'that's the whole point'.--Paul Charteris, Tarawera Ultramarathon RD.
√ Javelina Jundred Jalloween 2015
Cruel Jewel 50 mile May 2016
Western States 100 June 2016
Ed4, I saw the picture in the Boston report and it really looks like you're heel striking. Do you? I wouldn't have thought that possible barefoot/FF.
My heels do touch the ground first. But they don't bear much weight. My knee bends to absorb the initial impact, and my foot rotates downward fast enough to catch most of my weight. I've seen myself on slow-motion video doing it (I'm waiting to get a copy of it, I would love to post it.. Hopefully with the accompanying accelerometer graphs.) It's not easy to describe. It also can't be taken out of the larger context of what the rest of my body is doing. Knees bent, back straight, center of gravity slightly forward. I think of the foot landing as the effect, and the overall posture as the cause. When people fixate on trying to make their feet do something different, they just get frustrated. It doesn't happen in your feet, it happens in your core. Your feet will take care of themselves once you have your back, hips, and knees in the right place at the right time. When I first started trying to improve my form, it was my hip flexors and deep abdominals that got sore first, because I had been under-utilizing them for years. This was even before I started experimenting with being barefoot. The barefooting just makes it all automatic. I can run pretty well in shoes, but it takes a lot more concentration.
- Anya