Barefoot at the Track!

I may not be ready for a ten mile barefoot run, but I did finish my track workout with some barefoot sprints and I loved it!

Yesterday, I ran six miles to the top of the Bridge and back to my office (I even ran up the steps of the Customs House again - my Rocky moment).

This morning, I showed up for my track workout with six other runners.  After an 800 meter warm up, stretches and drills we got into the main part of the workout: 4x200 (:54 / 100 recovery), 4x300 (1:21 / 200 recovery), 4x400 (1:49 / 300 recovery).  I was fast on all of my splits, but felt great the whole time (I even pushed it on my last 400).

I have been toying around with the idea of running barefoot, but the thought of the bottom of my feet hitting the pavement has held me back a little.  At the end of our workout, Coach Greg threw in a little twist (a barefoot twist).  We took off our shoes / socks and did 10x50 meter sprints on the grass.

The grass was cold and wet, but felt good on my feet.  I noticed right away that I was leaning forward when I was running.  I also noticed that the only part that was uncomfortable was the bottoms of my feet (they were cold).  The feeling is much like that of taking your shoes off and stretching your feet after a long flight (it just feels good).

The hope is that by doing this I will build up the muscles in my feet.  I am reading Born to Run right now and that might make me even more inclined to try the barefoot approach on the road someday.


4 comments:

  1. Nice workout!

    You'll be Barefoot Noah soon enough ;)

    I've totally been wanting to test out my bare feet on a run too but also worried about the asphalt. Maybe I'll go try it out at the track next week. No school so I'll be able to use the track and the high school nearby.

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  2. I've tried running in socks on asphalt. It's not too bad if you don't care about destroying your socks. I hope your digging Born to Run. I loved the book, though McDougall clearly took some artistic liberties with the story. I still like to read it when I need some inspiration.

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  3. Good luck with running barefoot! I am not sure how I would do with that one. I remember the barefoot on the grass striders we would do back in my cross country days and my feet didn't like it much! Sounds like you had a great workout though. Speed work can feel so good and empowering.

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  4. I love speed work! I am glad I only did a few barefoot sprints in the grass to get started. I am going to try the beach this week as well. Wish me luck...

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