Go barefoot.
Guarantee you ll run better and have less injuries.
www2.trainingbible.com/joesblog/blog.html
Joe Friel knows a thing or two about running. His last two blog entries discuss choosing the right running shoes.
I did a half marathon at 5’9, 200. I did come across a bad case of plantar fasciitis and had to rest for a month during my training. I only ran 9 miles before the half. Stretching is KEY if you’re not used to distance running.
You’ll actually really get absorbed by the running culture. I bought tons of cool gear and outerwear for my training. Training in the Spring is phenomenal too because the sun comes up early and you can bang out a few miles before work.
I also kept my 3X’s a week full body Waterbury stuff going. I’d decrease your direct leg work if I were you. A couple of HEAVY sets of squats/deads will be fine to preserve a decent amount of LBM. Also, EAT like a madman, but I probably don’t have to tell you that…running causes savage hunger.
Good luck. You’ll feel a massive sense of accomplishment when it’s all said and done.
Your mention of plantar fascitis reminded me of something that worked great for me when I’d get it. And a lot of people may already know this stretch. Take a tennis ball, or some fairly hard ball, and roll out the bottoms of your feet with it. Like giving yourself a little foot massage. That was always key when my mileage was high to keeping the rest of my body loose.
[quote]bigquig wrote:
Your mention of plantar fascitis reminded me of something that worked great for me when I’d get it. And a lot of people may already know this stretch. Take a tennis ball, or some fairly hard ball, and roll out the bottoms of your feet with it. Like giving yourself a little foot massage. That was always key when my mileage was high to keeping the rest of my body loose.[/quote]
Totally agree with that.
Golf ball worked best for me when i did the NY marathon - would recommend dropping lots of weight though as it is far less work on the joints.
Plenty of foam rolling also
Its not a coincidence that some 90 pound African wins the Boston Marathon every year. Good luck bro
Just to throw some more interesting information at you: Here is a lit review that I did as part of a biomechanics paper that I wrote on barefoot vs shoe running and fatigue indicators.
My study was inconclusive btw.
[quote]Running barefoot and shod both appear to have evidence in favour and against the separate conditions in regards to which circumstance is more beneficial or detrimental on structural behaviour during running gait.
De Wit, Clercql, & Aerts, 2000, discovered that loading during heel strike (time to reach the force peak) decreases and heel strike peak force increases when running barefoot. This ultimately causes the maximal loading rate to be significantly larger in the barefoot condition. De Wit et al (2000) suggested that with a high loading rate there is an increase chance of tissue degeneration and cartilage changes.
Kinematic evidence has shown that barefoot running uses a flatfoot at footstrike, producing greater peak force at the metatarsal heads, due to the full forefoot strike (Squadrone & Gallozzi, 2009). The flatfooted footstrike executed during barefoot running, significantly reduces the heel strike force applied, hence reducing shock absorption from the heel pad. This is caused by the changes in technique adopted by the runners in an attempt to reduce the impacting forces on the heel (reducing the heel strike, or heel strike not being present during running gait) thereby reducing local pressure under the heel (Squadrone et al, 2009). This is seen as a mechanism behind generating injuries in the metatarsals in barefoot running.
The significantly greater knee-ankle-heel angles in the heel-off during barefoot running suggests that here is a larger use of planter flexion in the heel-off phase and greater loading on the lower leg with a larger knee angle in barefoot running (Stockton and Dyson, 1998). It also highlights that there is greater stress placed on plantar flexor muscles in shod running.
In addition to increased loading on the mid-foot (Squadrone et al, 2009), evidence has shown that energy expenditure distribution of sections in the foot in barefoot and shod conditions contribute to the increased strain found in barefoot running. The mid-foot provides 39% of total energy during barefoot running, which is restricted when wearing shoes due to the restricted range of motion in the mid-foot (Frederick, 1986). The study has shown that the ankle compensates for the reduction of potential energy production from mid-foot, causing heightened strain at the joint.
Research has shown that ankle coordination differs between the conditions. Barefoot running coordinate strategies employed by the ankle are significantly different from those demonstrated during running with footwear (Kurz & Stergiou, 2004). During the stance period, it was observed during barefoot running that the ankle was positioned so that only the forefoot made contact with the ground, which ultimately seemed to affect the coordinate strategy at the ankle.
When running shod, runners landed more in dorsiflexion but had had less ankle motion compared to running barefoot, irrelevant of shoes types (Bishop, Fiolkowski, Conrad, Brunt, & Horodyski, 2006). The primary kinematic difference was observed when running speed increased, with an increase in speed an increased knee flexion on landing become evident. Furthermore, as speeds increased, there was significant increase in ankle motion in barefoot runners compared to shod runners. They concluded that footwear influences stiffness maintenances in the lower extremity during joint excursion at the ankle during running, (irrelevancy in shoe types).
Research investigations into the effects that running barefoot has on the lower extremities, suggest that barefoot running exhibits greater vertical impact force than shod running with an increase in speed (Freedman, Dufek, & Mercer, 2007). In contrast, the limited research that is available, suggest that running shod only plays a protective role (e.g., weather and ground conditions), appearing to have no biomechanical benefit to gait (Warburton, 2001).
The evidence demonstrates that there is limited evidence on how the components of vertical ground reaction forces (heel strike and toe off) are affected by fatigue and how ankle co-ordination is affected with fatigue in both shod and barefoot conditions, highlighting the importance of this study.
[/quote]
[quote]Steveo989 wrote:
[quote]mmllcc wrote:
[quote]Steveo989 wrote:
When it comes to running shoes, go to a Runner’s only specialty store and get someone to watch you run barefoot, bring in an old pair of running shoes for them to look at how they wore, then they should watch you run in the new pair of shoes. Try plenty of different pairs of shoes, when you find a couple pairs you like wear one model shoe on one foot and the other model on the other foot so you can get a better “feel” for whatever running shoe you think fits properly.
Trust me don’t do the research yourself, I thought I needed one type of shoes and ended up getting shin splints that developed into stress fractures.
PS The shoes will cost retail but the service of the running shop will be priceless in terms of staying healthy and injury free. Once you know the model that works for you order them off the internet or on ebay to save a little money.
The poster recommending running flats is a fucking idiot!!! At 240lbs and putting in distance runs it’s not a matter of if you fuck yourself up, it’s a matter of when!!! [/quote]
Your problems could have been avoided had you ramped up slowly and allowed you body to adapt to the different running style. Of course if you had never properly developed those muscles, tendons and bones (through years of wrong running) you would need time to develop what essentially would be an underdeveloped or atrophied support structure for your frame.
So you either do it right and take your time…or you continue running wrong and your knees will suffer in the future.[/quote]
I have nothing wrong with my knees and I have no pain what so ever from running any longer regardless of distance. Haven’t gone past 50k but I would feel safe going higher. I use a midfoot strike and have never had issues with it and proper shoes. I have run the same way with running flats and have done fine although I would feel iffy at anything over 4 miles in them if I was a beginner I wouldn’t put more than 2 miles in running flats and if I weighed 240lbs I wouldn’t mess with them at any distance over a mile.
Quality running shoes are made to absorb shock, flats do in fact resemble running barefoot but how many miles would you feel safe barefoot on concrete or asphalt?
[/quote]
I agree with Steveo. All of the benefits from running barefoot or in minimalist shoes come from the fact that running without any cushioning forces you to avoid striking with your heel. Being a heel-striker sends the impact up to your knees, which are not designed to absorb the impact from running. Mid-foot striking allows your Achilles tendon and calves to absorb the impact. These structures are designed to absorb impact. The Pose and Chi Running methods (they are both very similar) explain running technique that results in a midfoot strike. You can pretty much learn Pose by just reading the free stuff on the site (Google “Pose running method”). The Chi Running book was less than $20 and provided a different perspective. This is now how I run. I’ve completed a half-marathon weighing 230 with no knee or joint pains at all.
It ain’t the shoes, it’s the running technique. Barefoot running is stupid. Those Vibram Five Fingers cost like $75 for some rubber and mesh. They are stupid, too, although the guy who invented them is a genius because he’s getting people to pay $75 for what amounts to $5 worth of materials and production cost. But the real genius was the Dopie sandal guy. He charges $45 for a piece of rubber.
BTW Steveo - 13:27 and change is a very respectable time for an Ironman. Nice job. Do you plan on doing any more?
[quote]MikeTheBear wrote:
[quote]Steveo989 wrote:
[quote]mmllcc wrote:
[quote]Steveo989 wrote:
When it comes to running shoes, go to a Runner’s only specialty store and get someone to watch you run barefoot, bring in an old pair of running shoes for them to look at how they wore, then they should watch you run in the new pair of shoes. Try plenty of different pairs of shoes, when you find a couple pairs you like wear one model shoe on one foot and the other model on the other foot so you can get a better “feel” for whatever running shoe you think fits properly.
Trust me don’t do the research yourself, I thought I needed one type of shoes and ended up getting shin splints that developed into stress fractures.
PS The shoes will cost retail but the service of the running shop will be priceless in terms of staying healthy and injury free. Once you know the model that works for you order them off the internet or on ebay to save a little money.
The poster recommending running flats is a fucking idiot!!! At 240lbs and putting in distance runs it’s not a matter of if you fuck yourself up, it’s a matter of when!!! [/quote]
Your problems could have been avoided had you ramped up slowly and allowed you body to adapt to the different running style. Of course if you had never properly developed those muscles, tendons and bones (through years of wrong running) you would need time to develop what essentially would be an underdeveloped or atrophied support structure for your frame.
So you either do it right and take your time…or you continue running wrong and your knees will suffer in the future.[/quote]
I have nothing wrong with my knees and I have no pain what so ever from running any longer regardless of distance. Haven’t gone past 50k but I would feel safe going higher. I use a midfoot strike and have never had issues with it and proper shoes. I have run the same way with running flats and have done fine although I would feel iffy at anything over 4 miles in them if I was a beginner I wouldn’t put more than 2 miles in running flats and if I weighed 240lbs I wouldn’t mess with them at any distance over a mile.
Quality running shoes are made to absorb shock, flats do in fact resemble running barefoot but how many miles would you feel safe barefoot on concrete or asphalt?
[/quote]
I agree with Steveo. All of the benefits from running barefoot or in minimalist shoes come from the fact that running without any cushioning forces you to avoid striking with your heel. Being a heel-striker sends the impact up to your knees, which are not designed to absorb the impact from running. Mid-foot striking allows your Achilles tendon and calves to absorb the impact. These structures are designed to absorb impact. The Pose and Chi Running methods (they are both very similar) explain running technique that results in a midfoot strike. You can pretty much learn Pose by just reading the free stuff on the site (Google “Pose running method”). The Chi Running book was less than $20 and provided a different perspective. This is now how I run. I’ve completed a half-marathon weighing 230 with no knee or joint pains at all.
It ain’t the shoes, it’s the running technique. Barefoot running is stupid. Those Vibram Five Fingers cost like $75 for some rubber and mesh. They are stupid, too, although the guy who invented them is a genius because he’s getting people to pay $75 for what amounts to $5 worth of materials and production cost. But the real genius was the Dopie sandal guy. He charges $45 for a piece of rubber.
BTW Steveo - 13:27 and change is a very respectable time for an Ironman. Nice job. Do you plan on doing any more?[/quote]
I’m debating on it, if it warms up early I think I will give it a go, this will be my last year in the 18-23 age bracket if I do Ironman WI so if I can drop my time by two hours which isn’t hard to do, an hour on the bike and an hour on the marathon is very reasonable imo.
However, I am getting out of the military in three months and will need a job going through college. I would like to be a bouncer at least on the weekends. My friend put it best, “you can either spend your money on a sat night and talk to girls, or you can make money on a sat night talking to girls” Putting on as much muscle mass as possible would help a lot imo getting a job doing this. The only thing is the two don’t mix at all.
[quote]MikeTheBear wrote:
I agree with Steveo. All of the benefits from running barefoot or in minimalist shoes come from the fact that running without any cushioning forces you to avoid striking with your heel. Being a heel-striker sends the impact up to your knees, which are not designed to absorb the impact from running. Mid-foot striking allows your Achilles tendon and calves to absorb the impact. These structures are designed to absorb impact. The Pose and Chi Running methods (they are both very similar) explain running technique that results in a midfoot strike. You can pretty much learn Pose by just reading the free stuff on the site (Google “Pose running method”). The Chi Running book was less than $20 and provided a different perspective. This is now how I run. I’ve completed a half-marathon weighing 230 with no knee or joint pains at all.
It ain’t the shoes, it’s the running technique. Barefoot running is stupid. Those Vibram Five Fingers cost like $75 for some rubber and mesh. They are stupid, too, although the guy who invented them is a genius because he’s getting people to pay $75 for what amounts to $5 worth of materials and production cost. But the real genius was the Dopie sandal guy. He charges $45 for a piece of rubber.
BTW Steveo - 13:27 and change is a very respectable time for an Ironman. Nice job. Do you plan on doing any more?[/quote]
I’m going to partially disagree with you on that. True, it’s not the shoes as much as the stride, but the shoes do matter for performance. I’m going to defend Five Fingers because I personally have seen improvements in my running, and reduced pain in my hips and knees from wearing them. They are incredibly overpriced, for sure, but they are shoes that I wear all the time and run in almost exclusively.
However, I would not recommend them to a new runner logging heavy mileage. Nor would I ever wear them for a marathon because of the pace, though I might try them for an ultra this summer.
Congrats on the half marathon, btw. I’m usually the heaviest guy running at 70" and 200lbs.
Ran my first (and only) marathon at 6’2" 220 lbs while keeping up my PL training. Finished around 4h 30m. Not a blazing fast time, but respectable for a first go. I worked up to about 10 mi a day, 3 days a week, with some interval sprint work on 2 of the off days.
I do advise you to take heavy anti-inflammatory precautions. Fish oil supplements throughout training, advil and maybe cold packs after you finish, and a massage scheduled the afternoon after the run and the next morning. I skimped a bit on it, and the pain around my knees was debilitating the next morning when I woke up. Other than soreness, I was fine, but it was no fun.