Thanks for all the information. Batman - I have a lot of hills by my house and find even when I barely jog down them, that’s when I feel it, hence why I would like the extra cushioning.
Do you have calluses under any of the heads of the metatarsals of your foot (in the area of the ball of your foot)? If so, then you might have a bone structure that predisposes you to a metatarsal stress fracture if you become a forefoot striker and you may want a shoe with a little more cushioning in the forefoot area.
The POSE method of running is the best I have seen from my experience, although I would rather have my balls caught in a bear trap than to do distance running…
I would also look at the comments, the person who posted the video seems to be pretty knowledgeable.
[quote]WN76 wrote:
[quote]batman730 wrote:
[quote]WN76 wrote:
batman730,
Could you lay out the transition program you followed? [/quote]
Well, I can’t recommend anybody try to duplicate my approach. It was a somewhat haphazard, self-designed mishmash that happened to work out okay despite being far from optimal. There are infinitely superior resources available for anybody interested in the subject.
My first introduction came from Danny Dreyer’s book Chi Running (McDougall’s Born To Run is very good too, but more of a memoir). Despite being a little new-agey in places, I found it to be very helpful. It contains some valuable general concepts, some specific cues and drills as well as a comprehensive beginner’s program for developing mid/forefoot strike. However, I lacked the patience to follow that program. I did incorporate the drills into my warm-ups and focused on the cues and concepts (“quiet feet”, quick, light, springy foot strike, forward lean, lengthening stride to the rear, pelvic rotation, low, loose, square shoulders, relaxed neck/jaw etc.) during my runs. At that time I was doing all my running (not much and mostly speedwork) in a pair of 5+ year old broken down trail shoes with the soles so badly compressed that they were gradually becoming more and more “minimalist” 1k at a time.
I then got into a program that involved mandatory group runs of 3-5+k with mixed sprints and calisthenics 3+x/wk. I really focused on form during these runs and made respectable (for a non-runner) progress. By the end I ran a timed 2500m (1.5 mi) in under 10 minutes. Nothing special but a big step forward for me. More importantly I felt very comfortable with my stride and had no pain. I feel I could comfortably have pushed significantly more mileage, but I didn’t really see the point.
When I got my Minimus I dialed it right back and started at the beginning of “Couch to 5k”
(60sec easy pace running followed by 90sec walking for 20 min). I treated these runs as “practices” as opposed to “workouts” as they were designed for someone starting, well just off the couch. I had to really discipline myself not to turn the “60sec easy pace” into a “60sec 85-90% sprint”. I found that after a 3 weeks following the Couch to 5k progression I was good with the Minimus and returned to my regularly scheduled programming.
Like I said though, there are far better ways to do this. People who actually know what the hell they are doing offer clinics all the time.[/quote]
I had a PT recommend Chi Running, and the Minimus shoe to me. At the time I couldn’t change my running style as I was expected to run sub 10min 1.5 miles. I have some free time now so I’m going to give it a shot with my worn out runners. Did you experience any arch pain during the switch?
Thanks for the info, batman730.
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I am not really a runner so take this for what it is. For comparison purposes I am 210ish and 50 years old. Pretty quick for a chubby old guy but not really into the distance thing.
Over the past summer I mixed in hill sprints/trail running with my hikes eventually working up to running most of a rugged five mile trail. I spend a lot of time in the summer barefoot so I liked the idea of minimalist shoes. I tried the minimus with zero drop and really like them but it didn’t take long before I had strained both Achilles.
Anywho, I am planning on retiring the zero drops, moving up to a 4mm drop and starting out again slower. Hope you can glean something useful from this.