The Barefoot Running Book - Jason Robillard [45]
So, the first key is to start slowly, incrementally and avoid over-exuberance, avoid being driven by your ego. Think orchard growing, not fast food. Think lifetime of development and growth. Think joy.
So, what are my secrets, what is it I share with clients who take my “Introduction to Barefoot Running Clinic”?
My goal is to get people to learn how to feel what good running feels like. I want them to develop a feeling for it. One of the primary feelings becomes an awareness of the texture and hardness of terrain and of impact. This awareness is the beginning.
To master this awareness, I have clients learn to move on hard surfaces first. Not focusing on distance or speed, I have my clients first walk and then trot on hard, fairly smooth surfaces. I work with them to focus on and begin to master three goals: quiet, quick, in balance.
The Three Goals
1. Master gentle, quiet, forefoot-centric landings, silent and smooth.
Learn to move with no hard edges and no pounding by learning how to have the impact of landing flow through the entire foot, starting in the forefoot and quickly spreading through the legs smoothly. Notice how silent your movement becomes. Imagine the movement of a big cat. Watch your dogs trot. Let them be models for tuned-in, flowing movement that wastes no energy on pound or sound.
2. Quicken your cadence. Running in bare feet encourages this naturally.
Some shoe runners are plodders. You can hear them coming. Lots of wasted energy on poorly timed impact. Quicker cadence ends up making sense when you realize that your ability to absorb and recoil energy through elasticity in your body dissipates quickly and is lost if not used. Learning how to get back in touch with the sweet spot of optimal recoil efficiency is easier to find when you can feel your feet, feeling that encourages a landing phase with foot more in line with your center of gravity (thinking about how you land if you jump down onto a hard surface in barefeet, not on your heels!). Overstriding is discouraged, nearly impossible barefooted.
3. Stable upright posture … balanced head, core engaged, belly button pulled into the spine, no waist bending, head upright. The feeling of balance: relaxed, yet strong.
I think that good running can be judged aesthetically. It should look good, not painful. When you see someone moving or running well, it looks smooth and fluid and graceful and efficient. The opposite looks painful, when someone is hunched and stiff, robotic and plodding. Indeed efficient running is tall and stable, the upper body acting as the fulcrum from which the legs and arms can move freely with a serious lack of bouncing or swaying.
Ultimately my coaching goal is to help people perfect what I think of as a persistent hunt tro … not purely about speed, but about smooth, flowing, efficient, sustainable movement, movement that leaves you ready to hunt another day.
Barefooting itself is all about mindfulness and presence. Running like a Monkey, not like a Robot. Aware of your body and your environment AT ALL TIMES.
Listen to your body … learn to hear what it is telling you. Adjust accordingly. Advance accordingly.
Barefoot Ted McDonald
http://barefootted.com
© 2010 Ted McDonald. All rights reserved.
Training Plans
Once you complete each of the stages covered in this book, you will be ready to run faster and longer. Many runners run races as a means of increasing their running abilities. To help in achieving your own running goals, I am including several of my own plans.
Please do not start any of these plans until you can run pain-free. I often recommend new barefoot runners avoid running on back-to-back days and these plans require running several days in a row. Because of this, you should exercise caution to