Friday 23 October 2009

Home made Huarache sandle


Did my first mile tonight in home made Huaraches they worked well, no slip or slid they did not move at all, at 2mm they did not offer much protection but were perfect on the road I would like to find some 4mm leather to try on a trail if anyone has any idea of a source let me know, I used an old pair of laces to tie them on again I would like to source a leather tie for this.


Tuesday 20 October 2009

Dogs Dangly Bits


KSO Treks are the dogs dangly bits.

Ran from Tyndrum to Beinglass in the Treks for the Glee club run.
They have good grip and fit well, they offer much more protection than the standard KSO but you still have to take care to avoid stone bruising on the ball of foot.
From Tyndrum up through the woods and along the open section to Carmyle cottage was fine but after that the last couple of miles on the trail into Beinglass I was finding it hard work.

On inspection of my feet at Beinglass I had 1 hot spot on inside edge of BOF of my left foot, Stuck a compeed on to protest it and then changed into the Inov@8 F-Lites for the return journey. These are a really great shoe weight is only 230 grams and again do not offer much protection but they felt like moon boots after the Treks.

It took me a couple of miles to get into running with the F-Lites and I was slower on the return leg, I think the concentration of running in the Treks and the use of the Hamstrings rather than the Quads had taken more out of me than I had realised.

On Sunday we did part of the Heart of Scotland 100 route from just outside Dunkeld to Aberfeldy as it turned out this section was a marked cycle route so navigation was not an issue we did 14.5 miles and I ran in the F-lites but the terrain was such that had my feet not been tired the Treks would have been just fine.


My toes are beginning to spread I have gaps where I never had before this can only be a good thing. I am not sure how long the process will take but so far so good.

Thursday 15 October 2009

Mine is small and deformed.




I walked round the changing rooms of the leisure centre the other night looking at everyone else’s they were all longer and fatter than mine, I am deformed.

Why was I born with pinkie toes a good 15mm shorter than my second toes? It does cause me issues when wearing the VFFs

Folks are asking why minimal shoes.

Normal shoes tilt your body forward which puts all the muscles and ligaments in your feet under stress and there are 650 muscles and 250 ligaments so that’s a lot of stress.

I feel the raised heel limits the movement of my ankles and promotes heel strike.
By running in a minimal shoe with no rise from front to back I don’t heel strike and it allows full stretch of my Achilles and calf muscles, which seem to be adapting just fine.

When your barefoot or minimalist you just don’t heal strike simples.

This means that I run with a shorter stride at a higher cadence and land with my weight over my centre of gravity with bent knee, the bent knee is like a big spring and takes up all the shock from the body much better than an inch of gel could.

My Treks arrived yesterday and I wore them for 12 hours straight and they are fantastic, I did a 5 mile run in them off road and they have much more grip on wet grass and mud.
They did dull the feeling under foot a little but that’s what I wanted as I have been feeling everything way to much during this transition.
So do I wear them this weekend on the WHW training run , decisions, decisions