First shod run in about 5 months

SI barefoot

Barefooters
Jul 15, 2014
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Carbondale, Il
With fall and winter right around the corner, plus a trail 10 miler I signed up to do in November, I know my days of running exclusively barefooted are limited. I decided to face my fear of running in shoes and threw on my 5 finger Komodo sports that I work in. I went 5.29 miles in them and incorporated a 1.25 mile tempo run at a 7:10 pace and 3 fartlek stretches about 150 meters each at about a 6 minute/mile pace. I'm happy to say that I survived the experiment injury/fatigue free and didn't mind having the shoes on. That being said, the last 0.5 mile, or so, during my cool down, I pulled the shoes off and finished barefoot. While the 5 fingers felt fine, barefooted felt better. I felt more relaxed and light-footed unshod, but my form/gait/posture felt basically the same. I'm thrilled that the shoes didn't make my hips, knees, back or neck hurt, I'll just be careful in the beginning once it gets too cold to go raw.
 
Also, I think smartly building my aerobic base helped with those faster speeds a lot. I'm still in the beginnings of building that base but I'm confident it is working for me. My Heart rate averaged 170-178 during those faster speeds. I'm good with that, for now.
 
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