Hi,
about 20 years ago I was running (shod). About 10 years ago I started running again and because of injuries I started barefoot / minimalist footwear running. I my 'top' I did 20 km at low speed using minimal footwear.
Recently at my work people asked me if I was interested to do a local race. I was positive and started running again using minimalist shoes. (cheap watershoes) Just in the third run, I was running about 12 minutes at 12 km/hour, I got a very sensitive achilles tendon (right leg). The calves were very sore too.
It seems I was doing too much too soon and stopped running for about 6 weeks. I re-read the book by Barefoot Ken Bob and decided to start running barefoot again. I started doing daily eccentric heel drops together with low speed short distance barefoot runs, preferably on rough surfaces to protect from doing to much too soon.
Although every morning when standing up I still feel a subtle sensitivity in the right achilles tendon, overall it feels good, this sensitivity disappears quickly and at the moment I went from 2 to 5 minutes of running barefoot at low speed.
As I signed up for the local race (4 miles / 6,4 km) I'm wondering if I could participate. I would guess it's a bad idea. What do you think? Would it be dangerous and would there be a big risk for the achilles tendon to get injured again if I run at low speed this race?
about 20 years ago I was running (shod). About 10 years ago I started running again and because of injuries I started barefoot / minimalist footwear running. I my 'top' I did 20 km at low speed using minimal footwear.
Recently at my work people asked me if I was interested to do a local race. I was positive and started running again using minimalist shoes. (cheap watershoes) Just in the third run, I was running about 12 minutes at 12 km/hour, I got a very sensitive achilles tendon (right leg). The calves were very sore too.
It seems I was doing too much too soon and stopped running for about 6 weeks. I re-read the book by Barefoot Ken Bob and decided to start running barefoot again. I started doing daily eccentric heel drops together with low speed short distance barefoot runs, preferably on rough surfaces to protect from doing to much too soon.
Although every morning when standing up I still feel a subtle sensitivity in the right achilles tendon, overall it feels good, this sensitivity disappears quickly and at the moment I went from 2 to 5 minutes of running barefoot at low speed.
As I signed up for the local race (4 miles / 6,4 km) I'm wondering if I could participate. I would guess it's a bad idea. What do you think? Would it be dangerous and would there be a big risk for the achilles tendon to get injured again if I run at low speed this race?