The Experiment

As runners we tend to forget that what we do is a skill. Cyclist spend hours on trainers or spin bikes in the winter perfecting efficient pedal stroke. Paddlers work all their life perfecting their stroke. Swimmers have tools to help perfect their stroke. As runners we consider speed work and hills “drills”. We tend not to look at the actual act of running as skill. So we tend to overlook the technical aspects of running.

A few years ago I spent a winter trying to hone my stride. I had a treadmill set up next to a mirror. With my Nike Frees I began to change from a heel striker to a more efficient mid foot landing stride. I’d run for about an hour on the treadmill and every time my heel started to strike first I would slow down the treadmill and land mid foot. I did this everyday for 3 weeks. By the end of the 3rd week it seemed like second nature to land mid-foot even late into a run. I found my legs less fatigued at the end of long runs. The speed I had lost in the first 2 weeks of correcting my form had returned.

Forward to this spring I hadn’t run as much in the winter as I did before. Snowshoeing and cross country skiing and weightlifting had taken up more of my time. My running form had taken a little bit of a hit.

I had bought a pair of Vibram Five Finger shoes (thin gloves for your feet) in March for weightlifting. I found they helped a lot with balance and making the stabilizer muscles in calfs and ankles work a bit harder during squats. In the spring I took them out on some 5k runs. They seemed to help my form. However in a short run, it is pretty easy to run efficiently. I would use them more often for recovery runs.

In September I decided that I was going actually try them in a longer run. So I decided I would do a trail race in them. Knowing that I was more likely to race in them as oppose to just run for an hour in them(a little Type A I guess). My original thought was to use them at the last 5 peaks race at Horseshoe Valley but I had a come down with a little cold and I chickened out.

I found a 2 hour trail race to do near the end of September. It was a 2 hour, as many laps as you can do on a 3 km trail course. I showed up early and ran the course once to check out the terrain. The course was hilly, with a mix of single track and some double track and a few rocky technical sections. Almost perfect for my test. I went back to the car and switched in to my VFF’s and hung out there until about 2 min to race start (The VFF are kind of goofy looking so I was hiding pre start).

I decided I was going to treat it like a race and actually race it. The race started on some soft double track followed by a long climb that led to a single track downhill with a hairpin turn. Note the VFF don’t have any treads or lugs so I had to slow completely down to make the turn (I actually went off the trail the first time). Through the rooty and rocky technical sections I found that I had to slowdown a bit to place my feet more carefully than I would if I was wearing my normal trail shoes.

After 5 laps I was getting lazy with my foot placements and got instant feed back from the trail. Nothing like a little pain to correct your running form. I was told I was leading as I started my 7th lap and took it pretty easy to the finish line, actually another heel strike made me take it easy (see instant feed back).

Can’t say I had a spiritual connection with nature while running virtually barefoot. However it did feel pretty cool being able to feel every wrong foot placement and how light my feet were without shoes. The real benefit from racing in the VFF was how efficient my next run was. I was landing mid-foot naturally without any thought.

I think we take for granted that it is fairly easy to run. We forget that efficient running form is a skill and skills need to be trained and honed.