Sorry for the rather surreal photo but it was done late last night after swimming with a mobile phone in rather limited light. It serves the purpose though – another photo following my foot injury theme showing my new Vibram FiveFinger footwear.
Just finished reading “Born to Run” a superb book that is doing the rounds at the Tri Club and I think everyone that has read it so far is planning to incorporate some bare foot running into their training schedule. It fits in with something I’ve believed and practised for a while: run with shoes of minimal support.
Years ago (pre triathlon) I used to play tonnes of badminton and I got a pretty chronic knee injury. During that period pre injury I automatically used very cushioned shoes when running but could never manage more than about 40 miles a week without getting niggles and never managed to get under 40 mins for a 10k. During a 5 year period I couldn’t run at all due to my knee injury and 3 surgeries later we somehow managed to get a solution. During this time I’d read about shoes and running. I’d always had a slight nagging doubt about running shoes. It seemed strange that millions of years of evolution could be so wrong that we needed our gait correcting and we needed so much cushioning. If you ever ran without shoes you fell into a natural forefoot running style, so why heel strike with shoes on. Also, look at track runners, spikes mean forefoot running. I heard said that it’s because tracks have some “give” but running on tracks I felt this was negligible.
So…. as I rehabbed back in to running I decided to follow what I felt was right. I didn’t bother spending big bucks on running shoes instead I went for cheap unsupportive racing flats and did all my running in them. In the 5 years following that I averaged 46 miles per week … thats an average so a typical week when I was in training was over 60 miles. I had nothing more than the odd niggle and nothing that stopped me running. My run times tumbled and I was easily able to run all day. That was until this February.
Now, there are many out there, probably the majority of people, who given what I’ve said above will immediately conclude it’s my own fault doing all that running in racing flats. I would hazard a guess that this would be because they are convinced by everything they hear about the need for shoes with cushioning etc… I would also hazard a guess that most have never really questioned this wisdom or where it comes from – I think most advice saying have a supportive shoe / replace your shoe every 400 miles is coming from advertising by Nike etc.. (not exactly independent) or for some from a podiatrist. Beware the expert has become something I’ve been very aware of over the past years. It’s one thing if you break a bone and it needs fixing but where there is nothing clearly wrong beware of someone saying there’s a problem that needs fixing if you’ve not been aware of anything untoward. It seems the height of arrogance to think we can improve on so many years of evolution. Anyway … if you are one of these people that believe all the hype then I urge you to read Born to Run.
Given what I’ve been through with my foot, and I tell you it was far more painfull and distressing than I’d ever imagined ahead of time, I certainly don’t want to go through it again. So I think it probably says tonnes about how firmly I believe all this that I’m not going back to supportive running shoes. I’ll come back to this later.
So…. was my injury due to my running? I will never know but my consultant certainly doesn’t think so. The podiatrist I saw in Christchurch (despite my comment above I think they can be really helpful just always question and think things through don’t just take for granted what the expert says) brought something to light that I’d not realised:
He asked “When did the pain in the ball of your foot start”
“about 18 months ago”
Noticing my Newton trainers “when did you start wearing Newtons”
“about 18 months ago”
I’d not made the connection and I’m not saying they caused the rupture but it certainly got me thinking back to what happened then.
It was in Kona 2007 and Newtons were just out. They promoted fore foot running which I firmly believed in so I decided to test run a pair. One of the guys behind them, a podiatrist, looked at me running and said I pronate and rather insisted I got a pair that corrected this. Thinking back he never asked me about my injury history and what I generally ran in. This was completely neutral racing flats and zero injuries in 4 years of high mileage running. I bought them and was a convert though I still had these niggling doubts:
1.Doesn’t pronation require heel strike so how could a Newton have pronation correction
2.Why does a Newton have such a massive cushioned heel if they’re a forefoot running shoe
The Newton was far and away the most supportive shoe I’d worn since returning from injury. By IM Germany 2008 I returned to using my racing flats.
So … Vibram FiveFingers – boy are they comfy. Initially I’m going to just walk in them and strengthen up my feet. I’m hoping I will eventually run in them. For the moment I am running in my Nike Frees (yes Nike the ultimate marketing machine worked out how they can still make money out of bare foot running) and will hunt down some of my old racing flats in the loft. As my return to running is going to be nice and slow this seems an ideal time to slowly build back into running with minimal foot support. Hopefully going to incorporate some bare foot running into my schedule with some other Tri Londoners … will post progress on here.
Oh yeh baby ! Not quite like the above but thats the target. I’ve done two runs this week for a total of 25 minutes. It’s a start. It’s the biggest improvement I’m going to get … from zero to something is infinitely better. The physio is happy with my walking and on Monday gave the nod to gentle build up my running. It seems the rehab now is really about rehabbing my ankle, calf, achilles etc… after 3 months of very little
Last week I thoroughly enjoyed doing my ASA Level 1 swim coaching course. Passed all the practical stuff just awaiting the written exam results. It was great that the course was taken by Diane Jameson who’s an ex national coach and renowned for her ability to sort out peoples strokes. She was excellent at teaching us how to spot and correct stroke faults as well as how to demonstrate them on dry land. She said that I was ready to take the Level 2 course and should do so as soon as possible. Thats the plan though I can’t find the course on in London at all.
Thats right it’s going to be tight for Kona. Saw the consultant on Tuesday, well actually no I didn’t. Rather disappointingly I saw one of his registrars (I think thats the name) and was discharged to the physio. He said it would be 4 -6 weeks before I could start running. That puts me to the end of June before I even start … so 3 months to get super quick ! I then saw the physio and I became a little more optimistic. She felt that 3 months was extremely cautious for a tendon repair and said that running would start once I’m weened off the aircast boot and walking with proper gait. Doing a small amount of walking without it in Lanzarote has helped here because I’ve not worn the boot since then and it seems to be fine. Walking though does show that the scar could prove a bit of a problem. I can feel it alot when walking. I’m seeing the physio again in two weeks following my Swim Coaching course !! Hopefully I’ll be allowed to try a run at that point.
Two days post race and we’re packed up ready for our flight back to the UK tonight. We’ve had a great time here and agree it’s an awesome training environment. The half board accommodation we had in the first three weeks was not only cheap but perfectly placed and meant we didn’t think about anything other than training, eating and sleeping. I averaged over 9 hours sleep a night during that period which was awesome. I think we will do this again.
There’s the start of Ironman Lanzarote. Great to watch but would have been better to be in it. Think it may help my swim start to see that most of the competitors don’t absolutely peg it in it ! When I do I just assume everyone else is running as hard as they can down the beach. It took a full four minutes for the last to get in !
Here’s Jo having just racked her bike this afternoon. She’s very relaxed at the moment and it feels like she’s ready to go. I’ve everything crossed that she has a good race and will be doing whatever I can to help from the sidelines.
In most things you tend to get more out of them the more you put in – when you study, relationship and definitely Ironman. It’s what draws me to it. The other side of throwing yourself in to Ironman is all the people you meet along the way. Over the years this number increases, many people you only meet at races. It makes the events even more fun. This year I’m not even racing Lanzarote but I’m thoroughly enjoying the build up. A couple of days ago I bumped into Rafael on the bike. I “chatted” with him at work in 2007 and met him at Ironman Lanzarote that year when I crossed the finish line 2 minutes after him. That year he went on to Kona and won his age group finishing some 50 minutes ahead of me ! He’s racing Pro this year trying for a Kona slot. Fingers crossed – he’s keen on the daily swim from the pier so must be a decent guy ! He’s looking fit and ready to go. I bumped into Tara yesterday – another racer looking lean and ready to go.
Our little group of three triathletes is struggling to get going after yesterdays rest day. I slept straight through the swim this morning and have knocked the gym on the head as my shoulder doesn’t feel quite right. Russ has spent this morning struggling to construct an easy week of less than 28 hours. Jo
Finally got round to aqua jogging in the pool where we’re staying. Luckily the deep end is just deep enough to allow me to do it. I was quite surprise at how hard work it is. I was getting slightly out of breath. Manage 15 minutes the past two days but hopefully today
Steven Lords Website 