More food for the minimalist movement

"By landing on the middle or front of the foot, barefoot runners have almost no impact collision, much less than most shod runners generate when they heel-strike."

I have been saying this for years!

Minimalist unite!

There are people have been saying it for decades

Where were you 3-4 weeks ago?! This was everywhere.

Last night I was running hill repeats on a steep, paved ~400m hill. Usually I do these going fairly hard uphill, then walking and jogging to minimize impact stress. Well, last night I decided to do these as a "circuit",gradually pushing the effort on the (steep) downhill. I am older and by no means injury-proof (recent past achilles prob, hamstrings, etc.).

What I noticed is that after doing barefoot grass runs for the last month, I can now "dial in" my "barefoot stride" even though I am wearing shoes (albeit minimalist- Tiger "cypress"). By this I mean that I kept my feet well under my center of gravity, even seeming to lean forward slightly, and focused on keeping my legs relaxed, landing mid-foot, and running from the hips, with the hip joint "cranking" through somewhat, and my coreslightly engaged to keep things stable overall.

The result is that I was able to slice 30 seconds off my downhill time through the course of the session mostly on pure technique alone, and without any feeling of "pounding". This morning I have only a feeling of having got in a good work out, and my quads in particular feel great, no tightness or soreness (overstriding downhill causes "eccentric contraction DOMS"). I have no ambitions about becoming a "barefoot guy", but I think that the technical aspects can enhanced shod running, including for faster running,and warrant further study by all of us.

Anyway, just wanted to throw out an anecdote on how barefoot/minimalist running can benefit technically, even if you have over 50K miles on the old legs!

ZD - It was nice to see someone finally post something like that in a "minimalist" thread. The majority of us on here (I think) are trying to figure out how to be faster, not just a less injured penguin.

I agree that BF/minimalism cam be agood tool, but am getting tired of reading "shoes are bad" type posts/threads/articles.

There is no reason you can't wear running shoes and foot-strike with your midfoot. I have always run that way.

why are no elite runners minimalistic?

Yay, they toe the line in $140 trainers...har har..

yyy wrote:

why are no elite runners minimalistic?

Your question assumes a fact that is not correct. Reiko Tosa, Naoko Takahashi, Yuri Kano and Mizuki Noguchi are all elite runners.

So what exactly do they train in? I'm pretty sure it isn't nothing or VFF's.

Watch almost any training video of a western elite (ie Ritz, Hall, Shalane etc...) for track work, tempos etc they change from regular trainers to flats. Does that make them minimalist?

this fact is incorrect, its just a fad. i would say the minimalist running would be okay if we lived in the Himalayas or somewhere like kenya, but we live in an environment that should require us to wear shoes because everything is mostly uneven, hard surfaces, even the trails. the minimalist movement is a bunch of crock

just a bunch of baloney i tell ya.

If anything minimalism is just the pendulum swinging opposite to the 'nike movement'. I agree that it is starting to become overplayed. But so too was it overplayed when everyone was wearing shoes with as much cushioning/control that was available. Taken to the extreme neither will provide a one-size-fits-all solution.

It seems that if anything the minimalist movement (which has been a while coming, and seems to have reached a critical mass in the past year) is causing shoe companies to change the way they make shoes (and for the better even!). We're starting to see shoes with less control that promote a more natural stride... Shoes that rely on their user increasing the strength of their intrinsic foot muscles instead of 'cradling' them... Shoes that could possibly (???) lead to less injury prone runners!

What I'm saying is this is just a natural cycle, the minimalists may be in your face, but I think they're just excited that people are starting to find out what they've known for years: more isn't always more!

I have a question some-what related to this thread.

Aside from video taping yourself on a treadmill or having a friend watch you run by, how can you tell if you are heel striking or mid-foot running? Is there a major change in the way it feels when you land? I cycle between Defyances I and II, so they aren't minimalist and if I do slightly heel strike I might not be able to discern the difference as opposed to if I weren't heel striking.

I just want to pay less for basic shoes. I hope the minimalist shoe opens a market for low price running shoes that are light, but still give a bit of protection to the foot.

That market already exists: xc flats.

its not that hard to just run on your midfoot or "toes", no matter what shoes you wear

Just look at the wear pattern on your shoes. My shoes wear down only in a one square inch spot right in my midfoot and the heal has almost no wear at all.

Chris Wasnetsky wrote:

I have a question some-what related to this thread.

Aside from video taping yourself on a treadmill or having a friend watch you run by, how can you tell if you are heel striking or mid-foot running? Is there a major change in the way it feels when you land? I cycle between Defyances I and II, so they aren't minimalist and if I do slightly heel strike I might not be able to discern the difference as opposed to if I weren't heel striking.

Just run baby