Ditchin' the Shods For 1 Month Trial

Everytime I run in shoes (Shods), I seem to get injured. Conversely, everytime I run barefoot (BF) I seem to run injury and pain free. It even gets more interesting when you compare my running results in Shods vs. BF. When I run BF, my strides per minute (SPM) ranges from 204-220 but my SPM in Shods ranges from 178-184. So, I'm taking shorter and more SPM running BF. If you belief (as I do and I haven't come across any compelling data to challenge this assertion) that running BF is the natural state of running, then I'm not running correctly when I run in Shods.

The other interesting thing is that my average pace which is about a 9:00 - 9:15 min. per mile running BF and it's about 7:45 - 8:05 min. per mile in Shods. So, I'm running faster in Shods but I'm getting injured. For me, one conclusion is I run faster in Shods that my body wants to run. Also, the Shods trick me into believing I'm running at a comfortable and safe pace when I'm fact I'm not. This is very similiar to a football player shot up on cortizone and believing they are fine when they are playing and tearing their body to shreds.

Now, I've only incorporated BF and Vibram Five Finger (as close to BF as you can get) (VFF) running in the last month but I'm only added about 20% BF/VFF running vs. 80% Shod running. Well, to gather more meaningful data, I'm going to ditch all Shods for 1 month and only run in BF & VFF and commit to at least 20% only BF for my weekly running schedule.

I'll report back daily on the results.

HHH