Barefoot Running
Our early bust of summer weather prompted me to start running again - but with a view to avoiding injury and building up again slowly from scratch using forefoot running. For the first attempt I ran just 20 minutes on relatively flat Mizuno running shoes - btu still ended up almost unable to walk the following day due to calf muscle pain. Discomfort lasted for about four days, during which time I've ordered a pair of Vibram "Fivefinger" barefoot - running shoes. The hope is that with no heel raise on the shoe my heel will be in a lower position while running barefoot and this will remove the strain from the calves making the whole process more natural. Attempting to run barefoot style with running shoes incorporating a ramp angle or raised heel may be causing mechanical problems.
Prior to the start of last season I had been trying to develop a forefoot running style with normal running shoes and switched back to a heel strike with disastrous results - plantar fasciitis - which gave me excruciating pain under the right foot when skiing all season long. The injury did not happen when working on the barefoot technique - but on changing back to using a heel strike over long distances (18km plus).
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