It’s been just over 3 months since I embarked on this journey. I must say, it has been an interesting balancing act. On the one side I have a bunch of enthusiasm to get back to running and good cardio from my cycling. On the other hand, I have a history of running and cycling injuries which I have to stay really conscious of. At age 44 I have to be even more careful, because it takes me so much longer to get over injuries.
My approach was to run only on soft sand for a month to build calf and foot strength. I love the sand because even though it’s tough on the legs, it’s really forgiving on the knees due to the softness. It also teaches you land on the forefoot because you have to dig in and grip with your toes.
I had done some soft sand running prior to May, mainly as cross training for my cycling. The longest run I had done was 10km. Since May, I have managed to build up my distances to 18km (20 lengths of Bondi beach) over a period of 2 months.
In June a bought a pair of 5 fingers and set off on the road. Prior to this, I did a thorough study of barefoot running technique but ignored one important rule: doing too much too soon! I think my eagerness to reach my goal of running to work pushed me to do 10km runs right from the start. I started to get pain between my ankle and my arch. It got progressively worse. I also had the City2Surf coming up in 2 months so I was eager keep running, but I realised I had to cut back to 1 short run a week on grass. At least I was still getting cardio training from my cycling.
My foot healed up well and, even though I did the city2surf with little running preparation, I came away with a good time and no injuries! It’s really starting to look like barefoot is the way to go, for me anyway.
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