Fruddled Gruntbugglies

Enthralling readers since 2005

Category: Running

  • Weak ankles.. or not

    I used to be convinced that I had “weak ankles”. It seemed like every time I went hiking, I would twist my left ankle, usually while hiking downhill. Sometimes, all it would take would be a bump on the sidewalk. It got to the point where I thought my left ankle might be made out of rubber. My right ankle, being my dominant side, didn’t seem quite as prone to rolling, but it wasn’t immune, either.

    In 2017, during a time when I was doing quite a bit of hiking, I developed a Morton’s neuroma on my right forefoot between the 3rd and 4th toes. I went through the usual bevy of podiatrists, cortisone shots, and orthotics (thankfully stopping short of surgery), before some internet research eventually led me to try minimalist footwear. Over the next year, I started wearing shoes with flexible soles, minimal cushioning, wide toe boxes, and no heel elevation. Now, I’m not going to lie and say that this was an easy change, but in the long term, it was a game-changer. The neuroma went away, my feet are stronger and healthier, my posture has improved, and I can stand for longer periods of time. But that wasn’t all: about a year later, I was hiking along one of my usual routes through Patapsco Valley State Park, when it occurred to me that I hadn’t twisted an ankle in a really long time. I thought about it some more, and couldn’t even remember the last time it had happened. It seemed that minimalist footwear had also cured my “weak ankles”.

    There’s a scientific explanation as to why this happened. Think about a simple lever. A lever has two parts: a beam, and a pivot point, or fulcrum. The longer the beam, the less force is required to apply torque to the fulcrum. If you think of your foot as a beam and your ankle as a fulcrum, it follows that the higher the ankle is elevated off the ground, the easier it is to torque or twist. Minimalist footwear eliminates heel elevation, so the ankle is closer to the ground, and more force is then needed to twist or sprain the ankle. Most conventional hiking boots have about an inch of heel elevation, and you wouldn’t think eliminating that would make a huge difference, but trust me — it does.

    So… if you think you have weak ankles, try minimalist footwear. You might be surprised.

  • Reboot

    I’m easing back into biking regularly after taking most of July off to rest my hip.  It’s still not 100%, but it’s manageable.  I honestly don’t think the time off the bike made much of a difference.  The soreness is in the front part of my left hip, and it happens on downward pedal strokes, as the hip is extending.  Lowering my seat a bit made a huge difference with this.  If the seat is too high, I get discomfort almost immediately.  With the seat lower, it seems to put less stress on the hip joint.  Occasionally it will bother me when I’m at rest, i.e. sitting at my desk or lying in bed; when this happens, a heating pad helps to relieve it.  I’m pretty sure I caused the injury riding fixed gear with my saddle too high.  It’s looking like my fixed gear riding days may be over.  All you 20-something hipsters out there, enjoy it while it lasts.  🙂

    On a positive note, the downtime from biking has allowed me to rediscover running.  After about 6 weeks, I’m to the point where I can run around 2 miles, barefoot or with minimalist running shoes, 2 to 3 times a week.  I’m hoping to be up to around a 5K distance by the end of the year.  This time of year, I have to run in the morning, so on days I plan to run, I’ve cut back on my morning biking mileage so I can get to work earlier and run.  This has worked out really well.  The reduced biking has helped with my hip, and the running works different leg muscles (calves in particular) that don’t see much action on the bike.  I’m hoping I can keep it up over the long term.

  • Barefoot Running

    For a while, I’ve been wanting to complement my biking with an additional form of exercise.  Many moons ago, I used to do a lot of running, but I gave it up a few years ago when I started commuting by bike regularly.  When I ran, I ran in heavily padded running shoes.  I would consistently overstride, my feet struck the ground heel-first, and I was always getting various nagging running injuries.  Some of my runs were good, some were bad, but in general, I didn’t enjoy it all that much.

    Flash forward to 2012, and I’m giving running another chance, except this time I’m trying “minimalist” running.  The past couple of years, we’ve spent a week at the beach each Spring, and each year I’ve done a little bit of barefoot running on the beach.  I enjoyed it enough that figured eventually, I’d give it a shot on a more regular basis.  It’s a totally different running motion than the long-stride, heel-strike motion that I used in the past, so over the last month or so, I’ve been easing into it slowly, and I figure I’ll still be easing into it for a good while yet.

    There are any number of good resources for barefoot/minimalist running on the web, so rather than regurgitating info easily found elsewhere, I figured I’d write a bit about my own personal experience with it.  In early June, I picked up a pair of Vibram FiveFingers (VFF) shoes, and wore them for my first few runs.  I subsequently read that the best way to get the running motion down, at least initially, is to run completely barefoot (Vibram themselves recommend this) so my past couple of runs, I’ve done barefoot.

    First time out:  ran about ¼ mile in the VFFs.  Not quite sure about the running motion.  Started out briefly heel striking, but corrected that pretty quickly.  Ran most of the way on the balls of my feet.  Long stride.  Calves pretty sore the next couple of days.

    Second time out:  ran another ¼ mile, mainly on the balls of my feet again, without touching the heels.  Still overstriding.  Calves sore for about 5 days afterward, so much so that it was hard to walk, and going down stairs was excruciating.

    Third and Forth times out:  Still in the VFFs.  Figured out that I need to touch my heels with each step to unload the calves.  Corrected that bit, but still overstriding, and under the impression that I need to use the calf muscle to propel myself forward.  In spite of this, my calves were much happier following this run, but my feet were starting to get a little sore after runs (muscle/tissue soreness, not skin).

    Fifth and Sixth days out:  Mileage up to around 1 to 1½ miles/run.  Ran barefoot for the first time.  A bit apprehensive at first.  Running surface is primarily smooth sidewalks with a few street crossings and a few rough spots.  Finally stopped overstriding, and increased my cadence to around 180 steps per minute.  Running motion feels very comfortable.  Calves are happy and foot muscle soreness is diminishing.  Only problem is a bit of blistering and abrasion on my soles from running on the rough concrete.  I’m sure this will improve over time, and I can fall back on the VFFs whenever it becomes a problem.

    My goal for the summer is to get my distance up to around 2 miles per run, and my longer term goal is to work up to 5K and 10K distances.  If I’m able to keep it up, and not injure myself, I could see doing 5K in 6 months or so, and 10K after maybe a year.