Scientists say that we humans are natural born runners. More than that, we are natural born endurance runners. Though during the past couple of decades we’ve been taught to assume that the foot is a flawed and needs a corrective device in order to protect itself. However, the modern running shoe, with arch support and massive amounts of structure, have only been around since about the 1970s. Thanks in large part to Christopher McDougall’s book Born to Run, there has been a lot of talk recently about running barefoot and how it might be better for you. Even my boyfriend Jason ran the Rock and Roll Denver Marathon completely barefoot last October in a very respectable 4 hours. (it was his first marathon)
Well, recently my right ankle has been aching during my runs. I’m sure it started when I stepped on it funny during a soccer game and then didn’t let it recover before using it for other things (swimming / biking / kicking car tire when repairs cost me more then I expected).
Then I found that my joints were a little achy on my runs. My lower back was tired when I got home. I’ve been running in my current pair of shoes since last September-ish so I decided to get a new pair. In light of my new information about how unnecessary extremely structured running shoes are, I chose a slightly lighter pair then the ones I usually get. (I moved from Nike Structure Triax to the Nike Pegasus)
Here’s my question: If shoes don’t matter that much, why did my 8 mile run today seem so much easier then they have recently? I lifted weights yesterday afternoon and spent some time on a stair climber so it’s not like I was really fresh. Is it my imagination? What’s going on?
Reaching for Ironman 70.3 Boulder 