pf/minimalism/pose method

Honest truth here, i read the same exact book, just so happens i constructed myself some of those sandals(not out of tire rubber but some rubber i got at a local shoe repair shop). I then attempted to upwards of six miles a day in them sandals. When i did this i blistered my feet worse then i ever had before. So then i bought some of those vibram five finger shoes and ran in those. Mind you now im putting in just over 100 miles a week all on asphalt and concrete. My morning runs i either ran in my newton stability racers or my asics gel piranhas. Most of the time due to the fact i was trying to transition from a heel strike to a more midfoot my calf muscles were ridiculously sore all the time and my Achilles tendons started to become inflamed. As a result of all of this i was out on one of my evening runs, june 30th was the day to be exact. It was a hot and sunny one here in florida and i needed a quick six miler before heading of to see cirque du soleil. About two miles into my run i started to develop a sharp pain in my right foot specifically in the metatarsal region. Since i didnt want to be late for the shoe i continued pushing through the sharp pain i was having. Made it home and the show was very good. But here i am nearly four weeks later with a stress fracture in my third metatarsal. So the point of this story is if you are embarking on this journey take it slow and be careful. Im 20 years old and i have never had any history of stress fractures or major injuries. Once i am better ill go back to trying to further develop a more forefoot running style and using a more minimalistic footwear. Just be careful and do things sensibly

I think you have a son you didn't know about...

I think its important to distinguish between PREVENTION and CURE; its a common confusion. From a prevention standpoint, BF running makes perfect sense if you are not currently injured and are relatively young so that your muscles and tendons havent been set into place yet.

However, if you are injured and attempt BF running, I think you risk further injury by not allowing the injury to heal properly. In other words PF, or any injury, needs time to heal without the added stress of additional challenges from running barefoot. If you had a broken arm, would you continue to play football, baseball or basketball? No, most likely the arm would be put in a cast for a while until the injury healed itself and then you would cautiously start back training on a limited basis. You would baby that injury until you felt confident enough to return to full training.

Wearing traditional running shoes does CAUSE injuries but wearing those shoes may also be a way to TREAT the active injury and help the healing process by allowing time for the injury to heal. I just got over PF and tried almost all means to cure it. I finally got into trainers with a Spenco insole and wore them everywhere. I was especially careful to place them at the foot of my bed at night so that I could put them on before getting out of bed in the AM which largely avoided the pain (and maybe further damage) of taking those first few steps in the AM. I dont do anything else to treat the PF.

I'm now able to run slowly for up to 3 hours but cant do any speed work or hills, yet. I would not do POSE; it looks too artificial and difficult. I like to run naturally and that eventually will be BF or in a minimalist shoe. Running should be fun, not another job.

I am turning 40 this year and switched to minimalism a couple of years ago because I was desperate to solve PF problems. I think the poster above has it right regarding the cure of the acute injury and prevention of recurrence. It takes a bit of transition to build up to minimalism but it has totally cured my PF after a couple of years of struggling with it. I did not use or read anything about POSE

I've had PF over 8 months now. Got it right before Christmas 2008. I tried everything. Even cortisone. Nothing worked. I basically threw in the towel all together with running 4 month in and took time off (1 month). During that time I began researching minimalism and barefoot running. Summer came around and I decided to screw-it and see if I could run through it. I did.

Barefoot running and VFF were the key.

I still have PF, but you eventually learn to work with the pain. I've already hit 1000 miles this summer, it's still there, but I don't make a big deal over it.

I suggest playing around with shoes, several different pairs. See what works. I eventually found an old pair of my teammates shoes that turned out to work best for me!

If you have any questions, E-mail me.

I bought a pair of 5 Fingers a while ago, not really for running but more for hiking and wearing around on the weekends. I really like them but the mesh upper part on one 'shoe' is torn and I think the hole is getting bigger. Not long life for $80 pieces of rubber.

Anyhow, I read "Born to Run" after I bought them and it is a good book. I had already been trying to transition from heel striking to mid-foot/forefoot striking and what is said about calf pain is true. But you get used to it, and your muscles adapt. I find it's easier on my knees but harder on my hips for some reason but they are adapting as well. Keep in mind I'm doing this in running shoes, not the Vibrams. I have yet to run in my 5 Fingers! I will wear them all day after running 20 miles though and I think it does me well.

Now I'm toe striking/midfoot striking on uphills and most flats, and heel striking downhills. I find it's a good balance and I can do more front-foot striking when I'm running faster. Even when I'm "heel striking" now I'm really landing more in the middle and leaning forward more - I run very upright normally, probably not the most efficient.

I need to clarify my own statement a little bit. I said that I got into trainers with a Spenco insole. Thats what I wear for ordinary walking around. However, for running I wear the Newton Racer, again with a Spenco insole. That really made a difference. Whereas before I was unable to run no more than about 30 mins., I can now run up to 3 hours before feeling enough pain that I have to stop. I use the Spenco Polysorb Total Support Premium Insole. Newton and Spenco proved to be the right combo for me and has at least allowed me to start putting in some decent mileage again allowed with some greatly reduced pain on the longer runs. The improvement in the past few weeks has been dramatic.

Thanks guys. Caveman, a lot of what you have said I agree with. I am waiting until I am pain free before I begin my running and journey to less of a shoe and fore foot striking. I currently wear my orthotics that I got custom made before I started seeing this chiropractor and researching the minimalist stuff. I even wear them in my crocs.

a couple other questions

1. for you people that have come back from this, have you been able to run/race at the same level as before.

2. hiking question. I have a 2 week period in early august where I will be vacationing with the family. A few easy hikes with the kids and at least one pretty difficult one ( MT Kahtadin in Northern Maine with my dad) This is my last hurrah of the summer before pre season XC (I teach and coach at a HS) so I cannot not do these. My plan has been to wear hiking boots with my orthotics. My chiropractor suggested a foam or gel heel lift thing, to get through the hikes.. any thoughts on this

thanks again

One of main reasons BF/minimalism has worked for

so many is because it almost forces you to land softly. I say almost because some go BF/minimal and still slam.

The point is you have to listen to your body. Taking your shoes off is a great way to do that.

When you hike try to be as soft as possible, especially on the downhills. Don't dorsiflex your foot, relax your ankles and your feet. In other words try not to break with your heel.

Your shoes should be as comfy as bedroom slippers.

bump

1. I'm almost cured now but I wont do any speed work or hills yet. I'm only doing long, really slow stuff in the Newton Racer with the Spenco insole. I'm going to let my foot dictate what comes next. I can run easily for an hour and up to 3 hours on the trails if I take some walking breaks every 7 or 8 mins. Now is not the time to challenge the injury; I will lose for sure. I'm doing hip abductor exercises at the gym. I read that a lot of injuries come from weak hips. I actually think its helping. I'm rolling a tennis ball on my arch as I type at the computer and also work with a wobble board while seated. I cant guarantee that any of this helps but I think it does and everything else has failed.

2. Hiking: It depends where you are in the recovery cycle. I tried very slow hiking while still injured and was in a lot of pain after about 20 mins. I barely finished the hour walk and was sore for days afterward. I would forget the hiking. It puts more pressure on the foot. For aerobics, try pool running in the deep end with a floatation device, as a substitute. Lots of experts recommend it.

Baby that foot as much as you can. The strengthening stuff can come later after everything has healed properly.

When I switched it was a abrupt/gradual change. It was abrupt in the sense I just switched from heavy heavy shoes.. can't remember what the model name was anymore but they were extremely restrictive and went to the Mizuno Wave Riders, I think they were the 7's but I did this at the beginning of my first real mileage season ever and I was lucky that my body responded well. Gradually I have moved away from the wave riders and into even less structured shoes to the point of doing long workouts in flats. I still occasionally run my long days in a pair of Pegasus but now most of my off days are in lunar trainers. If I had a lot of fields around my house I would run 1/2 hour barefoot as a part of my runs, I don't have that luxury so I use nike free's someday and on morning runs.

So the take home message I would give is make the change fairly gradual. I would suggest that ideally you will have a more traditional shoe like the wave rider and a less restrictive like the free's and alternate each day with them, you might even want three pairs of shoes with a more conventional light/supportive as a middle ground between the wave riders and the free's, but that’s how I have done it I have a lot of shoes to choose from now and I alternate every day and they are all fairly minimalist. I have yet to sustain a serious injury like this.

Hi TJ,

My transition into more minimal footwear was just that. A transition that was quite gradual. When I was a freshman in high school and starting up with track and field, I got a pretty poor fitting at a shoe store. I'm not sure what this lady was on, my arches are more rigid than an aqueduct, but she warned that I was on a path of imminent self-destruction if I did not wear the Brooks Adrenaline.

Fast forward about seven years and dozens of injuries and aches and pains, I graduated from college right as the bottom dropped out of the economy and I ended up working in a running shoe store. I realized that I was in the wrong footwear for my feet, so I switched into neutral trainers. These were still pretty bulky in the heels: the Mizuno Wave Creation, a plastic monstrosity of a shoe and the much more sane Mizuno Wave Rider.

This certainly helped but after another couple months of training the usual hip and groin injuries (the recurring injuries of the past couple years) returned. I was really very close to just chucking my shoes out the window and taking up backgammon, but by chance I happened to watch Evolution Running, a DVD by Ken Mierke. It is certainly worth checking out as believe watching it was the first positive step I took to finally running well.

I started trying to take shorter steps and land more midfoot/forefoot and even in my Wave Riders the effect was almost immediate. It was as if I had been forcing myself to breath through a straw for eight years and then frustrated, I finally spit the damn thing out and took a big, deep breath.

But, like I said it has been a gradual transition. Plastic cushioning systems aside, I love the way Mizuno uppers fit my foot, so I bought a pair of Wave Precisions (marketed as performance trainers) and a pair of Nike Haywards. Then I tried the Brooks Ghost and then started sprinkling in the use of a racing flat, the Mizuno Wave Ronin. I also kept a few pairs of Nike Pegasus (Pegasi?)for use on recovery days.

This occurred over about two years, so please don't think I rushed into things. I realized my feet never really hurt at all after working out or racing in flats, so it was the next logical step. I live in an urban area, so I'm hesitant to actually run barefoot. As liberating as barefoot running feels, I really don't want to have to be constantly worrying about the glass and rocks in the roads I run on. Alas, I wonder if this makes me an hypocrite or will provide fodder for such accusations (especially in the other minimalist debate thread

http://www.letsrun.com/forum/flat_read.php?thread=3130011&page=0

). I usually limit my actual barefoot running to strides and some loops in a grassy park near my house. Other than that, I try to do the next best thing with low-profile shoes. Lately I have been using the Ronins, the adizero Ace and Aegis, Saucony Type A2's, Gel Hyperspeeds, and am experimenting a bit with a pair of Newtons.

I still work in a running store, so I will occasionally run in a more substantial shoe that is seeded to the employees. They feel a bit clunky and are a bit of a crutch, but it helps me understand the shoes I am selling a bit better.

In a nutshell, I made the transition over a couple years, decreasing the amount of midsole between my foot and the ground every few months. I did not have a master plan at the outset, but it has seemed to work really well for me.

thanks everyone... anyone have any success with cortizone shots for pf ?? I understand it may be a short term solution, just wondering anyone else's experiences.

TJ wrote:

thanks everyone... anyone have any success with cortizone shots for pf ?? I understand it may be a short term solution, just wondering anyone else's experiences.

I almost got one. Then I asked around a little bit and found out that they are pretty much worthless and may even cause long term damage. A friend of mine works in a running shoe store and claims that she has seen lot of runners with PF who have had the shot. The usual result is some short term relief from pain and then back to square one, sometimes with a permanent debilitating injury, such as nodules, as a result of the shot. She has never seen anyone completely cured by it. Several other friends confirmed more or less the same thing. Doctors who have a financial stake in giving you the shot rarely will voluntarily spill the beans about side effects unless you cross examine them. And even then, they will try to minimize the side effects. It looks like a lot of risk for very little potential gain. I would pass on that idea.