Lately, I've picked up a bit of a rather bad gambling habit. It's probably not as sadly seedy, nor as gaily glamorous, as you might think. I'm not jamming every last yen I have down the jugular of a blinking machine that's gurgling hand over fistfuls of chump change, all while choking on the smoke filled air floating through those prevalent pachinko parlors, nor am I applying salve to the paper cuts received from wriggling out from under a massive Mount Fuji of unlucky lottery tickets. I suppose the truth, in a sense, is a bit less capricious (or maybe more so, depending on your particular stance on biomechanics): I've been trying a variety of new approaches to marathon training all at once; most of which, were probably attempted way too soon after completing my last marathon in Osaka.
Basically, if the schedule said rest, I ran. If I was supposed to run 4 miles, then I ran 8 instead; packing the extra workouts into pretty bowed boxes, and parcelling them out at either end of the day. Where I would usually stretch after a run, I made a new habit of lounging (and lounge indeed I did!). When I thought about needing new shoes, I grabbed a used pair from a friend—the very same footwear that forced him out of marathon training with a stress fracture: Vibram Five Fingers (more specifically, I believe they are the Treksport model). I've been rolling heavy-handed dice over rice paper thin ice for this entire third round of training. I haven't decided on one specific reason why I've been so restless with settling for the same routine that has successfully led me to the finish line of a marathon twice thus far, but this third round of training has just been a hodgepodge of mad experiments aimed at improving my running agility, though, in practice, most of them have been too Tanya Harding on my legs to be worth the gamble.
More about minimalism...
Concerning the Vibrams: my initial reaction still very much remains the same as when I was first shown a photo of them a few years ago, which was something along the lines of "Those things make me wish I had more toes". Setting the initial shock value aside, and eventually giving them a more critical eye, I don't see them so much as a replacement, but a supplement. Even if (as has been hotly debated) riding in the Cadillac of comfort shoes—oh say, the Asic's Nimbus line—goes against the very nature of the human species, my lazybones enjoy a good amount of cushion between my flesh & the hard reality of the world beneath my feet over the long distances.
However, I do believe there is something meaningful to this popular train of thought, whose passengers seemed to book their tickets after reading Born to Run over their summer vacations, because I believe minimalism is a fine tool for refining & strengthening your biomechanics. I wouldn't, however, rely on one kind of shoe to miraculously solve all my running problems. I rely on form being the key that lets you comfortably walk in through the front door, rather than fumbling through the slightly ajar parlor window, where you risk twisting your ankle and garnering some minor scraps & bruises from the overgrown shrubbery. In order to improve form, maybe your running style is best served with minimalism—those in favor of it do make a compelling argument—and that's great, but for me I need a healthy rotation between the extremes to keep me moving & happy. Though I have recently been eyeing up something that sits in between the two extremes, I've already done enough hopscotching this round of training, so I'm sticking with what I have for now until The Final Countdown (cue Europe on the boombox).
Christopher McDougal himself has summed up this very notion that Vin & I had arrived at independent of his research. Simply, footwear will always fail you if your form is not backing it up. I'm in favor of minimalism, but it's not going to work for everybody. Having played around in my secondhand Five Fingers, I can safely say I'm not going to run a marathon barefoot (yep, I race in trainers), but I enjoy augmenting my regular training runs with a few miles here & there in a more minimal mindset. By simply swapping out my footwear, I've found I've naturally come around to a more forefoot & mid-foot strike pattern, which eases my body into a better running position. Also, I'm strengthening my feet, using my calves in a slightly different way, and changing the kinetic nature of the way my form flows. Even when I'm back to wearing those heel-striking heathen Asics (that I'm still very much a fan of), my style has shifted, simply by being exposed minimalism.
Now, it's worth noting that Tinker, Taylor, Soldier, Spy-ing with your running technique is going to carry consequences, and any new approach should be ushered in with a careful grace period; unlike the way I did things. At first, I was too eager to pounce on this alluring new forefoot style introduced to my running repertoire. My second day out, and I was edging the outer banks of 5 miles. The next day my feet & Achilles tendon were killing me. Lesson learned. I backed off. This zealous embrace of the Five Fingers cost me a decent handful of training days.
So, instead of going flat out for long runs in the vibrams, I began tucking them into the tail end of my runs, without ever running consecutive days in them. Since then, I've been pretty pleasantly reaping the biomechanics benefits. I noticed that initially I felt slower. It's a transition, so fatigue is going to come quickly to those underused leg muscles. But now that I've had a few weeks to grow comfortable with them, I feel faster without any consciously added effort. Not that I'm timing my runs exactly, but on Wednesdays (my only remaining double workout day), I test my mettle at the track at Oda field with other running enthusiasts of Namban Rengo. A few weeks ago, I could barely straggle along at the end of the B group. Now, it seems, I've rapidly improved enough to keep in check with the leader. I'm still not A group material, but a solid spot in B group is plenty nice too.
Are Vibrams alone to thank for this speed increase? Probably not. But it is a different form of running, so it relies on different muscles, which is a balancing act that in turn could help lead to a faster pace. More likely though, an overall improvement to running efficiency is at the forefront of this effortless boost in bravura. Running more has certainly helped, but running more efficiently shouldn't be overlooked either. Sure, the best way to become a faster runner is to run faster, but what I'm noticing is a subtle amping without all that messy speed work. In the end, not everything about Five Fingers is positive (a critique I'll save for a later post), but throwing them into the rotation has rekindled a welcome alacrity for running that sometimes wanes during the long winter months of adhering to strict marathon training schedules.
Footnotes:
Photo via richardmoross
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