Well, turns out the Arakawa "Marathon" is not a marathon in the English sense of the term (i.e., 42.195 km), but in the Japanese sense (i.e., a road race of any distance, including but not limited to 42.195 km). I was thrown because the info I got was in English, and hence I thought we were talking about the English term. Nevertheless, I'm now signed up for a half marathon at Arakawa and trying to get into the Osaka Marathon (a real English-sense marathon) two weeks later. Conveniently, the Arakawa half fit into the schedule nicely on a weekend calling for a 12-mile run; figure it won't be a big deal to bump that up to a little over 13.
Turning to today's run, I decided I'd bump it up from the 3 miles I ran yesterday to 4, which is more my normal just-getting-started kind of distance. However, given that all my other Vibram runs were not long after the marathon and were often shortened by knee issues, I think today marks my longest run thus far in the Vibrams (although that's going to quickly go up with the long weekend runs I have coming my way).
So I thought I'd float a few points I noticed about running in Vibrams.
Your calves are going to hurt at first. This seems to be the universal advice from anyone talking about running in Vibrams, but my calves were sore yesterday and I woke up to a knotty ball of crampishness in both my calves. I stretched them well before, after and during (while stopped at lights) my run, but it's clearly going to take some time for them to build up the strength needed to handle ball to heel running.
After a pause, I tend to revert to heel to ball. I noticed that when I stopped at a light or stopped to let a car pass or the like, my initial steps tended to be heel to ball unless I was consciously thinking about it. Once I get going, I find that the opposite is true; with some speed, I feel it when the ball's landing first and quickly adjust. I think the difference when just starting is either one of two things. It could just be force of habit; as I get more used to running in Vibrams, it'll come more natural for me to go straight heel to ball. Or it could be the nature of the speed; walking is heel to ball, so you may need to obtain a certain speed before ball to heel makes sense.
When tired, I sometimes slack off to heel to ball. I recall back in high school my coach always yelling "Arms!" when we slacked off during a race or a fast workout. The idea was you'd swing your arms and match your stride with the arms, to avoid the scuffling little steps you sometimes get when you're feeling it during a run. I'm wondering if this is similar in that I just need to be conscious of it to avoid it. In any case, you feel the heel to ball change when you're going at a pace, so it becomes apparent that you need to switch back.
Running downhill seems to be harder than running uphill. Yes, you are still fighting gravity when running uphill, but when running downhill you have to stick your foot down more in order to land on the ball rather than the heel. I also find this results in me going down hills at quite a pace, although I don't end up feeling tired at the bottom, as gravity did most the work. Still, I notice when I reach the bottom of a hill more than when I reach the top in that "Phew, I'm done" kind of way.
More experience running with Vibrams will probably lead me to better information on the above (as would a Google search, but color me lazy at the moment), but I'm finding overall the it's pretty enjoyable to run in Vibrams. Now I'm just looking for a suitable place to lose shoes altogether...
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