Run Free? TBC...

Nike Free

So the barefoot debate continues - not only in my mind, but also in the minds of my fellow 2013 MDS competitiors. There has been a lot of discussion on t'interweb regarding the training for and completion of the MDS in minimalist shoes amongst the 2013 group. It seems there are quite a lot of people training in Vibrams (me included for the most part, more on that later) or an equivalent minimalist shoe and all have the same question - how do get through the desert's sand, snakes, bugs and rocks in shoes that will essentially leave your feet open to various bits and pieces and in turn lead to pain and blisters? Looking at my Five Fingers Bikila, I think it would be near impossible to run the MDS in them and expect my feet to survive and I'm not even sure if I could get a pair of gaitors (the standard sand defence) attached to them to keep stuff out.

With this in mind and due to a small cold snap in December where my feet froze in my Five Fingers during a 6 mile run on Cork's old train line in heavy rain, I decided that wearing Vibrams for the winter was out of the question, with or without the special finger socks that you can now buy to keep your feet warm! So I decided to try a pair of Nike Free (pictured above) - these are essentially light barefoot runners but with more support than the Fingers that should, in theory, retain the barefoot style I have become accustomed to in my ridiculous looking foot gloves.

At first they felt great, really light with a nice rebounding action during runs over tarmac, and I even managed to run a PB for one of my regular routes. They feel awkward if you heel strike in them, almost pushing you off balance and so they force you to land with a mid-foot strike, with the feeling of cushioning, rather than feedback through the balls of your feet as you get in the Fingers. This gave me great hope of course, but it wasn't long before I began to feel a little bit of pain in my shins, which worried me. This did coincide though with a slight increase in mileage up to and during the Christmas period, as well as my understanding that my luminous yellow, ridiculous looking hockey shoes were doing me no good at all. They have since been donated to Cork County Council for use by their road crews when working at night. I think as well that because they were new and felt great initially that I probably pushed myself a little hard in them, rather than take it slow as I did with the Fingers for the first month.

Overall they went through some long adventures - a good ten miler through Cratloe Woods on Christmas day, a long hungover run across the city to collect my car the day after St. Stephen's (Boxing) day and a 12 miler up and around the Knockshanvo hills at home in Clare, where at one point I was knee deep in a large pool of "mucky muck" in a bog (I would have been goosed if I had been wearing the Fingers), not exactly Sahara conditions. As well as that they went through a good few shorter runs as well as a couple speed endurance sessions on a sand-based astro-turf pitch, slighltly more akin to Sahara conditions (I know I'm grasping at straws).

By the first week of January, the pain was back in my shins, albeit not as bad as it was in late November. This was then compounded by a long, wet, foggy jaunt of a hill walk to the west of Galtymore in Tipperary (which I consider part of training - long hilly walks are meant to be good preparation, especially those with a back pack weighing you down) in my old hiking boots.

The switch back into the Vibrams was immediate and coupled with a long cycle to make up for mileage, my legs were significantly better by mid-January. I've also switched to an old pair of Salomon shoes for hockey, which seem to be doing the trick considering you cover up to 6 miles during a match (yes, I sadly strapped a GPS onto myself for a couple of games).

So where am I now in relation to Nike Free? I'm not really sure as to whether or not I should give them another lash. Should I use them in my bare feet (I had been wearing socks) and take my time, nice and slow, to see if I can run in them injury free over distance? Should I abandon them now and stick to the Fingers? Blog readers, if you have any thoughts I'd like to hear them. Nike Free - TBC.

Furthermore, what do I do for the MDS? One possibility is Merrell's Trail Glove, the Goretex version should keep sand out and also should allow for a gaitor to be glued on to protect from sand getting in. It's an option anyway.

One highlight of my January training was the bike ride - it gave my legs a nice rest and a nice distraction from another day running on a road or over a grass pitch. Replacing a run with a cycle has a lot of merits but in terms of monthly mileage, how do I incorporate miles cycled into miles run, or can it be done? I had originally thought of simply dividing by 3 - i.e. 30 miles cycled is 10 miles run but as usual the internet provided a far more complicated method of conversion taking into account things like average speed, how many dogs chased you, wind resistance from periods cycling behind JCBs and the pothole quality of the backroad between Glanmire and Midleton (it was very specific), all of  which seemed far more accurate. 

After all of that, January 2012 finished with over 120 miles (up from 105 miles in both November and December) in the training diary (running, cycling, hill walking and hockey miles included) but with a lot of questions in  my mind over footwear and the like. Not a bad start to 2012...