During my early childhood, parents were quite conservative with money and didn't have the luxury like kids nowadays. When i was in primary school, i ran middle and long distance without shoes because the field is always partly damp and muddy. Back then i only had my bright white school shoes which i use for everything and i can't risk my shoes turning brown because of the mud. I practically did all my sports including hockey..yup! hockey! barefoot!
Even during my high school era i was always barefooted when i ran during physical education/pendidikan jasmani or when i play football. Only time i ran with shoes was my schools annual cross country event or inter class football tournament. Not running shoes but school shoes.. Yeah, the white one with no cushion with thick rubber soles and only cost RM24.90 back then. =D
After high school i wasn't active in running anymore although i did continue with my football and futsal when in college and uni days.That was the end of my barefoot era. During my early working career, i completely ditched sports and running completely.
About 2 years back i started hiking as my sporting activity because i knew running will be tough because you will need a lot of lungs for it and i was more confident in the more relaxing approach of hiking. Then about 6 months back i took up trail running and realised i don't have the muscles for running but i have ample of stamina.. Weird eh? it's always the other way around.. I started running on the road again with good running shoes and within a few short sessions i had minor PF issues. When that recovered, i had shin splints! Did my own diagnostics and found out that i had a super high arch and i have bow legged shape. Is it my shoes? enough cushion or support for under pronated feet? Wrong shoes for my feet? Or I'm just not born to run..
I refuse to give up cause i love running.. Gives me a feel good factor and i like free endorphins. Running is only second to sex (read it on an health article somewhere) when it comes to experiencing the satisfaction feeling. Did some experimenting and found out that i forgot how to run properly. My running gait is way off the proper gait. I was side heel striking, body slouching, hands swing sideways and the list goes on. I refrained from any running activities and let my muscles recover from the injuries. When i started again, i tried changing my form by wearing a more minimalist shoe (Nike free 2.0) and changed my footstike to forefoot. I was not surprised at all at the end of the day cause my muscles held up, no injuries and only sore calves from changing to forefoot strike.
My conclusion is that I forgot how to run naturally. I never ever had any injuries in the past when i was in my younger days and teens when i was running barefoot and in the space of 1 month i experienced PF and shin splints. I won't say cushioned, minimalist or even barefoot is good or bad cause every runner will have their own preference. In my opinion, barefoot or super minimalist shoes like VFF tends to make you run more naturally (even if you forgot how to run after all the years of not running) because our body will adjust to the ground automatically because there is no cushion or protection for the feet. The worst disaster will be going back to running without proper running gait with a cushioned/stability/neutral shoes and getting injured and then blame the shoes for getting injured because it somehow doesn't support your feet properly. Stability/cushioned/neutral shoes are designed to guide you to a proper gait by giving support to your arch, not change your running gait. After changing my running gait i feel that I'm starting to feel good about running without injuries just sore calves at the beginning stages. I'm back to my forefoot strike days and I will try to transition slowly from my Nike frees to VFF's in the near future so i can relive my childhood days.. Ciao! =D
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