Cascadias ROCK

Ran today (road) in my Brooks Cascadias without the sockliners to see how they performed before I did the same out on the trail this weekend and I must say I love them more than my beloved Triumphs pictured in the post below – even on the road. The most notable difference was the lack of a thick heel pad.

I’m starting to like running without the sockliner more and more. My feet feel the road better and don’t have that mild sliding around sensation as they do with the factory inserts so I don’t have to tie them quite as tight. BTW, I do the heel lock thingy!.

Here they are:

Modern running shoes enable us to land on our heels – not good – this does not enable runners to get the most shock absorbtion which comes from our achilles tendon.

Modern running shoes provide extra support for our arches – not good – this weakens the foot.

With my current running form – see post below – I’ve slowly started to become a mid/outer foot striker that rolls inward to toe-off. The best way to really test proper foot strike is to run short distances – something along the lines of a quarter mile – barefoot. I’ve been dealing with mild sesamoiditis in my left foot – not running related – so the thought of barefoot running ANY distance makes me cringe.

In order to get as close to the ground as possible I yanked the inserts out of my old road shoes and laced them up for my 3 miler yesterday to see what it was like. At first I was a little worried an injury might crop up but after yesterday’s run it felt so good to feel the road and to be off my heels I ran again today without the inserts. I had no positive expectations but surprisingly the few twinges I’ve been feeling in my arches and achilles the past few weeks were 100% non-existent during these two runs.

My beloved Saucony Triumph 4s

Now I don’t plan on doing every single run from now on without inserts, my feet don’t have the strength for that yet, but I do plan to incorporate at least two or three of my shorter runs a week without inserts or until I find a suitable alternative, something comparable to racing flats, possibly the NB 790s (trail) or a super-thin insert.

“Don’t fight the trail, take what it gives you. If you have a choice between one step or two between rocks take three. Lesson two, think easy, light, smooth, and fast. You start with easy because if that’s all you get, that’s not so bad. Then work on light. Make it effortless, like you don’t give a shit how high the hill is or how far you’ve got to go. When you’ve practiced that so long that you forget you’re practicing, you work on making it smooooooth. You won’t have to worry about the last one–you get those three, and you’ll be fast.” from the book, Born To Run: by Christopher McDougall

Watching this guy run will give you an idea.

Here in the header you can see Houston (the next little ultrarunner) haulin’ ass down the Sam Knob trail. It’s apparent that he has neutral running gait which will make for great bio-mechanics and a great runner in the future. If that’s what he aspires to be of course.

We came home on Sunday and I took him to the two mile MtBike trail at Tanglewood for a short hike to see how he would do. He loved it, stayed on the trail – which was great because of the poison ivy lining the single track. HE even led the hike for awhile while making sure Dad was keeping up!

Stay tuned for more hikes and outdoor adventure from the Hunter Boys!!!