What brought me to running... part 2

It is parkour that gave me the tools for running in terms of fitness but also in another way.

A couple of years ago I had a problem with landings.  I'd watched a video in which someone said "how far do you need to bend your legs really" the idea was that you don't need to bend your legs much on smaller drops.  I thought about this rather too much and got to a stage where I was almost locking my legs out and putting a lot of pressure on my legs.  At the time I often got to the child minders to pick up James a little before she got back from the school run and I used to practice balance on a rail behind her house.  One day I had no trainers in the car so I just did it barefoot.  I noticed that as I was jumping off the rail (about waist height) I wasn't experiencing the pressure that I had been.  The drop would hurt because of the roughness on the soles of my feet but there was no tension in my legs and everything felt good.

My 2nd pair which I used for the marathon

I wanted to include some barefoot work in my training.  From reading the Parkour Generations forums I knew about Vibram Five Finger shoes.  They're a very minimal shoe; a 2-3mm thick rubber sole to protect from stones, thornes, broken glass etc. but that's it - no ankle support, no arch support, no heal - its as close to being barefoot without actually being so.  I ordered a pair.

The first time I ran in my new Vibrams (VFFs) was a game changer.  I'd always gone for little jogs but never really enjoyed it, I just did out of a sense that I should.  The first run was difficult and after a couple of miles my feet were shot, the arches had completely collapsed, and I had to walk.  I loved it though.  Running in this way was so much fun.

There are lots of arguments about barefooting and I don't want to get into that but I would recommend barefooting or minimal footwear because its so enjoyable.

I got into running a bit more and started regularly going out for an hour or so.  I go out the door not really knowing what I'd do but just to enjoy going for a run.  Sometimes I'd go for something short, sometimes I'd mix in some parkour, on one occasion I went out thinking I'd go for about 6 miles and ended up doing at least 12.

Entering a marathon was the next step and that brings us up to date.  I still really enjoy the running I'm still basically doing the same thing - going out to enjoy the run.  I didn't really train for the marathon in the sense of having a programme, I did up my mileage but I just did what I wanted really.

The next step is the ultra.  I haven't started running again properly after the marathon but I think my first run back will be on Tuesday (6 more days) and I think it'll be around 15 miles.