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sports

Why I moved to barefoot running

I’ve been an avid runner since years, doing some races, marathons and triathlons. I would say, that in general I am aging well, but since I became 42 or so, my knees started to hurt when moved in awkward ways. It’s not always but from time to time it hurts so much, I can’t do another step.

Some month ago I came across the book „Born to run.“ It’s about some south-american tribe, which up until today are running barefoot like 120 miles a day 😳. It’s not a classic runners book, more like a novel, and it gets to the point, that running barefoot is the „natural“ way of running (like in ancient days, chasing an anthilope to death), using the architecture of our body as a natural „spring“. They say it prevents injuries and typical achers in the achilles heel and so.

So I got myself a pair of these:

Vibram fivefingers kso evo

Yes, they look stupid. They look stupid when I wear them. But they feel sooooo good while running. Not in the beginning though – but step by step:

  1. My first run was about 15 minutes and my calves were exploding.
  2. My second run was 25 minutes – and my calves were exploding.
  3. My third run was 75 minutes – and I felt nothing than pure pleasure!

Running „feels“ so more light and natural; with every step you sense the underground.

I’ve now been running the fivefingers since 3 month and don’t want to go back. Seriously, it changed my whole running stile. I am more aware of and in the run, my heartrate is way lower. I am bit slower though, and especially on bigger gravel I have to watch out where I set my foot (it helps to set smaller steps).

From time to time I am in my nikes, but they feels clumsy and awkward now. (btw.: Nike invented the „cussion“ running shoe, to sell more pronation-correcting sportshoes, leading to more injuries – „true“ story 😉

Pro tip: as you run barefoot in your barefoots: vinegar and shampoo in the sink give wonderful results regarding the „smell“ effect 🙂

Main Picture by Guttorm

Article picture by Zalando

Kategorien
sports

Freeletics: old wine in new, shiny, polished, stylish bottles.

Last summer I was looking for some new sports, helping me to get fitter again, as biking and running got a bit boring by the time.

I then stumbled upon freeletics and I have been sticking with it ever since.

What got me in the beginning were not the fancy „transformation videos“ one can find here and there on the net, but the simplicity of the  exercises: sit ups and „burpees“ are nothing fancy new, but they managed to build a good looking and efficient package they are calling Helios or Dione and like other greek gods.

 

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Since then I really have to say that I got a _lot_ fitter and that it still is fun to plan your day around the exercises. For me it’s the „i don’t want to, but I will“ – motivation part, that gets me going with it.

 

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Interesting enough, the founders of freeletics have now more time to concentrate on their fitness, as they’ve successfully retired. Funny: they started off selling PDF for exorbitant prices – and so financed their first app. The rest is history…

 

 

Kategorien
sports

Week12: 4 more to go

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Felt a bit ill last week, so I I didn’t finalize all the planned runs. Looks different this week, though.

26th April, Dusseldorf Marathon – that’s the goal.

Btw. Screenshot is from Movescount, the Suunto online sports community. Though technically not on the edge, the design is really nice. My (old) Suunto Quest connects via bluetooth to the site, an syncs runs an planned moves vise versa. My marathon training plan is from runners world or so…