Tarahumara Frank?

I took a day off yesterday after Sunday's 10 miler, but decided to get out there today for an easy 5 miles.  I ended up going 8 miles today in 1:15:02, and it felt great.

I finished Born To Run last night.  I thought it was a great book--especially the chapters devoted to actual racing.  The arguments for the less is more approach to running shoes was made pretty well.  I'm not about to go barefoot, but I'm not at all averse to trying to strengthen my feet.  I walked barefoot around my backyard for about five minutes.  Having battled plantar fasciitis, I'll try just about anything.  I think my method of Ibuprofen, icing, stretching the ligament with a water bottle, taping and finally elevating the feet after each run is working.  I didn't feel any worse after Sunday's 10 miles than I did after today's run.

One thing I thought sounded really reasonable was how the running styles of the Tarahumara Indians and Scott Jurek were described--backs straight, heads up, arms up high and each foot strike and push off occurring behind the body so that the center of gravity of the body is actually behind the runner.  You may recall that I've been trying to shorten my stride to be less of a heel striker.

I tried this style out today and felt really comfortable with it.  With the back really straight, it makes it nearly impossible to extend your leg out too far and heel strike.  If you tried to heel strike with a straight back, you'd look like a goose stepping Nazi.  I noticed that my stride was much shorter and that my feet really did seem to be striking the ground behind me.  The great part about this was that I became a natural mid to forefoot striker in this style, and it felt comfortable.  Every so often, I unconsciously reverted back to my old style and was leaning forward.  For a while, I had to take assessments of my posture to be sure it was straight, and, for the most part, it was.  I didn't have any problems until I hit 4 miles.  My achilles heel flared up a little, so I concentrated more on my posture, and everything cleared up within a few steps.  I hit a rhythm and started thinking about other things around mile 5.5.  I was just running without thinking and before I noticed what happened, I hit the 7 mile mark.  I felt so good that I figured I'd do one more.  I would have done more, but I only had an hour and a half window.

I'm really excited to get back out and try this new form again.  My body feels strong.  Hopefully, my foot is healing.  My only dilemma is wondering whether to keep going with these longer runs or take them down a notch.  20 miles is my highest mileage for a week this year.  If I keep this up, I'll smash that by a good 50%.  I guess tomorrow will tell.  If I wake up and everything feels good, then I'll probably head out for 5 miles or so.  What a joy it is to finally get close to where I was before injuring myself.  As far as speed and endurance are concerned,  I'm not where I was, but I'm getting really close.

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