Which brings me to walking and running and the symphonic level of cooperation through my body from casting off the shoes (can I get a HAL-lelujAH!?). I am a pretty heavy guy, I haven't been under 100 kg since I was about 22 years old, and when I run in shoes it literally makes my teeth shake. On one occasion I even broke my foot while attempting to "muscle through" a trail run. I finally found my five fingers and began attempting to run in them. Great strides at first but I was still "not getting it" and struggling with moving my bulk around the track for any more than 3 k at a time.
When I finally just took the shoes off and quit inhibiting myself I began making gains in leaps and bounds. Instead of a foot strike I found a new development that really changed it all around for me. My feet stopped hitting the ground and began to plant themselves. Imagine passing dinner plates by their bottom along a chain of people. You open your hand, take the weight and determine the balance of that plate, then pass the plate to the person next in line while receiving another plate.
Not a perfect analogy but close enough. I promise to do better next time.
This results in a gait that is long on the posterior stride and short on the anterior with a posture that is much more vertical in the cervical seven (the seven vertebrae in the neck, I just really wanted to write that line) than the average shod gait. As I spend as much time as possible with my weight being balanced in the upward momentum of the body its not unlike being in a constant state of hang time.
Anyway I don't see to many other people with heavy frames running long distance and think that maybe those of us with heavier frames need to remove foot support and increase biofeedback. This way the kinetic chain as isn't being constantly short circuited, dumping the load into our joints rather than smoothly transferring a wave up and down. I think that the concept of scaling likely supports this.
See you all next time,
