 posted Dec-26-2006 02:46 PM
   
Averagebum,What I'm saying here is not my own thinking; I'm reiterating info you can find spending a few hours Googling. Your hypothesis is that humans evolved their feet based on walking and running on soft surfaces. This assumes... less rock in prehistoric times? Didn't you watch the Flinstones?  Lots of rock. They were barefoot. LOL As I see it, surfaces "back in the day" were varied. Some were softer, some were harder. However, it seems unlikely that we evolved without the ability to run and walk on hard surfaces. Chasing animals across a hard-packed prarie or desert? Or rocky forest trails? Our forebears covered many miles on many surface types, barefoot. The foot is well-designed for its purpose. Yes, concrete is a new surface, but I think the real problem with our feet these days is that we are put in shoes from birth; decades of shoes have weakend our feet and ankles. The natural function of the foot is restricted and limited in the modern shoe, especially the modern running shoe. This affects how the foot moves, absorbs shock and rebounds energy. Important stuff. If you have worn shoes your whole life, and then try to run on concrete barefoot, then yes, you'll probably injure yourself. Before you tackle harder surfaces, you have to develop and condition your feet and ankles, something that should have happened in the first years of your life. Yet magazines like Runner's World advertise running shoes as the cure to our problems not because shoes are the cure, but because shoe companies are their source of ad revenue. It should be painfully obvious to the running community that $100 cushioned, supportive and heavy running shoes are not the cure they claim to be. How many of us have been side-lined with injuries while wearing these shoes? Even stress fractures? It boggles the mind to think that our feet could work as designed inside these shoes. Put on a thick pair of mittens; how do your hands and fingers work? Not so dexterous. Feet are important to running! We should let them work as designed. My own path to "freeing my feet" began last year. My sports doc got me a custom-made rigid orthotic and told me I had to wear them all the time: running, walking, whatever. Even to the movies. All the time. And I did. She's a great doctor, but I believe that was a mistake on her part. The orthotics were supposed to alleviate a simple ITBS injury. I had run thousands of miles in my life without orthotics before, so I was not one of those few people who really do need orthotics to correct serious biomechical problems. The world of sports medicine seems to think any overpronation and flat-footedness is bad. This is where I disagree. I got a pair of Nike Free shoes and began wearing them around (but not for running). It was strange. I felt like I was leaving the house barefoot. Then I went on shorts runs, once a week, in them. Painful at first; I felt weird aches and pains as my body adjusted to not having the orthotic, which is essentially a crutch for the foot. Gradually I increased the number of times a week I ran in the Nike Free. It's been over 3 months. I now run 4+ times a week in the Nike Free (I run 7 days a week). I even do mid-distance runs in them (10 miles or so). Yes, I still overprontate and I'm still somewhat flat-footed. So what? I'm running pain-free. My feet and ankles are stronger than ever. Last week I logged 45 miles, with 25 being Nike Free miles. As my body grew accustomed to wearing the Nike Free, my gait changed. I started to land on the balls of my feet because it felt natural. I believe that there is a lot of variety in people's feet: some have greater arches, some have flatter feet, some overpronate, some oversupinate. But none of these problems are inherently bad. Landing on the ball of the foot greatly reduces pronation anyway. I'm an experiment of one. My custom-made rigid orthotics are in a box in my closet where they belong. I absolutely love Nike Free. They are my favorite shoes. It's easier to run wearing them. I feel light and quick. I have a greater awareness of the ground. I can't wait until summer when I can kick off the Frees and run barefoot. I'll probably be the only shoeless runner out there on Chicago's lakefront.
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