Phase 2

I finally broke through the 5 km barrier yesterday. I have been ill over the last week, and just couldn't bring myself to start on the second lap of the my 5 km/3.1 mile route, which starts and ends at my house. However yesterday I managed to add the extra 1/4 mile.

So I am now on phase 2 of my training plan. I am still running every other day, but now the pattern is:

rest
short run
rest
medium run
(repeat)

The short run stays at 5 km, and here I will be working on increasing my speed. The medium run will increase by 1/4 mile each time, until I reach 6.25 mile / 10 km, which is twice round my route. Then I should be ready for that 10k run in September (hmm - which I still haven't actually entered yet - must get onto that).

After that, I plan to reward myself with a present of some Merrell Trail Glove running shoes, and then I will be giving barefoot/minimalist running a go.

Another milestone passed yesterday - I have now run a total of 50 miles since I started running properly (as opposed to run/walking). My average speed in the last four weeks was 6.2 mph. I will record this so I can compare it with next month's figure.

Simple running

I spent the last week geting rid of stuff. First went my heart rate monitor - I got slightly faster and finished with more energy to spare. I think concentrating on some arbitrary heart rate target instead of listening to what my body was trying to tell me was counterproductive. I found myself actually saying to myself things like, 'Why am a suddenly breathing so hard? I am well below my lactate threshold ...' Nonsense - if I am suddenly breathing really hard and feel the need to stop, or if I am getting burning in my muscles, then guess what? I am overdoing it and need to slow down!

Second, I dispensed with my metronome. I got faster again, and finished my first 5km. It seems the arbitrary 180 steps per minute I was aiming for was actually a bit slower than my comfortable rate of turnover. Now I seem to vary between 180 and 200 steps per minute as my run progresses, but I never know exactly at what cadence I am running at any particular time. Who cares?

Now I am thinking of getting rid of my stopwatch - but I admit I can't quite bring myself to do it. I feel I need some measure of how well I am doing. However, I have at least stopped looking at it while running, except at the end. It is quite a liberating experience. Maybe after a few weeks I can get rid if it entirely.

Now my run is spent just concentrating on keeping good form. I reckon distance and speed will come of their own accord as long as I avoid injury from doing Too Much Too Soon.

Even the good form part has got a lot simpler. Now I just concentrate on short steps, midfoot striking and fast turnover (180-200 steps per minute I suppose, but no idea exactly ...), and nothing else. I find if I picture my feet as a little set of wheels revolving (like the Roadrunner!), I seem to use less energy per step and run more lightly. To speed up I keep the rate of turnover about the same and increase the size of the wheel, and to slow down (e.g. when getting tired or running uphill), I just decrease the size of the wheel.

Sometimes I find I have zoned out completely and have run half a mile or so without realising it. Other times I find myself just enjoying the view. I begin to see what all the minimalist and barefoot runners are getting at. Runners get so bogged down in all these things they think they need to think about - HRmax, lactate threshold, cadence, posture, heel striking, which muscles they are using, which shoes to buy etc. etc. etc. Most of the time it all just seems to get in the way.

Eventually I hope the stopwatch will go as well - then I will know I am really on the right track ...

Training plan

That hydration tip worked really well - last night's run was my fastest so far. However, I don't think I left it long enough after drinking as I could feel water sloshing about while I was running - quite uncomfortable.

I have been giving some thought recently to my training plan. Up to now, I have just been concentrating on running and on increasing my mileage, but more experienced runners have told me that it helps with to have a goal in mind and a plan on how to get there.

There are lots of standard training plans in books and on the web, but I find them all rather complicated and I fear this would make them hard to stick to. I decided therefore to create my own very simple plan, and here it is:

Phase 1 - run every other day, increasing mileage by 0.25 miles every three runs, until I can run 3 mi (5 km). This should be about three weeks from now.

Phase 2 - run every other day, on a pattern of Short Run/ Rest/ Medium Run/ Rest/ (repeat). The short run will stay at 3 mi, and the long run will progressively increase by 0.25 miles each run until I reach 6 mi (10 km). This should take until the middle of September.

There is a local 10K race coming up at the end of September - the Mortimer 10K. I haven't registered yet as I decided to wait until I can run 3 miles before doing so.

Phase 3 - investigating using minimalist shoes and a barefoot running style. For this I will stick with the same schedule as for Phase 2, and gradually increase the distance run in the minimal shoes until I am doing all my runs in them, or until I decide that they are not going to work for me. This should take until the end of 2011.

Phase 4 - switch to a more traditional weekly schedule: Mon - rest/ Tue - short run/ Wed - medium run/ Thu - short run/ Fri - rest/ Sat - medium run/ Sun - long run.

The long run will be twice the length of the medium run, which in turn will be twice the length of the short run. Gradually build up the long run until it is around 10-12 miles (25-30 mi per week). Should take until March.

At this point I hope to do the Reading half-marathon. Again, I haven't booked this yet, as I wanted to get to the point where I can run 10K first.

Phase 5 - gradually increase my weekly mileage as far as I can, adding a mile onto the long run each week, half a mile onto the medium runs, and a quarter mile onto the short runs. Overtraining will mean dropping back a week, and injuries will mean taking a break and dropping back a number of weeks equal to the break.

I prefer the idea of building up my base like this, rather than doing one of the standard training programmes, as I don't want races to be the main focus of my training, which is more about getting in shape than achieving fast times.

We have a local trail marathon/half-marathon in May - the Neolithic. I will try to do whichever one of these seems most appropriate, based on my weekly mileage at the time.

Barefoot running

It seems almost impossible to look at a running website these days without seeing something about barefoot or minimalist running. There are a lot of strongly-held opinions on both sides of the debate, in fact often it doesn't seem to be a debate at all, but rather an exercise in mudslinging. See this example, and this one, for some of the arguments on both sides.

In a nutshell, the proponents of barefoot running (and here I also include the use of minimal non-cushioned shoes) say some or all of the following:

1. As a species, we evolved to run barefoot, and we have natural cushioning structures in our feet and lower legs that make cushioned running shoes unnecessary.

2. Cushioned shoes encourage us to run with poor form, because they protect us from our mistakes. Eventually, using them leads to inefficient running, weakened feet and chronic injuries like plantar fasciitis and achilles tendonitis.

3. Shoe manufacturers are well aware of this, but they only make money if we continually update our shoes for the latest hi-tech models, so they deliberately mislead us with tales of overpronation and so forth.

4. Podiatrists are almost as bad - they want to sell us their services, custom orthotics etc. so they support and add credibility to the shoe manufacturers' story.

As evidence for their point of view, proponents of barefoot running point to the many runners who have completed and even won long races in minimal footwear, and to the even greater number of runners who say their chronic injuries cleared up after they started running barefoot. These arguments are raised in the excellent Born to Run, by Christopher McDougall, by the way.

Opponents of barefoot running say that much of the talk about its supposed benefits is wholly unscientific, consisting of new-age claptrap, biased opinion and unsupported assertions rather than actual evidence. Also, they point out that those who buy minimal shoes are being just as misled by manufacturers' marketing ploys as anyone else.

For myself, I have to admit I am quite sympathetic to the barefoot idea, but I admit this is more because I want it to be true than because of any actual hard evidence. I can see how the cushioned shoes I use are indeed very forgiving of bad running form, and since improving my form has led to my running better than I have ever been capable of in the past, this does seem to suggest one possible reason why I should dispense with my Asics and buy something with less protection.

However, I can't quite bring myself to run completely barefoot at this point, or to buy some huaraches or other minimal shoes, as it is taking all my effort to build up my overall fitness at the moment, without having to build up my leg and foot muscles as well.

Also, the cost of the minimalist shoes just seems too high for what you get. If we are being asked to believe that shoe manufacturers like Nike, Asics etc. are conning us by pretending that all the hi-tech features in their latest £90 shoes are necessary when in fact they aren't, then how do the likes of Merrell and Vibram justify charging the same amount for shoes that have less material in them and required less development?

So for the moment I am sticking with my Asics, secure in the knowledge that if the barefoot brigade are right, then as the midsole cushioning starts to break down, the shoes will actually be better for me rather than worse.

Once I have my first race (Mortimer 10K) out of the way, I will have some time to think more about minimal shoes. If I can get hold of a reasonably cheap pair, then maybe I will give them a go and see if I can detect any advantages.