Vibram 5 Fingers

After the busy summer of work at NCOBS I am hoping to get on here more frequently and post thoughts. I just got back from a short vacation at the beach this past weekend. It was wonderful spending time doing...not doing actually. In the last 10 years I don't think I have been to the beach on vacation and it was definately needed and worth the drive to get to Wrightsville Beach. Glenn and I spent the weekend relaxing with an old friend, Bryan, who was visiting from Hawaii. Like I said we didn't do much of anything, we had no agenda but to relax. I was proud of myself for not cracking into my school books (which I foolishly brought with me) and studying. Okay so knowing me you may know that I couldn't do nothing completely, truth be told.

We swam in the ocean both days, even on sunday when it was overcast and 70 with biting wind. It was so refreshing to be in the ocean. It makes me feel so alive and at the same time so small and insignificant. I also got a great run in on the beach to the south point of Wrightsville Beach overlooking Masonboro Inlet, which brings me to the title of this post: Vibram 5 Fingers. I have been using a pair of Vibram Classics all summer for walking around and to do crossfit and they have been great. My goal was to actually run a distance of more than 1 mile in them but the classics just feel too flimsy for me. About a month ago I became the owner of a pair of Vibram Treksports, which have more padding and a outsole built for traction. I thought a run at the beach would be the best way to test them out and get some distance in them. I ran (as fast as I could on sand) about 4 miles in them on the beach and THEY WERE AMAZING. I love the feel of being barefoot on the beach but sometimes the shells and broken pieces can rip up your feet. The Treksports were perfect - it felt like I was barefoot but I had protection against broken shells on the beach. At the south end of Wrightsville Beach there are a lot of shells and broken jagged pieces - I was able to just run right over them no problem. Toward the end of the run the balls of my feet did begin to feel a bit bruised from running on the hard sand (the strip that is wet and begins to dry out closest to the waves). I ended the last mile or so higher up on the beach in the dry sand where my foot sank a lot more and received less impact. Another thing that makes them great for beach running specifically is that when my feet got wet from waves crashing into the beach they are light weight enough not to absorb and hold water like a pair of running shoes - so I had not problem running with them wet! My ankles were a bit sore so I stretched well and massaged the balls of my feet and had no pain or issues the next day - not bad for weening my body off of overly padded running shoes all these years! I don't think that I will ever be able to run on pavement for more than 1 or 2 miles though with them. As long as I can sprint in them on pavement at crossfit and do longer distances on trails I am happy!

Also pose running technique rocks too by the way! That's another reason I think my transition into "barefoot" sprinting and running has gone so well. Thanks to the coaches at CFA for that. Perhaps a later post on this technique because it has really helped me with not having joint pain after running.

Disclaimer- When the 5 fingers first came out I was skeptical and wrote them off as another footwear fad. I thought they were the dorkiest things ever and they are really dorky looking I don't deny that. I tried them on about a year ago and DID NOT like them at all - they felt bad and my feet felt too sensitive in them. I went back to try them on again after about 6 months of running in some Onitsuka Tiger track shoes, which have very little padding compared to modern day running shoes, and they felt so much better. I decided to give them a try and I love them. I am lucky for the time being, because my workplace is casual enough that I can wear my classics at work and now I mostly use the Treksports for crossfit and running (now!). I think that the 6 month period with less padded shoes made my feet, ankles and legs stronger so that I can wear the 5 fingers now and not feel "sensitive". My transition into them has taken a little while and that's what my body was telling me to do. I also have friends who got a pair and took them out of the box and started running on them - listen to your body if you decide to try them out. Not sure whether I will be able to wear them into the fall and winter, probably not entirely, but I'll try!

Becoming a sprinter?

Since starting Crossfit last October I have reduced the time I spend running in both the frequency and in duration. I have always thought of myself as a runner, never a sprinter. First let me define "running" in my terms - Running for several consecutive miles at a time. By running, however, I really was really jogging - based on the definition put forth by my coaches at CFA (see below).
This simple understanding of jogging (I lump running into this) versus sprinting, versus walking has totally changed my outlook on fitness and exercise physiology.

And here is why:

CFA's definition of Jogging -
Let me clarify Jogging.  This is the act of repeatedly running consecutive distances of 2 or more miles at a pace slower than 8 minutes/mile. 


Coach Corey also adds that -
If you aren’t running that fast (8 min pace or faster) you should speed up and shorten your distance.


Just to clarify a couple more definitions - 


CFA's definition of walking-
Walking was meant to carry us for incredible distances by using very little energy.  The mechanics and loading mechanism shows just this.  Using muscles are TAXING to our metabolism and thus walking uses very little of them.  It instead places the forces on our bones, ligaments, and cartilage.  Because walking is a relatively slow cadence and there is little vertical movement the tissues handle it easily and without issue. 


CFA's definition of sprinting -
Sprinting is meant to carry us short distances extremely quickly by using a great deal of energy.  Sprinting uses every muscle in our body to its fullest potential and is burns a great deal of energy.  In doing so it saves our joints and bones by loading the muscles in a shock absorbing manner because otherwise the bones and joints would break down beyond repair.  Thus, sprinting and walking look entirely different and should be used for different purposes.


CFA's take on jogging (what I used to call running) and why it is actually bad for you:
The problem with Jogging is that people often speed up their walk instead of slowing down their sprint to move greater distances.  Elite 100m sprinters and elite marathoners look nearly identical in their mechanics.  Hell, elite marathoners are essentially sprinting for 26.2 miles; running faster for the first mile than most can for only one.  Speeding up the walk leads to the two issues that make jogging terrible.  It increases injury rates by increasing a load on a movement not meant to handle that load.  Walking does not spare joints but is safe at low loads.  Jogging is not low load.   It also does not burn energy at a greater rate than walking and not NEARLY as much as sprinting.  By hardly loading the muscles, jogging does not increase energy burn from walking by an appreciable rate compared to sprinting.  This means, you don’t “get into shape” any faster than walking for the same distance.


This problem of jogging is similar to what blogger Mark Sisson calls chronic cardio. Chronic cardio is the trap that many people fall into. We think that if we run for 1 hour we will be getting a good workout in. And if we go longer then all the better because we think we are burning more calories and fat, which must mean we are getting more fit, right?. But that's not what happens. What happens is that we run for 1 hour 5-6 days a week and we start to suffer from musclo-skeletal injuries (knee, ankle, shin and foot pain). This ultimately gets us nothing but frustration and misery. Not to mention that we have not improved our running pace or overall fitness by much. Has this happened to anyone out there???

How can we get out of this chronic cardio trap? What Crossfit Asheville has allowed me to realize is that by using sprinting intervals we can increase our fitness and prepare ourselves to run that 5k or 10k or 20 miler more so than continuing to do chronic cardio. How is this possible? Physiologically sprinting trains both our aerobic and anaerobic capacity, which will translate into better performance in your next race or first race.


Since starting Crossfit and incorporating sprinting and tabata intervals I have run my fastest mile, sub-7 and my fastest 5k and 10k and I have stopped running long distances for training entirely. I have experienced no pain in my feet or knees during or after those races. (The pose running technique which the CFA coaches teach is also responsible for some of this - it helps to reduce impact on joints and tissue.) My goal will be to take this training and apply it to an endurance event as a grand experiment into fitness and exercise science. My goal is to finish the Shut -In Ridge trail race (18 miles) with a decent time and to feel strong and great during and after. I have run this distance before on trail with a similar amount of elevation gain and loss but I felt like crap for days afterwards. Coach Corey has told me to check out Crossfit Endurance, which is a type of crossfit in which the WODs are focused specifically for the endurance athlete. We will see how my training goes - I hope to post updates here - the race is not until November so in the meantime I will keep up my Crossfit Asheville workouts and start to slowly incorporate some of the Crossfit Endurance WODs. Wish me luck!

Get your running shoes on!

I want to begin promoting the River Bound trail run race series that is taking place this year at the Charlotte Whitewater Center, which besides the paddling has 14 miles of trail for running and mountain biking.

The series is a partnership of the Whitewater Center (where many Olympic paddlers and aspiring team members train) and the non-profit organization that I work for, The North Carolina Outward Bound School. This is a fund-raising event that will help North Carolina youth get scholarships to go on an Outward Bound course. Plus it offers a great way to train for a half marathon.

The series includes 4 races:

March 13th is a 5K
May 22nd is a 10k
July 17th is a 15k
September 25th is a Half Marathon

You can participate in one or all of the races. I think if you register to do all 4 you get a discounted rate.

This is a first time race series, so I can not personally vouch for how the run or trails will be since it hasn't been done before, but I can tell you that your participation will help make a difference in the lives of young people. Check out the link I have for more info on NC Outward Bound; we're good people!

Spread the word, get your friends involved and carpool your way out to Charlotte to participate.

Register Online at
www.usnwc.org

The paddling at the center is fun, kind of an amusement park-like experience. Some friends and I paddled there last summer in open canoes and got some funny looks from people (they mostly just see rafts and kayaks), but it was lots of fun. If you are interested in paddling there too, let me know. They also have nice climbing wall and a zip line.

Ben surfing


Keith, a lone open boater in a sea of kayaks and rafts


The "M" Wave


Video of a slalom team practice at whitewater center - check out the C1er, wish I was that smooth!