The following article was written by Mary Gorski to the UltraList. Somebody was asking what gains can be made from barefooting on the treadmill, and how this can be translated into better performance on the roads or trails. Here is Mary’s response (reprinted with permission):
I’m just commenting from personal experience — I have no expertise in physiology. I started shoeless (I keep my socks on) running on the treadmill two years ago. For years I have had off and on frustrations with my lower left leg — a snowball of issues related to repeated ankle sprains.
Two years ago on a snowy winter day I was doing a run on the treadmill at the Y. About a mile into it my achilles started to act up. I got irritated since I had been doing all the things that I thought that I was supposed to do keep that cranky lower leg happy, including the use of expensive prescription orthotics and proprioceptive exercises. I thought that I was prudent in my mileage.
When the achilles whined I thought of either moving to the eliptical or the bike. But then I remembered some casual discussions about barefoot running.
Advocates promoted it as a way to strengthen your lower legs and feet. Thinking I had nothing to lose and knowing that I could stop at any moment while on the treadmill, I took off my shoes and tentatively gave it a try. It seemed so counter-intuitive but surprisingly, my feet felt great. Everything felt fine. My achilles was fine.
That first day I only did a very slow mile. I then put my shoes back on and ran again. After a mile barefoot, the shoes felt like little stiff tanks on my feet.
I added a shoeless running session one to two days a week, doing it on the treadmill because it was cold outside. I built up my shoeless mileage very slowly.
I have no empirical evidence, but my feet and lower legs felt stronger after a few weeks. Wear patterns on my shoes now indicate that I have more of a forefoot touch than a total heel smash as I did before. I slowly stopped using my prescription orthotics and have not touched them in probably a year. I moved to less structured over the counter orthotics but now rarely use those.
My taste in shoes has changed. I used to look for a lot of structure and control, thinking it best for my pancake flat feet, and now I am most comfortable in lightweight, less structured shoes.
My ankle is still as loose as a wet noodle (after months of accident-free running I tripped on an easy ski trail last week and did a minor sprain) but I seem to twist it less often than before. I feel more confident in my foot plant with the less structured shoes and without orthotics. I generally don’t have the shin, calf and achilles hassles that I used to.
Coincidence? Perhaps. My lower leg concerns may have finally begun to heal on their own. But I attribute much of my success to the shoeless running. I think of it as a strength workout. I don’t do much shoeless running, but do it frequently enough to maintain the lower leg strength that I believe it developed.
So, that’s why I run shoeless on a treadmill.
– Mary Gorski
Have any barefoot treadmill running experiences of your own? Did you get the same results as Mary? Leave a comment below and let me know what you think.
I’ll start -- I had a goal last Winter to get at least one barefoot run in per week on the treadmill. I did okay for about a month, but then I was spending so much time running outside that I never really got into the habit so I only went a few times. My treadmill bed gets really hot so the first few times my feet weren’t too comfortable, but they got used to it.
This year, I’m going to make more of an effort to get on the treadmill at least once per week. I’ll try using Mary’s method of wearing my socks (close enough) and see how that goes.
It seems like my SF has healed well and I just got Doc’s green light for running again! š No way I will be running outside this winter -- slipping on ice last winter was enough for me -- so the treadmill is going to be my bestfriend until spring. I was thinking of using Vibrams on the TM but I think I will try with socks, since I have heard from Jamie Raymond that Vibrams could lead to SF too…
http://raymondchiropractic.blogspot.com/2009/10/stress-fracture.html
Interesting experience. I would like to give this a try but I am not sure how 24 Hour Fitness would respond to the shoe-less man on treadmill #5.
I’ve done a few runs now using Mary’s method of running in socks -- and if I was going to use a treadmill in a public place like a gym or hotel then I’d definitely want to wear socks anyway. I doubt that anybody would notice or care as long as you weren’t completely barefoot, especially if you don’t wear white socks.
I don’t notice a huge difference in terms of how my feet feel during or after the run. I’d say that the heat from the treadmill doesn’t start to bother me until about 25-30 minutes rather than the 15-20 minutes it takes when I was completely barefoot.
What kind of socks are you using? I felt like my run with regular cotton socks on my TM was pretty slippery…
I’m not sure -- I used the same pair both times so far so I’ll take a look. I think it was a cotton pair, but not 100% sure. They are black (as if that matters…)
Did they have any rubber on the bottom? Actually that might be an option that might get me more confident on the TM… š
A super early start this morning to get an easy run in on the treadmill at the airport hotel -- I am allegedly “tapering” this week ahead of this weekend’s half-marathon. Sunrise, blue skies, roof-top gym, empty. I did a couple of miles in my pumps, as usual, but somehow it didn’t click, i got antsy and irritated, maybe it was the warmth, as I have been running in near-freezing temperatures all winter. So I kicked off the pumps, and ran in my socks…
OMG! It was like…FREEDOM…I have been pushing myself towards minimalist shoes to keep injury free as I build toward ultra-marathon distances, the pumps are part of this, and my calves and feet have slowly adapted. What seemed to be the final shedding of the shackles was liberating in a way I had not expected.
Iām not really a good runner, but with the help of minimalist shoes or maybe going barefoot, I have decreased pain significantly.
Iām planning to keep going barefoot running for the following couple weeks, and in case nothing goes wrong, I want to make it a long term habit.
I started running barefoot on my treadmill at home, after reading Born to Run, and it works well for me. I generally run 5ks with about 10 minute miles.
I decided that running this way on the road in hotels would save me from having to travel with running shoes. The only issue, of course, is running barefoot on a public treadmill would not be well accepted by my fellow travelers. I just started bringing low cut socks on the road and running in those. It works great.