April 2011

[Sweder]

I've been told I'm far too dependent upon my quads and calves. The other main running muscles, hamstrings and glutes, are under-used. Particularly glutes as these are the biggest.

Happy birthday Glaconman. I hope you managed to mark it with either a plod or some of that damned fine ale

Oddly enough (or perhaps not) one of the last times I saw a physio it was for hamstring trouble. She assured me this was caused by running downhill on weak quads. I saw a healer (a lady who worked closely with Moyleman through his darkest days). She also diagnosed weak quads, putting me on a vitamin B complex regimen to help beef them up. It helped, though I still occasionally get twinges in my right hamstring and my right calf. Perhaps like you I unwittingly favour a side. I've heard it's often the 'fitter' side that suffers most as it does most of the work, dragging the less effective side along.

I'm persisting with the barefoot therapy and this seems to be helping in all these areas. My glutes are defintiely more engaged, as are my quads, hammies and calves. The usual caveats apply G-man; we're all an experiment of one, one man's meat is another man's poison, yadda yadda yadda. It's important that we believe that the remedy we go with is working and will continue to work. I can honestly say that since I fed barefoot running into my (admittedly sporadic) running diet I've had virtually no injuries. I also accepted Chris McDougall's science & arguments laid out in Born to Run. His situation and the solutions he found resonate with me. I'm an overweight, under-trained runner who's had a series of niggling injuries (knees, back, calves) that have interfered with my love of running. I want to run pain free, just for the hell of it.

Perhaps though the really important point for me is I absolutely love to run barefoot. I did so again this morning (just over 4 kilometers - the pups are getting stronger) and, as I often do in my battered Vibrams, I felt light, quick and injury-free. I run more upright - no more does the sillhouette of Quasimodo haunt the Sussex skyline of a morning - and my back no longer complains. Running barefoot I no longer pound my heels into the hard ground - it simply hurts too much - and I literally stay on my toes throughout the short run.

I'm keen to learn more about your lop-sidedness and how exactly you've been told to further engage the glutes. I assume hill running forms part of that? My glutes always thrum after a good hill climb.