A good idea turned wrong...

So I had this great idea that if I started taking creatine, that I could run for longer and my recovery time would be  lessened. Felt GREAT the first few days (though I overdid it with the longer running one day!)

And then I felt the side effect. Woke up nearly screaming with leg cramps for two nights now!!!

No more creatine :(

Back in the Saddle... or on the treadmill?

After fighting off a drawn out seasonal chest cold, I was very eager to get back into running. I ran around the neighbourhood a few times with VFFs on, but the pavement was simply too cold and my toes would lose feeling.  I had really been hoping I could just run fast enough that they wouldn't get cold!!

Monday (yesterday) I went to the gym. Out of habit, I brought my nikes. Why oh why? It felt AWESOME to be back on a treadmill at least and I tried 2.5 k to start so I didn't strain anything and have to spend another week off. I really wanted to keep running, but I knew I'd be sore if I did.

Today after some weights I hopped back on the treadmill with my VVFs on for a 10 minute run at whatever pace I felt like. I'd never run on the treadmill with VFFs, so I was really curious to see what it would feel like! A few points to note:

• caught my big toes on the treadmill belt a few times as it bounced up a little... need to step higher
• could feel my whole foot rolling into the action, rather than the 'slap! slap!' like when I run in shoes
• don't run in VFFs and long pants. I don't know why I don't remember this every time, but it annoys the heck out of me to have my cuff flapping around the tops of my bare feet and getting stuck on my own toes. 
• noticed a shortening of my stride, presumably to soften the impact on my almost-bare feet

This shortening of the stride had me thinking long and hard about it as I cooled down. When I ran, I noticed I kept my upper body more upright than I usually do, and my stride was shorter. Walking, I felt my stride break over sooner to keep my steps shorter. Both movements reminded me a little of "Chi running". Perhaps that Danny Dreyer was onto something more ergonomically correct...? (see video below for a basics tutorial)

So as my second attempt at re-learning how to run in VFFs, I would say it went overall very well. Some minor chafing, but that will go away with time.

I would also like to note that I was in Novack's not too long ago and they were out of VFFs still, and hadn't got the Trek or Mocs in stock yet (I really wanted to try a Trek on!!!)