Every Friday morning for the past six months, Shelly Kannel and Jon Braunersreuther have stopped after running five of their six one-mile speed intervals on a high school track, removed their running shoes and dashed the last mile barefoot. But only one mile.
The idea, they say, is to strengthen their feet and lower legs. And it's worked.
Since starting this seemingly primitive ritual, neither one has fallen victim to the dreaded sprained ankles that once plagued them on a regular basis.
For Kannel, 34, of Manchester, a longtime runner and, until recently, an assistant cross-country coach, it wasn't unusual to take a misstep and end up hobbling around for a week or two.
"All at once, you fall off the curb at Wal-Mart, and that does it," she says, noting that she's a tad clumsy.
Braunersreuther says he and Kannel once approached trail running with a certain amount of trepidation. But not anymore.
"When you step on a rock wrong or in a hole, instead of a full-blown sprain, you just twist your ankle and keep on going," says Braunersreuther, 42, of Manchester.
In a day and age when costly running shoes are designed with everything from shock absorbers and motion-control foot bridges to arches and even microprocessors (that would be the Adidas 1), running barefoot as a means of injury prevention sounds almost outrageous. But some runners, shoe engineers and even foot experts believe that wearing such highly engineered shoes is producing legions of runners with weak feet. Why else, they ask, have injuries increased despite the better technology?
Thus began a movement in recent years to either run barefoot, like Ken Bob Saxton of Orange County in California (he teaches how to do it on his Web site, www.runningbarefoot.org), or, as is more common, to change one's form to simulate barefoot running while wearing shoes with little or no support.
To practice it, you must land on your toes or midsoles rather than rolling from heel to toe. You must also lean forward, allowing gravity to pull you ahead while putting more effort into lifting your legs rather than pushing off with them.
The most prominent promoters of this type of running are Danny Dreyer, a running coach in San Francisco who started a program known as ChiRunning, and Dr. Nicholas Romanov, a sports physiologist in Naples, Fla., who created the Pose Method. Both have written books on the topic ("ChiRunning" and "Dr. Nicholas Romanov's Pose Method of Running"), with slight variations to their techniques.
Adding to this barefoot furor, Nike recently released its Free 5.0, an extremely flexible, socklike shoe designed precisely for this style of running.
Glenn Reigelman, 26, an assistant manager at BIPOD, a running store in Edwardsville, has been experimenting with the shoes, which come with their own instruction manual. Nike recommends wearing them around the house and then slowly building up running mileage.
Reigelman, who is training for the Chicago Marathon in October, uses the Nike Free only on runs between two and four miles. For longer mileage, he switches to a lightweight trainer that offers more stability. But even then, he will sometimes incorporate the Pose or barefoot technique into his longer runs.
"I think it's helped me to use more of the midfoot and it elongates my stride," says Reigelman. "It's something I can turn off and on. I don't have to do it all the time, but it has helped my body be more efficient."
Off to the races
Chip Self, 37, of Crestwood, ran high school track but had to stop running several years ago when he blew out his knee. He blamed his knee problems on "crazy high arches" that gave him problems even when he wore high-tech running shoes with all manner of arch supports, stabilizers and shock absorbers.
About 10 months ago, he tried the Nike Free 5.0 along with the barefoot method and suddenly it was off to the races once more -- 10K races, that is.
"The first time I ran in them, it was like, 'Wow, this is what I was meant to run in all along,'" says Self.
David Spetnagel says Self is an unusual case and that there has been significant debate about how much support a runner's foot actually needs. Spetnagel, who owns and operates Fleet Feet of Chesterfield and St. Charles, reviews running shoes for Running Times magazine and attends several running clinics a year.
"Pose/Chi proponents will tell you that the additional stress results in stronger, more elastic connective tissues and muscles and more speed," he says. "Cautious runners will tell you that the additional stress can lead to injury and that it doesn't matter how fast you are if you're on the disabled list."
Spetnagel believes the truth lies somewhere in between. Using a shoe such as the Nike Free 5.0 in small doses, he says, allows runners to strengthen their feet and rear-leg systems with little risk of injury.
"But regular running should still be done in running shoes that provide cushioning and stability consistent with the individual's needs," he says. "Yes, we want to make our feet as strong as possible, so using the Nike Free or walking barefoot occasionally is a good thing. But banging out 25 miles a week in a pair probably isn't smart."
Many of his customers, he says, come in with plantar fasciitis because the shoes they're wearing aren't protective enough. Putting them in a highly flexible shoe such as the Nike Free and telling them, 'You need to make your foot stronger,' would most likely make their problems worse, he says.
Scott Van Nest of the Sports Medicine and Training Center in Webster Groves agrees. He says a shoe such as the Nike Free (or running barefoot, for that matter) probably does strengthen the foot, but it's only helpful to those with good biomechanics.
"The problem is, like any tool that's out there, it's not going to be necessarily the right thing for everybody. But that's true of any shoe," he says.
Van Nest suspects there are a couple of reasons why running injuries have increased despite better shoe technology. First, he says, many runners and even salespeople don't understand what type of shoe is appropriate.
"If you're trying to drive a screw and you're using a hammer you might have the best screw in the world and the best hammer in the world, but the result won't be good," says Van Nest. He suggests going to running stores where the salespeople are actually runners and understand the differences between different brands and models.
He also believes the proliferation of runners in recent years who are running higher mileage contributes to more injuries.
As for the Pose or barefoot method, Van Nest says successfully adapting any running style often depends on the biomechanics of the individual runner.
"It's not just the foot and ankle," he says. "You also have to look at someone from their low back and hip down through the lower extremity. Some people were taught a certain style of running and others started running on their own and adapted a style to their mechanical faults.
"In any case, if you have someone landing on the midfoot and they're a pretty significant pronator (feet roll in or out), they're probably not going to be able to run in that shoe for very long."
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