4chan archive /fit/ (index)
2013-07-01 09:15 21005605 Anonymous Minimalist running (levitas-men-s-black-green.jpg 1280x681 164kB)
K, I just bought a pair of these shoes (yes the zero-drop/minimalist bandwagon) and I find them AMAZING. For the first time in years, even walking around my tendons and muscles in my legs feel like they're actually doing the work they're supposed to be. Here's the problem: I never even just *ran* a mile until I was 19. From the age of 12-18 I *ONLY* played basketball and ran 100m in track. So I'm used to being on the ball of my foot at all times and/or taking big strides/sprints. I used to chase a ball around for hours and do wind sprints without getting tired, BUT I CANNOT FOR THE LIFE OF ME JUST JOG. I think a lot of it was trying to run in 'running shoes' with the ridiculous cushioned soles. Part of it is my natural gait just doesn't foster an even pace, the other part I think was the stupid soles on running shoes alter the natural posture I've developed in other sports because honestly it's not my legs that give out when I try to jog, I just feel like my posture muscles are killing me and my chest/shoulders are knotting up, I feel like I'm fighting to keep upright. Well, having minimalist shoes has helped that a lot, I've started running but my endurance is still crap because I haven't even been able to really conduct any sort of training like I used to for sports. 2-3 miles is still my max and my times aren't great. What can I do to settle into a natural pace for running? I mean I would like to go back to just doing higher intensity things like sprints but it's hard to do when you're not actively involved in sports and also last year I developed a major problem with a tendon in my left foot, no idea what happened but now I *cannot* get a full push off with my left foot, my big toe bends up like the tendon is not even resisting and the rest of my foot splays out. So I'm stuck to mid-pace stuff for now until I get this rehabilitated. So does anybody have experience in how to get settled into jogging when all your previous training was high-intensity?

24 min later 21005912 Anonymous
Halp. I need to be able to jog. But I suck balls at keeping an even pace and when there isn't a ball/puck in front of me my brain is all like 'd00d why are you running in this direction? there's not even a ball' and it decides it doesn't want to do this anymore and starts thinking about every little bit of fatigue that starts to pop up. How do you get over this?

26 min later 21005950 Anonymous
>>21005912 You gotta run through it. After the "this is dumb why are you doing this" phase your brain just turns off and lets your body do what it was designed to do.

34 min later 21006071 Anonymous
>>21005950 Lol that's the problem my body isn't used to it at all. I have two modes: (1) get low and move laterally or (2) dig in hard and try to burn the other guy I still feel awkward and clunky running moderate pace with an upright posture. My body never settles in it's always waiting for me to rapidly change direction or tear off as fast as I can. Basically my body is like 'wtf is pacing' and my brain is like 'where did the ball go?' Is there like, some cross-over activity to help me transition to this? I guess that's what I'm asking.

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