Start-up Tips for Barefoot Running Newbies

Running form and the preparation of the locomotor system

Running barefoot includes different requirements to the locomotor system from running with functional (i.e. cushioned, supportive) running shoes. In the barefoot state, ligaments, muscles and tendons have to manage all ground-reaction forces by themselves. Due to their evolutionary history and their anatomy, humans are more than well prepared for this. However, many of us may have to re-learn their ability to run barefoot in a healthy manner and have to re-adapt their physical structures. After all, most of us are children of civilization, not running long distances every day as our early ancestors did, and are used to wearing shoes since our childhood.
If your biomechanical structures are naturally stron, if your form is active and efficient or if you have already gone through months of coordinative workouts, you are probably well prepared for barefoot running. However, you should start carefully with short and slow units (a few kilometers as a maximum) and gradually proceed to longer distances.

Suitable surfaces and the adaptation of your soles

smooth asphalt road (here: Lahn valley bicycle track south of Marburg university stadium)

modern synthetic athletics track (Marburg university stadium)

double-track made of gapless concrete slabs (here: Lahn valley bicycle track near Cölbe)

bright and smooth concrete pavement (here: Pilgrimstein in Marburg)

The pain sensitivity of the foot soles is extremely individual. Only very few people can run on gravel roads without problems, some feel each grain of loose chipping like a pinprick. As a beginner, you may develop blisters even after short distances. The pressure under the metatarsal heads, where the highest load occurs during the stance phase, may also be a problem when there is no cushioning between the skin and the ground. This is one of the reasons why real barefoot (“skin-to-ground”) running is so different from running in even the most minimalistic types of footwear.
The good news, however, is that your soles will adapt themselves to the new task quite soon if you give them enough time for regeneration after each unshod run. In this process, the skin toughens and a cushion of subcutaneous fatty tissue is built up. Anyway, you should not expect that you will ever be able to run long distances on rough chippings or gravel.
Especially as a beginner with sensitive feet, you may prefer high-quality, smooth asphalt or concrete. Many of the synthetic stadium tracks are also a good choice. On rougher, less homogeneous surfaces, you have to watch your step much more carefully, bypass the most adverse parts, reduce your average speed and increase your step frequency. So, to start your first barefoot-running experiments, you should go for a well-predictable route in medium temperature and daylight.

Barefoot-friendly routes in Marburg

You are looking for routes where running barefoot is a pleasure? Here you find a collection of barefoot-friendly public road races in central Hesse. Selected training routes in Marburg to follow shortly.

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