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Running with a Nike free is like running without shoes - and it feels fantastic!So the question is: Did you ever run a race barefoot? Because with a Nike free you can. At least it almost feels as if you do so. I would like to share my latest adventure with you and at the same time I will introduce you to one of the most recent trends if you are interested. So lean back, enjoy and have a Margarita or two...or whatever you prefer to drink...and listen to my words. In summer of 2005 I received an annoying knee injury which was most likely caused by too much triathlon exercise. It took me nearly a whole year to fully recover and made it nearly impossible for me to exercise properly let alone run competitions. My sportive enthusiasm was simply neutralized for months. I had to cancel most of my enrolled competitions and had to break up the rest of it during the cycling part. Running wasn't possible at all. A few hundred Euros (or Dollars) in costs for doctors, physiotherapist and orthopedic surgeon later I "knew" that I was terminally ill. I had an anatomic false position they told me. Only slightly but that's the way it was and only shoe lifts would help. And although I was doing nearly 9 years of endurance sports and never had any kind of injuries nor discomforts in my whole life that were caused by sport before I had to buy new shoes and certain medical shoe lifts. I felt a little bit better when I heard that most athletes and e.g. professional soccer players shared the same destiny with me. Anyway - if you would know me a little better: I'm not the kind of guy who gets easily used to uncomfortable circumstances and I started my own little research. I knew my peers very well and with doctors I had a special kind of relationship. So let's just say that from my experiences I usually don't take each and every diagnosis as a unchangeable fact. But for a while I accepted that I was doomed to wear my brand new shoe lifts for the rest of my life. And however through a happenstance I stumbled across something very interesting only a couple of weeks later. You could also say that I attracted it somehow through my intentions and my expectations about wanting to get rid of these damn shoe lifts. Because I didn't even have to seek for an answer. It jumped right into my face without me lifting any finger. With a friend of mine I marched into my favorite store for triathlon clothing and accessories one day looking for some new running shoes. Most experts agree on the fact that you should renew your shoes each 600 miles (1000 kilometers) by the way. Anyway this wasn't just some kind of shop. When I told you that I'm very cautious with doctors: This holds absolutely true for salespersons. However this guy knew his stuff and what he was talking about. Klaus Ruscher was in the triathlon national team from 1989 to 1992, active runner for 25 years, sportswriter and co-editor of www.triathlon-online.de, now www.tri2b.com, the best-known and probably most-visited triathlon website here in Germany. That is why I like him. And that is also why I listen to what he's got to say. And boy this guy was funny. "I don't think much of shoe lifts" was one of the first sentences that I got to hear from him. My heart is jumping! So is it true - was there an alternative to this damn prosthesis? "This is a Nike free", he says briefly. Then he continues with a short explanation about the positive effects of walking barefoot on our health. No need to convince me on this point. I had heard about it before. There was just no way for me to implement this knowledge into my life so far. Basically there are three different reasons that keep us from running barefoot: 1.) You could accidentally jump into some dog poo-poo. 2.) Your feet could get slit on some cullet.3.) You could get arrested, because you don't see people with sanity and reason running without shoes, right? Well, he was right. And the Nike free was designed that way, that it detached as little work from your feet as possible. So that it could learn to hit the ground properly again, rolling off with your whole heel and attenuate optimally. Because no shoe replaces a proper attenuation of your forefoot. You can deform the Nike Free, you can squeeze it and fold it into all directions. There are certain insections along and across it that make it so extremely flexible and give your feet some fantastic freedom along the way. According to Klaus Ruscher it reduces the well-known effect of pronation and supination (which is merely the kinking of your ankle through crooked hitting of the ground) if you slowly and continuously increase the impact. This way you can basically relearn your body to do what it was designed for. Long-term you dramatically reduce chances for any kind of injuries that are typical for runners. At the moment you can get this fantastic gizmo in the hardness grades 5 and 4. While 4 is softer and closer to the ultimate barefoot feeling. One friend of him tried this shoe at the Ironman Hawaii event for the marathon part and was absolutely amazed with the results he got. Certain specialists in long-distance running from Africa do all of their marathons barefoot. This is not quite unperilous for untrained runners of other countries though but it doesn't do these athletes any harm at all. And in fact it is not necessary for him to continue talking anymore since I already want to buy this shoe. Where is the checkout? Now, the reason for coming here was to get me some proper training shoes. So I jumped on the treadmill... After nearly two hours we finally decided on our stuff. My friend is going to buy herself a nice running jacket from Pearl and a pair of Nike free. I'll take some Asics training shoes and one pair of those "Nike free" in a flashy yellow color. That is going to assure a basic amount of envious looking pals and that can never be amiss, right? :-) "Keep in mind", Klaus is telling me before we leave, "these are not shoes but training instruments that will help your feet to learn and take over again what they were originally designed for, which is running. So start very moderately with short training units and allow your feet to get used to 'running barefoot' for longer distances. Don't overdo it in the beginning or your shoe is going to get back at you in a very unpleasant way." After hopping around a couple of days in my apartment I cannot stand it anymore. I want to test the running qualities of the barefoot-shoe. And that is really kind of an adventure: It's already dark outside. After several meters of walking I do my first steps. I'm running the Nike free! Greedily my feet take in this new kind of information that they get from the ground and which they've never experienced before. It was a little bit like walking throughout a life with your eyes covered and finally deciding to remove the blindfold and discovering that there is another way of sensing and a whole new world waiting for you. I know that might sound quite dramatic but it felt like that for me in the beginning. If was a completely new kind of feedback that changed distinctly depending on the paving. It was like a massage of your feet during each step that you took. It surely must have looked a bit weird for curious neighbors: Me pacing 30 meters of paving in front of my house up and down to enjoy the sensation that I got from running literally barefoot with my brand new Nike free. I simply cannot describe it another way: It was sensational. If you want to try it yourself just check out the following website: Or you also might want to visit your local specialist dealer and take a look on his Nike storage rack. If the store is any good you'll find what you are looking for. The best thing to getting started is to mill around with your new Nike free for two weeks before even considering a training session with them. With this alone you will start to feel some muscles that you've certainly never felt before. Is this shoe only interesting for runners or can you benefit from it even if you don't do any kind of sports currently? A definite yes for the non-sportsman. But especially if you don't do any sports it is very important to start carefully by walking around and not overdoing it (And of course I would recommend you immediately start doing some kind of sport, finally this is a triathlon website, right? :-). So don't make the Nike free your preferred shoe for going out at night. Keep it real and approach this new area with some respect. The feeling is really incredible. You won't be disappointed. On Nikes website there used to be a shop where you could design and brand your own Nike free but I experienced some trouble with the process so in case the Nike free website is not working you can also use shopping.com or something like that to get yourself a Nike free. Have fun hopping and jumping around in your new Nike free shoes. Update: Yes - you got it. Two years later I'm up and running and feeling powerful as never before. I can run and do everything I want without any shoe lift or whatsoever. It's great. I also found an interesting article in a magazine where they state that studies on the sports college in Cologne, Germany, revealed that strong insulation in shoes actually harm your feet long-term. They might protect your ankles but they weaken your Achilles tendon thus making you more susceptible to injuries.
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