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I'll keep this as short as I can.

I've posted before on running form. During Couch to 5K training I actually tried to run almost exclusively on my forefoot, which resulted in straining my calves enough that I shut it down for 10 days and repeated the fifth week when I returned.

In retrospect I think I was overdoing it. I was running so far on the forefoot that my heel almost never came down. That put tremendous strain on my calf muscles to keep the heel off the ground with 2-3x the force of body weight pushing down. Ouch. No wonder my calves got sore.

After coming back and completing C25K, I told myself not to worry about form. That I'd work on it piecemeal.

When I recorded myself on high-speed video after a recent one-mile run around the neighborhood, suffice to say I saw the need to begin integrating some form training right away:

Blech.

Given my previous experience, I knew I didn't need to overdo it. I simply had to be conscious of it.

So I completed a few run-bys in various footwear, starting with the previous offender:

Great. Next up were the Pure Connects:

Nice. I even tried running in my golf shoes (admittedly, these golf shoes were designed by someone who was inspired by Vibram Five Fingers and who read Born to Run, and a conversation with him led to this fairly lengthy post at The Sand Trap).

Nice! Of course, since it was a nice day out and my sidewalk was void of debris and broken glass, I tried it barefoot:

Good for me.

The next day at the Y, again in the Pure Connects, this time from a lower angle (camera sitting on the ground):

Good for me. I ran a mile with what I'd consider really good form for 90-95% of the steps. My calves "noticed" but were not sore. Previously, with my exaggerated form (something I picked up from golf where actual soreness or injury by "exaggerating" something like this is relatively uncommon), I'd really notice after as little as a quarter mile.

I've also ordered a pair of Vibram Five Fingers Komodosport LS in the black/grey/green style. They'll be here Thursday and I'm going do some training runs in them. I'm looking forward to it, and think that so long as I can

P.S. Music can make you a better runner. Duh.

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