Ok,
This is my running story. I started distance running+jogging in my mid 20s, and paid little attention to my legs and knees etc. Am naturally quite slim and athletic so at the time it came pretty natural. Some friend of mine misadvised me (I now believe) and told me to get trainers with padding on the heel and land on the heel and roll forward. I now personally believe this to be bad - at least for me. So I keep running fairly regularly through to my late 30s, usually about 10k runs between 2 to 5 times a week. Sometimes I'd break off for a few weeks/months since I also got very into swimming, and demands of family life started to crop up etc. Around this time (late 30s, early 40s I guess) I started to get aches mainly in my right knee. Then I remember that I'm not MotorcycleBoy for nothing, indeed from my teens to age 25 to used to own and ride a lot of m-bikes, and kickstarted (right leg) most of them including my 500 twin. Motorbikes can be very unforgiving and kick back through the starter, plus sometimes one's foot slips off the start grip and you whack the road/pavement *hard*. But being an idiot at the time I carried on regardless, till meeting Mel and forgetting about m-bikes. I now wonder whether or not I did the knee some slight damage in those years....
Anyway, as I ran into my mid 40s, I would notice slight ache to my right knee, usually the day after a running, and I started to think, that perhaps I should stop and just focus on my swimming. About that time I learnt that a lot of people in my work, were into "bare foot" and minimalist running, and used to wear the rather distinctive vibram 5-fingers shoes. I used to think that this was insane, and poopoed the concept, but they stuck me out, that the major problem with 80s/90s style trainers which have muchos padding was i) they encouraged you to heel strike which means you have a tendency to land with a straightened leg and ii) reliance on the padding combined with the style encouraged means that the soft tissues (i.e. ligaments, muscles etc.) aren't being used properly to provide any natural springiness and elasticity in your technique.
Alas one of my buddies, even sent me a really nice video, which contrasted the differences between the "classic style" which emphasised landing more toward the heel with an extended leg, allowing shocks and loads to be transmitted parallel to your joints, vs. the "minimalist style" which is more about landing further forward (around the "ball" of the foot) with a more bent knee. From the videos it became apparent that in the minimalist style the body's soft tissues (which recover and strengthen) are being employed to take the dynamic loads of the exercise.
Obviously I've lost the link, and I can't find it anywhere! I did find
this which is kind of similar, but a bit newer.
Anyway, I decided at about age 48 to get back into running, but using the minimalist method.
The first shoes I used were a really worn out pair of these
https://www.mountainwarehouse.com/footw ... 10925.aspx I think which I pinched from my wife Mel. The sole and insole were really worn and compressed which was what I wanted.
The next pair I actually bought were these, unfortunately you can't get them from Amazon (or anywhere?) anymore:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/Zakti-Touch-Ba ... B06ZZMYM1ZMy philosophy with running shoes, is *not* to spend a great deal, because I'm often dissatisfied with shoes so I would much rather buy a few different cheapo pairs and see what works best than waste a lot on a pricey pair that end up being horrid. I won't ever make that mistake again not after buying
Merrill trail glove when they were about £80. They just did not work for me. I'm size 8 or thereabouts and I bought size 8. They just felt too tight, and I've not even got particularly wide feet. What I now wear
is these. They have a wide toe area, as I said I don't have wide feet, but I believe that when one lands the toes will want to splay slightly, so I like to give them room. Like lots of the other running shoes they have a removeable insole, which did remove to make them more minimalist. I probably differ from what some people will say, but I personally don't buy the gait analysis in a shoe shop thing, or seeing a physio or doc. The reason for me is i) I believe that there are so many different opinions ii) I feel by employing a minimalist style, I'm not trying to coax my feet and legs into an artifically neutral stance, which may stress them somewhat. I would sooner listen to my body, not overdo it, and let it find it's natural best stance. FWIW I know from watching and tuning into to myself that I supinate very slightly.
Regards the actual running, fortunately I had a lot of advice from my colleague. Like EssDeeAitch he has done lots of marathons, and one ultra earlier this year. Just like they said, because you are using your body's natural springing mechanisms (your muscles) the minimalist style takes a while to strengthen yourself. I found it predictably tough on the calf's at first, but they toughened up gradually. You have to "listen to your body" and sometimes, I would plain stop running and just walk for a lot of the sessions at first, which were probably between 2.5k and 5k. Once my calves toughened then the aches gradually got lower finding areas with less developed muscles. Now that my running muscles are good again, I do stretch out my legs at least 2x a day. I just sit and stretch my legs flat, then touch my toes, then grab all my toes, gradually bending my back and slowly putting a big pull onto my toes pulling them back towards me. Once you get into it, you can get a beautiful stretch from your back, upper+lower legs, feet and toes in one stance, and then I hold this for say 30-40 seconds. Like many minimalists will confirm with this style you'll run with a slightly higher cadence and have slightly more bend in the knees.
I live in the fens and the roads are awful and unsafe. Fortunately I have an area 2 miles away with several miles of "droves" (single track rural tarmac) in the fields with a couple of big woods either side. I typically run a few K on the drove, then a few in the wood, then back out onto the drove. When I was actively building up distance I used this
https://www.mappedometer.com/ thing to measure what I was running and come up with routes, and just gradually build up.
Barefoot. One day I made the mistake "giving the Merrells another try". I instantly regretted the decision, and I hobbled around a bit for the first 3 K prior to the wood. Seeing as it was a lovely summer sunday morning, when I got the wood I though "Bo!!ocks to this", what's this barefoot stuff, all about, these fecking shoes are murder, so I took off my shoes and socks and ran through the wood barefoot. The feeling of the rabbit-trimmed damp grass and the peat patches was heavenly, I can thoroughly recommend it, but only once one has built up decent running strength. The drawbacks of course are twigs, cones, tree roots, and thorns. I've never trod in any dog sh!t yet! But the other fantastic thing is it (barefoot) makes you absolutely aware of every single foot landing, it makes the run a different experience and it is very easy to forget any kind of fatigue and just really get into the feel of it. I do aim to do, weather permitting, a certain amount of my running barefooted.
Finally my routine is usually a 12.5k run on Saturday or Sunday morning. I then also try to run this same route on 2 weekday afternoon/evenings. It's tough with ferrying the odd teenager, work, and mowing our lawns. But I usually manage it. This week I'm pretty shattered, since I also decided to lose some weight a few months back and that combined with running+other activities have wasted me. I'm only 5'8" and slim frame, so when I weighed in July at about 12 st I was pi$$ed off. I've now got down to 10.25st and what with very active in garden (0.6 acre to mow with push mower, and loads of hedging to trim etc.) and garden, I'm only running once midweek this week. My main advice to any other old timer wanting to return to running is *gradually* build up distance, don't let yourself get carried away with suddenly doing a lot more distance, listen to your body, be prepared to stop and walk for a bit if ness, and don't try to increase speed and distance in the same session. And lastly enjoy that endorphin hit you get post run!
Sorry to waffle on a bit, hope this helps, or at least provides some entertainment,
Matt