Gordon Pirie Book

6' 6" and 85 kgs.  If swapping over I seriously recommend running in Newton Gravity shoes (£130 though!!) and then move to racing flats once, like me, you get it sussed. If I could justifiy Newtons (price) I'd run in them all the time.  I now run in Nike racing flats and put a 2mm Noene insert in each shoe.  For £120 I can get two pairs of shoes to rotate and I really like running in them. 

I changed to mid-foot proper at the start of this year and since then I've recored PBs in 10k; Half and Full Marathon and getting a good for age at the lumpy Angelsey marathon.

I must say though that another big help to me this year has been wearing Skins. 

Just got one thing to say  - go read "Born to Run" by Chris McDougall.

Easy, light, smooth,and fast - that's your new running mantra.

I've heard about it - is it any good for getting a sub-36 minute 10k?

Chris McDougall would have had far fewer injuries in the first place if he'd lost some weight!

Only just found this thread and haven't read any of the posts. I actually saw Gordon racing at Motspur Park when I was a youngster. He didn't win and I can't remember who any of the other runners were. I do remember him puffing out his cheeks, hence his nick name "Puff Puff Pirie."

Got this book up in my loft, need to have a look at it over the Christmas holidays.

Cheers for this thread !

McDougall's book does a fine job though in promoting the kind of running action you all seem to be in favour of.  I've been switching over gradually over the past couple of weeks and whenever I forget and slip back into old form I keep telling myself easy, light, smooth, leave no trace - haven't got to "fast" yet but willing to see what happens.

I too began running in plimsolls and then Green Flash, also very thin orienteering shoes and never had any injuries, unlike since.

Fantastic thread and it all makes so much sense! Returning to running after 2 years out with injury and am looking at ways to prevent any problems occuring. This looks like the way to go but which shoes to buy??

Linky to a pdf of the book, for those who find the initial link dead and don't want to sift through google results:

http://edwardedmonds.com/wp-content/uploads/Running-Fast-and-Injury-Free-by-Gordon-Pirie-Adapted-Version.pdf

Fascinating (and relatively short) read.

Well 9 years later after starting this thread, I've been a fairly intermittent runner in that time.

I initially did really well running further and faster than ever before without any injuries for about 5 years after changing to FF style. In that time I got through 3 pairs of NB RC150's which served extremely well for this technique.

About 4 years ago I suffered a twisting injury to my knee which has plagued me ever since and really curtailed my running. For 2 years I gave up altogether and then have run intermittently for the past 2 years and never really getting up to anything more than 10 miles a week. I know have renewed enthusiasm and hoping to get going properly again.

Luckily in that time, the whole 'barefoot running' concept has caught on and now manufacturers are offering lots of suitable footwear so I've just bought a pair of Merrell Trail Gloves to replace my now very aged last pair of RC150's. Calf's are killing me but that's to be expected.

I'd love to hear whether any of the other early pioneers are still going strong ?

Interesting thread.