OK, quick running dilemma. I am a good 5-6 months into my barefoot running experiment. The first 4 months involved doing very little but barefoot walking and form drills. The last month is where the running has come in (kind of quickly, actually).
I am now at the point where I need to make a choice. Do I go down the road of training for longer distances by focusing on keeping my heart level below 148 bpm, thus turning my running self into a fat burning machine (one that will take a few more months to build up any sort of speed), or do I forget about the heart rate and take daily training into Zone 4 and focus more on burning fuel?
It's kind of like a dilemma about buying a fuel-efficient car. Do I want to become a fast gas-guzzler or someone who can go a long way at slower speeds on a single tank of gas? My head tells me that I should probably go with the sub-148 route but this requires my heart to hold back even more than what I was already prepared for.