Anyone who knows me pretty well will surely know how... odd... I am when it comes to my feet. Not saying that I have some perverted fetish towards them (and there is nothing wrong with that if you do), but I am rarely found in shoes. Around the home, outside on the drive way, driving my car (in the summer mostly), and sometimes even turning in to the station, my feet live the hippy life style. Obviously this does not include the 5 hours a week of grappling where they get as much use as my hands, but that's something else entirely.
This lifestyle has left my feet rather healthy, or at least, above average. My arches are quite high, I have never had athletes foot, and despite the occasional fall up/down the stairs, I have quite good balance. Unbeknownst to me, they were also the cause of some of my most aggravating injuries.
When it comes to running, I went with the herd and bought the big old boot like trainer. With the massive cushioning, I thought I was doing my feet a favour. This was until I was introduced to the idea of barefoot running by Martin Rooney, kind of a hero of mine.
He wrote a very interesting
article on the importance of our feet and it got me thinking, should it be something I should try?
Funny enough, when the above picture was taken I was at a fitness exhibit, and one of the companies on show was called Vibram. They were selling the craziest looking shoes, but this was before any seed regarding barefoot had been planted, so it was filed away at the back as a bit of a novelty.
Fast forward a few months and I have fallen in love with the idea of barefoot running (and thus, forefoot running). It makes sense in my head, so I wanted to see if the science matched the experience. I have started running forefoot (albeit in my trainers) and it has given me incredible results. My pace matched the quickest I have ever accomplished, and this is after 8 months of no running. I also decided to forego the ice bath (a prerequisite before) to see how I would feel the day after. Despite some calf soreness, there was absolutely no knee or lower back pain. Fantastic!
So, here we are, deeper down the rabbit hole. Obviously going straight outside and running without shoes would be ludicrous. There are so many stories of people who have jumped on this band wagon and gone sprinting down the road to find they have stress fractures in their feet. Not to mention all the grit, glass and debris that would suddenly be inserted into your soles. Instead, I am going to treat this as if I have never run before. Ignoring any current cardio or endurance, I am a "new" runner. With that in mind...
Damn, they are pretty. I am rather alone in my impression of them, hearing from my beloved Helen that they are "fugly", among other things. But to me they are fantastic. As a bridge from shod running to barefoot, I couldn't have asked for anything better. The Vibram FiveFingers Bikila LS.
First Impressions:
Putting them on for the first time was an odd sensation to the say the least. All the years of wearing shoes have left my toes rather bunched up, and these really do separate them. When it comes to fitting, Vibram do it by 1/8s of an inch, so you need to be really sure of your foot size, or get properly fitted in person. I went for a size 42, which just so happens to be perfect.
Once you have lined up your toes and gotten over the strange sensation, they are immensely comfortable. These are shoes that are fit for running in, yet are as comfortable as slippers.
The Run:
Obviously I cannot offer much of a review just yet. They need a lot more time for me to understand how hard wearing they are etc, so I will just let you know about my first run.
The conditions outside were wet (not raining), and approx. 10°C. Not yet owning any toe socks, my feet went commando in the VFFs. They were surprisingly warm given the mild temperatures. I thought a relaxed run around the neighborhood would be best, so I settled on a mere 0.6 miles.
Even though I was running on concrete, my feet had enough cushioning to not feel battered. I automatically started forefoot running (the natural human way of running) and noticed the spring coming from my achilles tendon and calf muscle. It was effortless. Despite already running forefoot in trainers, the minimalist approach of the Vibrams meant I had tremendous feedback. It was euphoric. I could feel my muscles and feet working. I cannot describe the feeling apart from being astonishing.
0.6 miles down and all I could feel was a bit of soreness from my arches and my calf muscles. This was to be expected of course, I am a "new" runner :P
Conclusion:
I am very excited to see where this takes me. I will add more and more updates the more I do, but for now, I am an absolute convert, a bare foot runner.
