Running barefoot (or in Vibram Five Fingers) - my 2 cents

Many of those that know me know that I love the vibram five fingers. I bought them just over a year ago and I give them full credit for turning me from a non-runner into a decent distance runner.

My problem was that I was naturally a heavy heel striker - meaning I would slam all of my weight down on my heel as my foot struck the ground. This I learned, is bad. By doing this all of the weight of your body shoots right up through your leg wreaking havoc on your joints. After reading Born to Run, I learned that I was doing it all wrong. The ideal running stride should land on your forefoot. Doing this allows you to compress your heel to the ground before pushing off and bend your knee which absorbs almost all the shock that would otherwise be shooting up through your leg. The problem with running in modern running shoes is that you can get away with heel striking for a little while before it starts to hurt. Then you think you need new shoes to fix the problem - not a new stride.

When I first started using the vibram five fingers I was slower and more sore than I had ever been before, but it only lasted a couple weeks. The advantage to using the vibrams instead of just trying to correct your foot strike is that since the vibrams have such thin soles, you get instant feedback. If you start heel striking or if your footfall is uneven you will feel it within a few strides. For those that are braver than I am, or more frugal, going barefoot would give you the same feedback. I like the vff's bc they protect my feet from puncture wounds and debree. But even with big chunks of salt covering the sidewalks and 3" of snow on some parts of the trail I ran this past weekend, I saw one guy totally barefoot.

I do want to talk for a moment about the advantage of modern running shoes... The thing that the vibrams don't have is cushioning. To push off hard and get the most out of every stride, this cushioning helps. I'll compare this to using wood vs metal bats in baseball. A metal bat hits the ball further, period. But training with wood helps train you to hit the ball in the sweet spot. You can get away with hitting a ball off the handle with a metal bat - not with wood. But if I were going to participate in a home run derby and had the choice to use metal, you better believe I would.

I love to train in the vibrams, but I would never race in them (if I cared about the time - which I do...it is a race after all). I think the best thing to do is most training in the vibrams and then some race specific training (ie- tempo runs) and races in a lightweight thin soled trainer. For example the asics hyperspeed 4, which I use (also Macca won Kona wearing them and famous American marathoner Ryan Hall wears them). They also only cost about $60 (http://www.runningwarehouse.com/descpageMRS-ASHS4.html).

I'll mention that I have no sponsors, no contracts, no relation to any of these brands - this was just my thoughts on them.

So that's all for now. I'm home sick from work right now and I doubt I'll get out of bed long enough for even a light workout today. Better  to be sick in January than June or July, I guess.