Eight months ago a friend of mine lent me the book Born to Run. I read it and loved it. A month later I was at an REI garage sale and spotted a pair of Vibram's Fivefinger Classics . They were only $36 and just so happened to fit perfectly. It was fate. I scooped those things up and started experimenting with a different kind of running.
As I understand it, the basic premise is this: sometimes a modern running shoe will act as a brace, and if you brace a muscle, you use it less and it gets weaker. Or perhaps your body adapts to the brace and begins to compensate, like running with a heel strike.
I found the Classics to perform mainly as a glove for your foot. They protect from abrasion but offer zero arch support or heel padding. I had been advised to take it easy at first and to steer clear of running on pavement and other hard surfaces, so for the first month I ran in a grassy park, and only a mile at a time. I immediately noticed the difference. Different gait, shorter steps, slower pace, fatigued calves.
It was the experience though that turned me into a believer. Every run I took I discovered something new. I started to feel a more circular pattern in the motion of my running. Rather than resisting the earth below me I felt like I was flowing though it. Undoubtedly, the book was influencing my thoughts but I genuinely couldn't help feeling less like a man trying to be an athlete and more like a man simply running to get somewhere. Just simple, necessary, natural transportation. Running started to feel more like rolling on big slightly ovaled wheels. Sure, I wasn't running as fast but I also wasn't feeling my usual joint and shin pain. I was landing with the forefoot and kicking higher in the back.
The real beauty of it was the method. All this was happening without coaching. I wasn't thinking about it. I wasn't implementing something I had memorized. It was natural. It was like good running technique was in me all along. Once, when the endorphins were really pumping, an old stuffy bit of scripture popped into my mind and I remember clearly that I was actually understanding it for the first time.... I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. It was a rare moment but I understood as though I was the one who penned it. I felt like I was aligned with my design, functioning as I was made to, and in turn, I found myself entertaining thoughts about the original designer. His creative genius weighed heavy on my heart. I think subconsciously, this has a lot to do with why I run.
The real beauty of it was the method. All this was happening without coaching. I wasn't thinking about it. I wasn't implementing something I had memorized. It was natural. It was like good running technique was in me all along. Once, when the endorphins were really pumping, an old stuffy bit of scripture popped into my mind and I remember clearly that I was actually understanding it for the first time.... I praise you because I am fearfully and wonderfully made. It was a rare moment but I understood as though I was the one who penned it. I felt like I was aligned with my design, functioning as I was made to, and in turn, I found myself entertaining thoughts about the original designer. His creative genius weighed heavy on my heart. I think subconsciously, this has a lot to do with why I run.
Then comes mile 2 . That's when the calf pain started. We're talking dead center in the middle of my left calf, and a slightly smaller dose in the right calf, but in the same exact place. For months I couldn't really get past mile 2 without calf pain. I wasn't worried though; all my peeps on the internet barefoot forums were telling me that everyone went though this. Plus, due to all that new feedback I was receiving from the ground it was easier to hear what my body was telling me. It seemed obvious to me that this was just the pain of transition. So I'd run till the pain started, go a bit further and then stop. My chiropractor told me that my achilles were just getting used to the absence of an inch of foam beneath them. I guess it takes a few months of consistent running for the achilles to stretch/lengthen.
Slowly though, the pain passed. Right now I can do about 10 easy miles without much problem. The pavement is still hard though. (Which is why I bought Nike's minimalist shoe, the Free(3.0). It offers just a smidge more between you and the pavement and Ive found it to be perfect for the times when the pavement is unavoidable.) I'm not sure yet if I will ever be able to run pavement like I did in high school, but no worries, I don't really want to anyway.
Since I started playing around with the Classics, Vibram designed and released their first barefoot style shoe made specifically for running. They call it the Bikila, after Abebe Bikila, an amazing Ethiopian runner that gained a world record in the marathon wearing absolutely nothing on his feet. The sole is slightly thicker and offers better traction especially on trails. Ive only run twice so far in these but I can say confidently that it is by far my favorite minimalist shoe so far.
Since I started playing around with the Classics, Vibram designed and released their first barefoot style shoe made specifically for running. They call it the Bikila, after Abebe Bikila, an amazing Ethiopian runner that gained a world record in the marathon wearing absolutely nothing on his feet. The sole is slightly thicker and offers better traction especially on trails. Ive only run twice so far in these but I can say confidently that it is by far my favorite minimalist shoe so far. It may just be my imagination but I think my feet actually look different than they did 8 months ago. It looks to me like my arch is higher and I'm pretty sure the length of my foot is shorter, maybe by a half size (which would make sense if my arch is higher.) I didn't take any before or after measurements so I'm not totally sure of this but I swear my regular everyday shoes are a little long now.
What I am sure of: Thanks to the inspiration from Born to Run, Vibram's Fivefinger shoes, and a growing understanding that God is most knowable on a run, which is to say in daily life apart from church, seminary and doctrinal thinking (don't know how else to put this), I've been running for 6 months without injury and for the first time in my entire life, I can run a sub-6 minute mile.
What I am sure of: Thanks to the inspiration from Born to Run, Vibram's Fivefinger shoes, and a growing understanding that God is most knowable on a run, which is to say in daily life apart from church, seminary and doctrinal thinking (don't know how else to put this), I've been running for 6 months without injury and for the first time in my entire life, I can run a sub-6 minute mile.
Well that's what I've found in my endeavors with minimalist footwear. Drop me a line, tell me what you think.
