Personal Musings for Public Consumption

It's no secret that I like barefoot running and love running in my VFF. To the point that I actually have the following in a draft and just copy/paste the text in to emails for people. ding! Post this on my site. So here's my spruced up little intro and info about Barefoot running.

I don't talk about much personal online, but this is fact and something I'm proud of recovering from. I'm a 6'4" male who had reconstructive surgery when I was 15 due to a skiing "accident." My definition of "accident" includes tearing both of my ACLs, a 2nd degree posterior Meniscus tear, and a ruptured Patellar Tendon. It hurt, took a loooong time to recover from (multiple years = ~5yrs? A loong time), and all around sucked hard. When I started running again, I did so with normal running shoes. And when I ran and started putting on the miles, I did so under the constant threat of knee pain, icing, ibuprofen (a.k.a. Advil) and was chronically worried about overdoing it. But now? Let me summarize:

Dear Knee Pain, you can kindly go fuck yourself 'cause you ain't no more. With apathetic love, Sean.

I'm a barefoot running junkie and am so because I can jog, run, or sprint and do so without any knee or joint pain. On a fast day, I'm now poking down in to the sub-7min/mile range and when I head out for a jog, I average around 9-9:30 min/mile depending on how I'm feeling that day. My average "run" sits squarely in the middle at ~8min/mile and my routine course is 5mi. A long run is 8-10mi, and short is a 3 miler. Over the last twelve months my times have dropped and are continuing to drop, all the while my distance is steadily increasing. So with that as my running background, I'm hard pressed to recommend running in running shoes to anyone.

I'm not a doctor, but the science/data at hand makes sense and fits my experiences. Walking, yes. Hiking, yes. Running? Abso-fucking-lutely, hell yes! The only tangible downside that I've found so far is I have to slow down when running downhill because there is no padding for your heel to strike (you have to slow down to strike on the arch/bridge/ball of your foot). On the plus side (and this is a big plus), both VFF weigh less a pound and running uphills is stupid effortless (you'd be surprised how much effort you spend lugging ~3-5lbs of shoe uphill).

Here's the science of barefoot running: http://www.barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/

And here's the YouTube video that summarizes the above science (well produced 6min video):

This is what I started running in (very light, the seams around my big toes started to wear out around my toes after 9mo, but the sole was completely in tact and in perfect condition):http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/products_KSO_m.cfm

This is what I'm running in currently (I love 'em, but it took a good 50mi for the leather to loosen up):http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/products_kso_trek_m.cfm

Here's the running-specific version of the VFF (these look sexy and I'm looking forward to trying them in the future):http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/products/products_bikila_m.cfm

Here is the sock that I prefer running in (micro version, find sales and get 'em in bulk - and if/when you get socks in multiple sizes, mark them the instant they show up otherwise you won't be able to differentiate the sizes): http://www.injinjistore.com/Merchant2/merchant.mvc?Screen=PROD&Store_Code=IS&Product_Code=TPMICRO. Surprisingly enough, the socks ended up being a pretty sizable investment even at ~$10/pair. Worth it though.

Parting tips:

1. START SLOW!!! Really. You'll find interesting muscles you've never used before that come out of the woodwork and yell at you in really painful ways until they strengthen up your new running style. The muscle part only took a week or two to get up to strength.
2. Other - and much more important - perk of starting slow: you won't rub the pads of your feet off. Them thar running shoes? Yeah, they make the soles of your feet soft. If you're anything like me and think, "hey, this is pretty sweet!" when you're on your first run and think you can keep going for 10min... you're wrong. Stop at 5min and please trust me on this one. Blisters will form if you don't let your feet toughen up. Muscles adapt quickly, your skin doesn't. As is, I'm up to 90min without incident and it only took me a few months to get there, but you have to let your feet adapt.
3. Slow down when running down hill. You will make up for this on the hills and flat surfaces.
4. Search for the black/black VFF. VFF has some really silly colors that look down right ugly, but that could just be me (pink? really?)

Running is mega goodness, especially now that it's a pure cardio activity vs. a rugged "this is going to destroy your joints" activity.

Ultimate running happiness comes from throwing in a little RunKeeper action, an arm band to hold your iPhone, maybe a bluetooth headset (my bluetooth headset crapped out on me recently, but being wire-free was really nice) and you're good to go to start thumping out some miles (pain free if you're doing right). Enjoy!