Inspired by reading Born To Run, I have been doing more and more barefoot running. It has been mostly on the grass, about a mile to a mile an a half. I wanted to be less limited than running on the grass and so I took Barefoot Ted's advice and purchased some Vibram Fivefingers.
They are great. You really get the feel of running barefoot, but do not have to worry about glass and sharp rocks and other debris in the street. I can feel these things if I run over them, but there is no chance that they will cut my feet. Running barefoot really is a much better way to run. I am faster and less tired for the equivalent distances. Now when I say I'm faster, it means I improve from laughably slow to merely ridiculously slow, but still, I'm faster!
They are also an attention getter. I'm not sure this is always a good thing. After I bought my new Vibram Fivefingers, I walked out of the store wearing them and was immediately asked about them as I was getting into my car. Later in the week I walked into a gathering at a friend's house and the conversation immediately turned to my feet.
The longest I have run so far in them is three miles. I am building up to longer distances. When I ran four miles this weekend with the L.A. Leggers, I used conventional shoes. I'm going to take the mileage up slowly, but I expect I should be doing reasonably long runs, 10k and longer, in a month or two.
2 comments:
I was thinking of getting a pair of those. I have some credit with REI, so I think I'll have to pull the trigger on it.
I think you can only get them online from REI. At least the two REIs I called didn't have them in the store. I would recommend putting some on your feet before you buy.
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