Hey. After I started telling people I've been running long distance in
five fingers, they started asking me a lot of questions. I gave up
answering the emails and set off the write an article last month. One
became like five, but I finally finished.

I've already been called a "faker" by a barefooter cause I'm not
entirely barefoot and I aparently have not been doing it long enough
in his estimation, but whatevs. I'm just talking about my experience,
which I give in some detail.

I know there are some hard core paleo diet people here who may not be
keen on my raw food diet, but that's cool too.

The first article is here: [www.raw-food-health.net]
The rest are linked at the bottom. The first article is more of an
overview of my story, the later are more practical.

For those who are raw foodists, you might find my musings about diet, human evolution and running: [www.raw-food-health.net]

If you're wondering about the repetitions of "born to run", turns out
it's a popular search turn, so I harvested engine traffic by using it
in repetition. There's also a book on the same topic with the same name.

Hope you all enjoy, and pass it on to those who might be interested.

Good article, Andrew. I have had my eyes on a pair of Five Fingers; this clinches the deal : )

Thanks RusticBohemian. Very interesting. Never heard of these shoes before!

I think I'm finally ready to work up to a marathon. I'm running up to eight miles, and feeling fantastic, which is pretty good for me.

I have good arches, but very wide feet, and I seem to always be struggling with my shoes. Maybe this is the ticket!

But I run on hard lava/gravel dirt roads. Lava can cut like glass, and is very hard on shoes. Do you think these shoes could take it? Is there a women's pair that you think would be the best for these conditions?

I think you're completely right. Humans are born to run!

Tamukha Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Good article, Andrew. I have had my eyes on a
> pair of Five Fingers; this clinches the deal : )


I've been eying them as well, I will probably purchase a pair; Why not, as most of my family/friends think I am completely nuts anyway, with my "radical" raw food lifestyle...

Wow! Cool shoes! I had been thinking for a long while about modifying a pair of flip flops for running as intuitively I knew my runners were restricting me in some way. I didn't realize there was actually a logic behind it.Thanks for writing and sharing the article. I had to laugh at being called "a faker" by another barefooter. No wonder we have world wars!!!!lol

I've found these links today that may interest anyone getting them.
[blog.teamgearedup.com]

The first comment on this page suggests the classic style are better as the strap on the newer ones doesn't work so good.

These were also the cheapest ones I saw...cheaper than even e-bay or amazon.
[www.kayakshed.com]

found this today. I is getting me a pair, pronto!

[planetultramarathon.wordpress.com]

hey... uh... what's all the fuss?

huh?

ooooops...

maybe i ought to read the article first

LOL

I saw my first pairs of Vibrams last weekend - John Kohler wears them, as does the Giannis, and several others of the raw food world.

I was entranced!

I've ordered a pair for myself. If they work well for me, my DH might try a pair. He has hammertoes, however, though I think that walking more barefoot could only help his feet.

I'm looking forward to a reduction of foot pain. I had switched to Earth Shoes a year ago, but I'm still suffering from heel pain.

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much
We are all in this together!
Namasté

shoes with toes LaV ! =D

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

I'm not convinced those shoes are worth ~$100 right now, they could be tapping into a desperate, one-option demographic.

I think I will try to hack together my own minimalistic "shoes" like them (not for public though). Personally I doubt the differece is very much from ordinary shoes anyway.



Edited 1 time(s). Last edit at 09/08/2009 03:37AM by SuperInfinity.

Well, since I've spent most of my life wearing ~$100 shoes, due to foot problems, I didn't think that the $80 a pair of Vibrams cost was out of line, if they are anywhere as beneficial to my feet as others have claimed that they are.

Due to his foot issues, my DH has to pay about $150 a pair for shoes. He used to 'make do' with cheap shoes, but was nearly crippled from the pain.

No decent shoe is cheap.

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much
We are all in this together!
Namasté

rae vynn

what's a DH

whoever is DH , does this mean that your foot condition is genetic?

i have a friend who had a food condition

can't recall the name of it

but he never knew about it til recently

lived with foot pain his entire life

til he was diagnosed

i always wondered why he would stop after we walked for a while

then he would have to stop cuz he said his foot hurt

but i think he has some special shoes or something he puts in the shoes for it

i'm glad he is taking care of himself now

u are right

for people who have unique foot conditions

its probably worth the extra bucks

plus shoes are expensive anyways

Could someone succintly restate the issue? What is the advantage to running barefoot over a pair of good running shoes, vegan or otherwise? Looking at a cheetah's paw (dog's paw, whatever) and a human foot, it seems obvious to me that animals have protection that we don't in terms of padding.

pborst Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> Could someone succintly restate the issue? What
> is the advantage to running barefoot over a pair
> of good running shoes, vegan or otherwise?
> Looking at a cheetah's paw (dog's paw, whatever)
> and a human foot, it seems obvious to me that
> animals have protection that we don't in terms of
> padding.


Is this Emperor's new cloths? barefoot equals = injury? It would be easy why it would be the case. Why is it not the case?

i think the benefit would be natural correction to poor posture caused by ill fitting shoes over several decades ..at least in my case

...Jodi, the banana eating buddhist

Seems like, at least according to the article, that humans DO have padding, and a very marvelous sort of too. Take a look at your foot.

The thing is that we don't use them like we should, so they go all baby and it hurts to walk without shoes. I love walking barefoot, this summer I wore shoes very seldom. Haven't run without shoes though, I would love to do that. But my soles aren't that hardy yet. I think I might invest in a pair of five fingers someday.

Well, I got mine yesterday and went for a run with them today. I wore them around the house yesterday and they felt rather comfortable if a little cold! I felt like a cougar.I was padding around rather than walking. Running on them today was altogether different. It was on a road and when I would step on small stones I would know all about it! Its ok if your walking on rocky terrain but running on it with these seems rather painful. Road running should be fine but you still have to watch your steps. My feet are not used to being barefoot anyway so they have a lot of toughening up to do. In relation to running itself,I got into a nice groove at one stage and felt I was running a lot freer than normal.Not sure if that was my imagination but it makes sense as runners can be so darn heavy. I like them. More than I thought.

to answer your question, pborst, when you run in padded shoes, your feet cannot feel anything, and this is detrimental to good running style.

" Shoes try to replace the natural cushioning we have, when using good running technique, by placing added cushioning in the heels. If we were meant to land hard on our heels, we would have grown extra cushioning there naturally.

" The purpose of any shoe is to reduce our ability to feel our foot touching the ground as we walk or run. This encourages people to land with more impact while wearing shoes.

" We are much more likely to see a shod runner landing with their legs straight and their knees locked, than a barefoot runner, because the barefoot runner would immediatly get feedback from their soles telling them not to land that way."

from: [barefootted.com]

i'd recommend checking out this ultra-marathoner barefooted ted's blog, it's stock-filled with info on barefoot running as well as gorgeous pictures of him running trails wearing NOTHING ( on his feet). he's also sponsored by vikram five-fingers and doesn't consider wearing them cheating, since they still allow you to feel the terrain and adjust your running style accordingly.

deeds Wrote:
-------------------------------------------------------
> to answer your question, pborst, when you run in
> padded shoes, your feet cannot feel anything, and
> this is detrimental to good running style.
>
> " Shoes try to replace the natural cushioning we
> have, when using good running technique, by
> placing added cushioning in the heels. If we were
> meant to land hard on our heels, we would have
> grown extra cushioning there naturally.
>
> " The purpose of any shoe is to reduce our ability
> to feel our foot touching the ground as we walk or
> run. This encourages people to land with more
> impact while wearing shoes.
>
> " We are much more likely to see a shod runner
> landing with their legs straight and their knees
> locked, than a barefoot runner, because the
> barefoot runner would immediatly get feedback from
> their soles telling them not to land that way."
>
> from:
> [barefootted.com]
> tml
>
> i'd recommend checking out this ultra-marathoner
> barefooted ted's blog, it's stock-filled with info
> on barefoot running as well as gorgeous pictures
> of him running trails wearing NOTHING ( on his
> feet). he's also sponsored by vikram five-fingers
> and doesn't consider wearing them cheating, since
> they still allow you to feel the terrain and
> adjust your running style accordingly.


Thank you for an insightful answer. So, it's not trying to avoid the occasional sharp rock per se as much as it is to experience natural sensation while moving. We would behave differently if we ran barefoot, land softer, pay more attention to our environment, see the rock instead just stepping over it and rely on the rigidity of the shoe. I think I see your point. Thank you.

Paul

"DH" is "Dear Hubby" - not a genetic link, no, just someone who's feet I'm rather well familiar with.

Live Well, Laugh Often, Love Much
We are all in this together!
Namasté