Barefoot Running Revolution

I got my Vibram Fivefingers today! The first time I saw someone wearing a pair of these, I thought they were a little crazy looking. Then I ready Born to Run and a bunch of other great literature and decided to try barefoot running.

I hate running, as you may have noticed from my previous posts. My knees hurt, my back hurts and I am crippled for days after spending even the teensiest bit of time running. So I have read about tight IT bands and inflexible hip flexors and the like. I have been stretching and rolling with no real results.

So then I read about barefoot running and decided to give it a try. The only real problem with running without shoes is that over the past 35 years of NEVER going barefoot anywhere (I even wore socks in my dress shoes) my feet have become, shall we say, sensitive. Blades of grass are enough to slice through the tender skin of my tootsies. So the first few times I gently trod around the block avoiding bits of rock and glass.

I quickly realized that this type of running was pain free! One evening after about a month of barefoot running, I didn't feel like working on toughening my feet that particular night. So, I grabbed my old tennis shoes and headed out the door. After a block my knees hurt so badly, I threw off the shoes and resumed pain free running.

So since my barefoot running experiment was a success, I decided to ask for Vibram Fivefingers for my birthday. Today, I got to pick them out. They have several types of Fivefingers so I got a black pair. That is all I can remember about them;-) This should help me run with more confidence and less pain.