Not sure if this has been posted here before, but it’s always great to see mainstream media pickup on subjects that interest niche markets. In any case, here is a key takeaway from the New York Times article on barefoot/minimalist runners vs the 17 billion dollar running shoe industry.
surveyed the published literature and could not find a single clinical study showing that cushioned or corrective running shoes prevented injury or improved performance.
Source: The British Journal of Sports Medicine
and my personal fave
endurance running is a derived capability of the genus Homo, originating about 2 million years ago, and may have been
instrumental in the evolution of the human body form.
Source: Endurance running and the evolution of Homo
couldn’t agree more. been slowly migrating to minimalist sneaks and ditched the inserts after YEARS of motion control and custom inserts. walking around and doing as much as possible barefoot as well. haven’t taken the VFFs for long run yet, but may work my way up to that.
Looks like shoe companies are taking notice, which is good.
I’ve also switched over from Asics Kayanos to DS Trainers/Banditos/Speedstars and could not be any happier. I did have some trouble with my Achilles’ tendons, but that was more a result of changing my gait from a heel striker to a mid-foot gait.
I’d be very interested in hearing about your experience with the Vibrams. Do you run on trails/roads? Short/long distances? Blisters etc?
i walk in them mostly. and the short runs i’ve done have been on soft surfaces and VERY short. just to test them. i’m still very tender footed from years of thinking i had to wear shoes/sneakers with inserts ALL the time. still building up my foot strength.
Have you read the book quoted in the NYT article, Born To Run? Fantastic read. Changed my opinion of running sneaks.
I’ve been avg. 50+ miles/wk with VFF KSO for the last 4 monthes without any problem. Since I live in NYC, 95% of my run are on concrete and hill repeats done on the 4 bridges on east river. When I do speed work on track, I go barefeet; it’s even better than VFF. VFF is great on dirt trails but bad on trials littered with those sharp little rocks. Vibrim is coming out with a KSO Trek version in October, which is design for trail; I can’t wait to try those out. Another VFF version call Bikela should be out by Feb/March next year supposely is gear toward running. birthdayshoes.com has a lot of info on VFF.
Prior to VFF, I was on Lunar racer, free 3.0 and XC racing flats for years; I still plan on doing my road races with Lunar racer and trail race with x-talon.
Best place to start barefeet running is fairway on the golf course.
Once you go down the minimalist road you’ll never go back…
I have gotten more into barefoot too. It takes time to adjust and rebuild the muscles that have atrophied. But I am very happy with it now. I run mostly barefoot in the summer and resort to VFF when too cold or too hot. I actually burned my feet running on blacktop a few weeks ago when it was 100 degrees out and sunny. Oops.
Other that that, run quietly and simply. Put the fun back in running.
