When I first switched over to minimal running I bought a pair of Vibram’s Five Fingers (VFFs). I should’ve invested in some $8 pool shoes from Wal-Mart. They are virtually the same thing, without the longevity of the Vibram sole, but @ $8 you can afford a few pairs.
I really liked my VFFs but then (and this is a pretty common theme with me) I broke myself. My training wasn’t at all different from what I do now, heavy lifting with sprint intervals and an occasional “long” run which is nothing over 2.6 miles. Back in October 2009 I strapped my VFFs on and after about five minutes I got each of my toes in the correct hole, for some reason my baby toe LOVES to share toe holes with the toe beside her, I was off and running like a gazelle. I felt like a chimpanzee (kinda looked like I had their feet….man are these shoes effin ugly!) I was leaned forward, heels kicking up, break neck pace. This, my dear friends, was. Awesome!
I decided it would be a good idea for me to do an actual long run, my good friend Aimee was getting ready to bust out her first marathon and I used her for inspiration. Now I pride myself at being able to judge distance pretty good, I can’t judge pace for shit, but distance I am almost spot on. I took off and when I mapped out the course in my mind I thought it was about four miles….um yea, not so much. I was feeling really good, there were a lot of hills in the course and I loved the challenge, I would lean into them and up I’d go. There was some off-roading and it felt awesome to run on the grass, I was able to literally dig my toes into the ground and push forward. At what I gauged as mile four I realized I was still pretty far from home. Hmmmm…well this can’t be good I thought. But being the bone head that I typically am I said oh well, suck it up, keep running….there will be no walking Marine. I noticed my steps weren’t as light and airy as when I took off on the last mile stretch home and I really tried focusing on pulling my heels up and landing softly. By focusing on pulling your heels up vice how you land, your foot generally produces the correct foot landing.
I finally get home, and I have pain in my right foot on the top. Nothing real bad just a tweak, nothing I shouldn’t expect for having just ran six miles.
Over the next few months I proceeded to train: heavy lifting with sprints and varied running intervals.: one mile sprint, rest, another mile, rest, another mile, stuff like that. The pain in my foot started to increase, I iced it and ignored it. I wasn’t going to stop training over a little “top of the foot pain”. Fast forward to March….I can barely walk. No shoes are comfortable. Not flip flops, not sneakers and certainly not high heels. I can’t walk barefoot, I can’t walk in shoes. I basically cannot walk comfortably. My little nuisance of “top of the foot pain” turned into a full blown stress fracture. Fun, huh!?
I recognize I am not real smart, but like my dad says if you are going to be stupid you have to be tough.
We were visiting my in-laws in Florida and of course there is lots of walking around, we went to the zoo, the aquarium, did an Easter egg hunt, and I even went for a run (I NEVER said I was smart). Now I went out for this run in my regular running shoes. I figured if I stomped my way through it I’d numb it out and get the run done. Which worked really good for me…until I got back and took my shoe off. Game over, folks.
It took me 12 weeks of taping, minimal running, icing, lots of motrin and a lot of swallowing tears before the pain started to back off. In the meantime, I ran across a ton of websites, mostly forums discussing how to break yourself into barefoot/minimal running….oh good, I thought TOFP (top of foot pain) has a cool acronym because it is super common! Dulp!
After this I decided to be a tad smarter – I started running actually barefoot on my treadmill. You see skin has this wonderful way of gauging how much barefoot running you can do at one time. You get cool blister and burn patches when you’ve gone as far as you should. I know this still sounds over the top – but it has been the single greatest change I have made in my workouts in the 18 years I have been doing this. Bold statement. True Statement.
I recommend everyone go barefoot for their runs. But just that BAREFOOT. Not cool shoes – the cool shoes come later; to start invest in those $8 pool shoes at Wal-mart or if you are too snobby for Wal-Mart go to Target. I myself go to Wal-Mart every once in awhile to remind myself “things could be worse” I could be married to a guy who feels the need to go transvestite when stepping into Wally World.
I was actually told one time at the Pentagon Athletic Center that it is unsanitary for me to run barefoot. I thought that was precious – I mean this guy was totally right my feet that have been in socks all day are totally more disgusting than the guy running around in here with dog shit and gum stuck to his shoe. Really?... MY feet have a better chance of getting something off the floor that I see Jose (that’s really his name…I’m not being racist!) washing with a bucket of what appears to be Potomac slime. Let’s be honest…he’s not “cleaning” anything.
I have also been asked if I am nervous I am going to drop a weight on my barefoot. Let’s be honest if you drop a weight on your foot, sneakers aren’t going to help much. This is Chris’ foot after he dropped a 25# plate on it with shoes on. Chris, did your shoes protect your feet?
The best thing I love about barefoot running is I no longer have flat feet or ITB pain. I have been plagued with flat feet, or what I realize is now atrophied feet muscles since I was 11 years old. I even got orthotics at the age of 11 and went to a special foot doctor when I was 24 who was going to slice my foot open and put a piece of silicone in there to hold the bones up. He said he could only do one foot at a time, the recovery was two weeks completely off the foot then eight weeks in an air cast and then he’d slice open the other one. I had two toddlers at home, was active duty and a husband that was on night shift, it was a tad unrealistic and seemed a little extreme so I opted out….boy am I glad I did!!!
I am two years into this game and I still get the occasional top of the foot pain but I have been squatting for 18 years and still get muscle pain from that….it is expected and I can tell it isn’t an “oh shit, I broke myself again” pain. I definitely recommend everyone run barefoot or minimal. One of the things I see the most in my clients is flat feet or they explain they don’t run anymore because of knee pain. Sprints give you a great looking ass and that is what most of them are paying for. So chuck the shoes and sprint! But for the love of your feet…..Go. Sloooooooooowwwwwww.
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