I was gonna run in the morning Thursday but got called to work...that messes me all up. I'm not an after-work runner. I've tried a couple times and it just pushes my blood pressure up too high when I'm tired from a day of labor. I did however walk to work from the Transbay Transit Terminal...which I think is about a mile...and back which, oddly enough, is also a mile. So there you go. Two miles, done and dusted.
This morning I squeezed into my VFFs and did a quick three miles around Oakland's Lake Merritt. If you live in Austin you'll identify with just how humid it was here today. If we were on the Gulf Coast we'd been battening down our hatches in prep for Hurricane Whomever. But, since we're in the Bay Area, we actually have no hatches to down-batten. I would have run farther, but for the heat. Hey! Who just called me a wienie???
As I kicked it into high gear for mile three (I was doing 9:30 miles at that point!!!) another runner pulled up alongside me and inquired about my "shoes." He'd been researching them and wanted to use this ocassion to do a little more of that. I told him what I'd tell anyone else about Vibram Five Fingers.
If you're thinking about doing it...do it! It will renew your faith in the fun of running. You will feel lighter and faster the first time out...seriously. Just take it easy. Don't go so far from your car that you'll struggle to get back if your feet or legs don't like the new non-shoes first time out. You'll be working with different muscles and stuff. Give 'em a good amount of time to come on board. I have had mine for nearly a year and the farthest I have gone in them in one go was 12 miles. By way of full disclosure, the ONLY running injury I have ever had was sustained in my VFFs. I went too far one day...and fractured the third metatarsyl in my right foot. Out for eight weeks.
By the end of our conversation my new-found friend had decided to take the plunge...and get himself some VFFs. I am glad of that. I hope they work for him...and you, if you decide to give them a go.
When I run in my VFFs I want to keep going. When I run in my "real" shoes...I sometimes can't wait for it to be over. You do the math.
Gotta Run!
2 comments:
I did exactly the same with my VFF KSOs - too far, too soon, left-foot stress fracture, out for 8 weeks.
They are lovely, but after that I haven't run in them. Instead I use them for walking and yoga.
Also I was running on tarmac and I think they are better suited to running on grass or sand.
And I can't run after work either... :)
I still love my VFFs even though I'm only walking in them for the moment (but I loved running in them, too). I had the same pain in my right foot but did not fracture, thank goodness, but it is a great feature of these that you feel what's not working right away instead of doing lots of damage and finding out later. Even walking in them gives you that barefoot rush, too.
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