Vibrams again!

I haven't posted for a long time. But I have not given up on Vibrams. I found that running on the road--pavement--was tough. I would get a pain mid-foot on the top of my foot. So I gave up the barefoot on the road.

I did run an hour trail run last summer in them. It was AWESOME. My brother-in-law and his wife all took our Vibrams out for a nice early morning run in the moutains. Stepping on rocks, picking up weeds in between the toes of the Vibrams, and whatever else you find on a mountain trail were painful sometimes, but it was so much fun. I was afraid that I would have really sore feet at the end of the day. NO PAIN. None.

That was the last of my Vibram runs until this winter. The weather here has been so cold that it's the first year I haven't been able to run outside on the roads. My running partner and I discovered an indoor track in town and started running there just so we COULD run. I decided to fire up the old Vibrams again. I have run about close to 40 miles in them now on the track with no problems. I took it slow and have thoroughly enjoyed it.

One thing that I notice when I'm running barefoot is that my low back doesn't hyper-extend as my leg pushes back through the stride. I have also learned that I don't run on the balls of my feet but mid-foot. The weight of your body should follow through the long bone of the leg to the midfoot--logically in my mind it should. If you put all the impact on the balls of the feet or the heel, you're asking for problems. So I will run the road again this summer in them and see if this has helped--running on the track and building up to it--and also running more midfoot. We will see. But I am still running barefoot as is my daughter and my running partner, as well as one of my sons.

Can't wait until I can swing the 100 bucks for some Bikilas.

Happy running!