Took my Vibram Five Fingers out for their inaugural run today. First of all went a quicky round the seat in normal shoes and then changed into the VFFs once back outside the queen's hoose. I'd put them in my big OMM bum bag (that's fanny pack if you're in the USA) to carry up to the park with the thought that I'd swap and put my ordinary running shoes in the bumbag while I cantered around the green in my zombie shoes - but it was a very tight squeeze and I got the inside of my OMM bag all muddy which I didn't like. Next time it'll be a rucksack with shoes in a poly bag.
I felt a bit self-conscious putting on these crazy shoes but I needn't have worried. If anyone noticed they didn't show any emotion.
The next challenge was how to take photographs for the blog! Not easy really. I've done my best. As you can see it was a very grey, rather gloomy autumn day.
The point of the shoes I guess is that they encourage you to use your best natural stride. Feet are full of nerve endings and so the more sensitive and non-interfering the shoe, the more the brain gets feedback from the feet and the better, non-injuring gait you adopt. That's the best I can be bothered to try to explain it. The idea would be to start with a small amount of "barefoot" running and work up, hopefully ironing out lazinesses of which you are unaware because cushiony shoes protect you from the immediate impact of running wrong. The idea of VFFs rather than truly barefoot would be as protection against dogshit and glass. I won't go into the kind of people who's lifestyle produces dogshit and glass as a by-product.
So anyway, my achilles tendons ouched a little bit as I set off in my VFFs but this soon stopped. It was very lovely and soft underfoot, - as running on grass is. I managed to dodge some enormous dog cigars because even if they're not going to squidge up between my toes I still don't want to be cleaning them off later.
After a while I forgot I was wearing them and had a good fast run across the grass which felt great. Today was meant to be about recovery though so I reined it in and after running a mile I changed back over to shoes normale and went home. A good start.
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