Greetings from Ohio

[Barefoot Gamer]

Greetings all. I live in northern Cincinnati, by Kings Island, to anyone that knows the area. I have ran off and on for years. My longest run was a 16 miler in 2002 training for the Country Music Marathon, where I hurt my foot and had to quit training for the marathon.

I have ran off and on since then but after playing soccer from childhood threw my late 20s and early 30s, to running, my legs are pretty beat up, like alot of us. I bought some new "expensive" running shoes back in the spring from a local running store to help with my overpronation and the pain in my right foot never ceased, at times it is worse now. I got frustrated with running even though I love it. I get the same pain when on the elipitical with those shoes on, so I gave up and bought a nice hybrid bike this summer. Biking is fun as a crosstraining exercise, but I am still a runner at heart. Of course, I am horribly out of shape now.

Then while reading a blog about the TSA body scan's I saw a mention of someone wearing VFFs and had no idea what they were, but thought they were cool and different. I went and bought some partly to agitate the wife since she though they were so ugly and also after reading about the idealogy of minimalist shoes may help my foot pain. I used to be really active on RW forums a few years ago, so I was familiar with the concept.

Reading around I saw a few references to Born to Run on various blogs and decided to download it to my Kindle and read it on vacation over Thanksgiving. I also saw warnings right away to not run in VFFs because your feet need to learn to run again since I was a healstriker. I have spent the last week or so aborbing as much information as I can. I ordered Barefoot running by Michael Sandler and have been reading Jason's Barefoot University website and will probably order his book also.

I heeded all of the warning and have not ran in my VFFs yet. I wear them around the house and to go out shopping, etc. I ran my first barefoot .5 miles on Monday and it felt great, it was a warm day at 58 F, I wanted to go further but was cautious per this forum. Of course, it was in the dark during my son's basketball practice, so I ran in the church parking lot with lots of lights and only hit one larger pebble in the dark. Note to self: running barefoot in dark is not recommended, but I wanted to get in a run. My feet were a little sore yesterday, but not bad at all. The best part was that my right foot and knees did not hurt at all during my run.

I am going to do my second run today, but since there is snow on the ground I will probably do another .5 miles on my treadmill tonight.

I love reading all this information, the website here is set up brilliantly with all of the featured blogs and articles. I also have enjoyed reading the profiles of the runners.

Happy Running,

Barefoot Gamer

 

[barefootin ohio]

Welcome OH! Sounds like you

Welcome OH! Sounds like you are getting back into it. I know the feeling of being a runner but not knowing how to run. I wish someone had told me about running barefoot years ago it would have made becoming a runner so much easier. I am looking out my window here in Lima at big fluffy snowflakes and wish I could go for a run. Dam school work oh well maybe friday. Once you feel comfortable in your VFF give them a whirl what I noticed the first time I went for a run in VFF was the amount of confidience I felt wearing them. That little bit of rubber makes you less hesitant on rough terrain, but you still can't really over stride or land incorrectly you will know if you do. Keep it up dude remember if you dress for it running in the cold is super fun.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Welcome, Gamer!  Glad you're

Welcome, Gamer! Glad you're here. It's smart to break in the VFFs slowly. Some people have a tendency to do too much too soon (TMTS) because they have that little layer of protection, and they think that's all they need to keep them injury-free and allow them to continue running at the same distance and speed they ran in traditional running shoes (TRS), when in fact, if you've been living and running in any sort of shoe with a heel, your connective tissues from your calves to your Achilles to your plantar fascia has shrunk by that same amount. Working that tissue too much too quicky will cause an injury. You have to approach minimalist running (MR) with the same caution as barefoot running: go slow and easy. Another thing about the minimalist shoes is they allow you to push off with your forefoot, and that in itself can lead to stress fractures; whereas, if you are barefoot, your plantar skin will tell you pretty quickly if you are pushing off by sending pain signals. These are just a couple of reasons why we recommend learning your barefoot running form first before donning minimalist footwear, then only wearing the minimalist shoes when it is truly needed, as in Footwear As Tools (FAT).

Now with that said, we also realize it's hard to pick up barefoot running during the winter time, so we recommend you run in short increments and take a day or two of rest in between, at least until the weather warms up. If the weather is too cold but also dry, I will prefer to wear a pair of socks. You still need to make sure you are not pushing off or doing too much, but a pair of socks is by far the best minimalist footwear out there as far as the sensory feeback you can get from your soles. Another thing you can do is find an indoor track.

 

[Barefoot Gamer]

Speaking of running in socks,

Speaking of running in socks, I have read that suggestion before. Should I just wear a cheap pair of white socks of my sock drawer and just use them until they have a hole in it, or wool socks? I might try the socks tonight as cold as it is.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Rainbow striped would be

Rainbow striped would be preferred. ;-) Really goes for the AW factor. I used a lot of my old, ugly socks in my drawer. I got about five 5 mile runs out of each pair. You can buy them for a dollar at the dollar stores or Walmart too.

 

[Phil Hart]

Gamer:I'm one of the folks

Gamer:

I'm one of the folks who have provided one of the "what happens when you don't listen to The Wisdom of TJ" stories (a left foot stress fracture in my case) that she passed on to you in her first post. I love my VFFs, but I will forevermore remind myself they will make me feel bulletproof while actually providing very little protection. They're great for keeping us from tender soles on longer runs, especially early into BFRing; but they'll lull you into messing yourself up in a hurry. There's nothing wrong with them except that, like traditional running shoes mask the impact injury you're doing to yourself when heel-striking, they will allow you to comfortably go where you should not. Once my stress fracture heals I'll run BF and in VFFs as works best for conditions, but I will always keep in the back of my head that just because I CAN at that moment fairly comfortably do something in them doesn't mean that it will be good for me.

I say all of this to you particularly as you've been running for a while as I had before starting the BF learning process. I'm an old soldier who ran for 25 years, and we runners who have gotten used to running causing pain often just try to push through it, figuring we'll either adjust to it, or something will get stronger with time. Not so with these bones, muscles and connecting tissues we haven't used in this particular way in 15 or 20 years at least. It takes some months to build our feet back up to being fully functioning, independent but integrated units that can handle more substantial challenges.

Take your time, and don't join me on the injured reserve list. Listen to TJ and life will be much better for you. And be sure to look all around the forums and ask lots of questions here to get some great advice from the experience of the many who have gone ahead of us and can share what to expect and what to avoid.

Welcome to the crew!