I lied!

Having said that I was going to hang up my Vibrams last week, I found that the persistent tenderness in the balls of my feet that I was suffering from had disappeared and I was itching to get back into them.
Last night at the club was our "hills" session, a series of short sprints where lightweight shoes (or even no shoes) makes a huge difference. So it was on with the Vibrams and out to the club for a quick thrash up and down some hills.

Running in the VFFs was fun but I was actually itching to run fully barefoot and after a while on a flat section I whipped them off and enjoyed the full BF experience. Just a shame the road was so darned cold! That really is one of the major reasons for not barefoot running at this time of year.

I'm going to try and keep a level head over the winter and keep my running BF/VFF to once a week because I don't want a repeat of the tenderness that I had before.

Found this interesting interview on youtube concerning barefoot running & ultras.

Hangin' up my Vibrams

Not for good but definitely for the winter.

I've not lost faith in the barefoot running ethos, it's just that I've come to realise that whilst running in Vibrams may be close to barefoot running, it just isn't the same.

Of course I've only really got myself to blame for running 17 miles on trails in them a couple of weeks ago and that has perhaps unsurprisingly left my feet tender. The fact is though, that it was the Vibrams that made it possible in the first place, had I been truly barefoot, I wouldn't have been able to run that far.

One of the claimed advantages for proper barefoot running is that the sensitivity of your bare feet naturally limits your advancement so that you don't ever "overdo" things and end up injured. Wearing anything on your feet, even something as minimal as the Vibram Five Fingers shoe, allows you to "short cut" your progress and push yourself further and faster than perhaps your feet are really ready for. This is what I strongly suspect I have done. Not really the shoes fault, just my fecklessness.

I don't regret having tried the VFFs but I think I'm going to wait until spring and then have another go with full barefoot running again.

For anyone who hasn't tried barefoot running and wonders why anyone would want to try I would ask you to image running with ear plugs, a blindfold and shoes. You start off stumbling along in a blacked out bubble of your own conciousness. Imagine then taking out the earplugs and hearing the wind, the birdsong, passing traffic, the sound of your footfalls and breathing. Already your world has expanded greatly. Take off the blindfold and suddenly your senses and flooded with all the sights around you. Now take off your shoes and suddenly you're aware of the intimate feel of the pavement, the polished stone kerbs perhaps, the feel of warm tarmac, the delicious coolness of a puddle, the warm squechiness of a dog t... ;-).

Okay, maybe not the last (or at least you try your best to avoid that!) but it really does add a whole new dimension to your running and that's why I'll certainly keep running barefoot once the weather warms up.