Small disclaimer: I’ve been drinking the barefoot kool aid…and lot’s of it. I’m writing this review while still feeling endorphines and pangs of glee so make of that what you will…
I like to run, but I imagine like most people – it hurts. And not in that “oh I’m getting older and just need to deal with some aches and pains” but more like the “eventually I’m going to snap my knee or my back or both” kind of way. The way I dealt with it in past was to buy better shoes. As a consumer, that’s about all you can do right?. Well you can buy shorter shorts or gel-i-er gel shots or microfiber climax ultra-moisture heel hugging XDSXL socks but eventually there are some diminishing returns right?
So about a year ago, I bought THE shoes. I went to THE local running store, I whipped out THE credit card and boom, I had THE most technical shoes one could buy without a license. The Mizuno Wave Creation 9. Click the link and look how much trademarked technology is on that bad boy. Go ahead, this post will still be here. Don’t want to go? Ok listen, for $135 bucks (well, that’s how much I paid for them) you get over 8 different running technologies designed to stabilize, tractionize, rotorize, combulatize, and metaculize (yes I made most of those words up – that’s just how I roll) your feet in ways you never thought possible. You might as well be running with a basket full of fluffy puppies and baby chicks on your feet because they provide much more comfort than this. I bought these because my ridiculous Nike Shox (yes, the shoes with springs in the heels) kept giving me horrible blisters. Anyway, I spend all this money, I run a fairly modest amount of miles and boom – the knee pain is still there. In light of starting a new family and growing more familier with the extra weight that I’m accumulating, I put my really expensive pair of running shoes in the closet. Maybe they’ll work better a year or two from now…or never…
So, a couple on months ago – I run across this article over at Marks Daily Apple talking about the Vibram FiveFingers. First thought? Those are the most ridiculous shoes I’ve ever seen. I do not have the self esteem to even consider wearing a pair of shoes like that. However, they keep coming up. I see them at Mark’s site, I see them at Leo’s site, I see them at the Rowdy Kittens site. (No, I don’t actually know any of these people – they just seem like they’d be cool with me saying things like “Leo’s blog” rather than “Zen Habits.”) Anyway, I come across this post and all of the sudden it just seemed ok…ok, maybe I too can enjoy these shoes that I keep coming across.
I mean, up until this point, running for me was about calories burned, toys and mileage – probably more about the mileage. Nah, maybe more about the toys. I had the nike+, and I have the iPod nano with the running case, the really expensive running socks, the short running shorts, and as you now, the highly technical running shoes. I would drown my runs with music and podcasts and never really give much attention to how I was actually running. It was all about just dragging myself through however many miles I had committed to do and somehow still be standing at the end. In my mind, I was running around like a fine tuned gazelle with precise foot stikes and stride that was efficient and somehow artistic all at the same time. Turns out, I was bouncing around like an old ford down an abandoned dirt road. Shoulders hunched over, head down, feet twisted out…it was not pretty. Well, it’s still NOT PRETTY!
So this time, I am going to try again – this time with a different attitude. I determined that the FiveFingers were in fact AWESOME and I was going to find myself a pair. After saving up a little stash of money, I finally have a pair of KSO’s. Here are my initial reactions from having them.
They…feel…AWESOME! Seriously, like a freaking glove for your feet. I kept wearing them all day just because I loved the way they felt. I was unreal. Man, it’s 11pm and I want to put them on again, I’ll be right back. Aaaaaah, much better.
I felt totally stable. I took a quick jaunt through the yard (the one with so many mole tunnels you’d think it was a the staging area for the great mole uprising) and usually were I’m very weary and cautious about rolling an ankle I felt totally solid in these shoes. Not only that, I could feel the terrain. I was just a totally different experience.
They quickly showed my the deficiencies in the way I walk and run. Granted, just taking off my shoes and running around would have done the same thing, but still, it was quite illuminating. It became immediately apparent that if I kept running by striking my heel that I was going to pound the knee to dust. I could feel every part of my body that was (man, I don’t know how to explain it)…wrong? Even when I straightened up and ran in a more efficient way, I could feel the extra weight around my gut and love handles bouncing around. It’s like, they brought to life the areas of my body that I need to work on…
They are just FUN! Usually, running for me is a plodding trip from point A to point B, with these, I kept trying to find new things to run on. I hit the grass, I hit the gravel, I jumped on logs, I ran over the tall grass and I almost “pranced” through the obstacles in my yard.
Because you can’t really run on your heel in these things and find yourself more on your toes – you can take off at any time. Seriously, just think about it and BOOM you are gone. I don’t know why but it was such a great feeling to just take off and run.
Push-ups are much better with them on. Or barefoot. They’re just better without shoes on I guess? I digress…
I feel really fast…like really fast. I don’t know what it is, maybe that’s why olympic sprinters where those really tiny flat shoes because man, I feel like I’m moving in these things.
I really want to wear them to work but I’m not sure if I have the confidence. Seriously, they make you feel like the whole world is watching your feet!
So overall, I’m pretty excited! Very happy to be running around in these things. It’s like I’m nerdy suburban ninja! There’s more to try out with these things so Part two is coming soon!
Read Part Two here.
Since I have this “thing” with stairs I thought my first trip out with my new vibrams should be on a set of stairs – so I hit one of my favorite spots – Monument Terrace. This structure is a 139 step commemoration to all of the Lynchburg soldiers who have died throughout various wars. It’s beautiful and thoughtful and touching and (if you’re running it) very painful. I ran up and down it five times which isn’t crazy except for the niggling fact that a.) I’m over 30 years old so I can’t do the same dumb things I could when I was twenty and b.) I haven’t been exercising for the last year. Mind, you I didn’t say running, I haven’t been doing anything that would resemble some sort of formalized exercise for a year. The only thing I have going for me on health front as that I at least haven’t picked up any new self destructive habits (like smoking or bingeing on ho-ho’s and chocolate marshmallow fluff) and even that was only a matter of time. Anyway, I ran this thing. I felt great. I sprinted like a gazelle up the stairs. I felt like a machine as a I ran back to my car. People stopped their cars to admire my perfect form and amazing ability to parkour through downtown Lynchburg in my own personal samurai shoes. Then, by the time I got home, I could no longer walk. Turns out, if you walk in shoes for most of your life (oh, and not exercise for a loooooong time) the parts of your body that haven’t gotten that much work (like the whole group of muscles and tendons below your calf (no I’m can’t spell them out, I’m no doctor for crying out loud (and yes, it’s totally ridiculous how many parenthesis you can cram into one sentence when you write something that doesn’t need to be turned into an english teacher))) can end up being kinda upset when you blitz them like that. And by “kinda upset” I mean “AAAAGH, I can’t walk!?”
