Feet are our friends! My transition to minimal shoes.

I think our poor feet are our most abused body parts, even if you're not doing copious amounts of running.  We stuff it in shoes, mash them in high heels, polish and pedicure then to an outward sheen, despite how the inside of those tootsie may feel.  We pound any on them day after day after day, and yet most people think feet are gross and smelly.  Hygenie aside, the human foot is actually pretty amazing.  If there is anyone out there that somehow hasn't read or heard of the incredible book Born To Run by Christopher McDougal, I'll sum up his argument in that regard: our feet are natural weight-bearers.  Miraculous weight-bearers, even, utilizing one of the most perfect weight-bearing structures, the arch, to it's advantage.  The foot is springy and sensitive and actually grows stronger the more of a beating it takes.

What has happened to our feet in recent decades is that they have become weak.  They are weakened because shoes have started to do most of the supporting, denying the muscles and tendons a chance to strengthen themselves and adjust to protect our more fragile joints, like knees, from absorbing the shock of our bodies against the pavement when we run.  When McDougal watches the Tarahumara, the elite tribe of ultra-runners down in Mexico's Copper Canyons, the one thing he notices (besides the fact that they can run hundreds of miles at insanely fast speeds without ever getting injured), is HOW they run: with a soft, mid/fore-foot strike, one that we regular folks also run with whenever we are in bare feet.

I won't purport to know all the nuanced arguments raging out there in the running community about shoes vs. barefoot running, minimalist shoes vs. stability trainers, heel strike vs. mid-foot.  The number one person who has any say about your running is you! If it works, great.  If not, there are always new ideas to try.  I've heard that triathletes tend to be very open to new tips, techniques, and training, since triathlon is a very young sport.  Super!  I know I know nothing, I can barely fix a flat tire on my bike, ha, so I'm always ears wide open. 

Case in point: When I was training for my first marathon three years ago, I wore stability shoes (Mizuno) and as I upped my milage, I started to develop some plantar fasciitis, bane of runners all over the world.  And my knee was starting to hurt.  From a life in swimming, I knew that often times when joints hurt, it is because the surrounding muscles are weak.  I know every shoulder-strengthing exercise in the book from my swimming days as a butterfly-er.  And knee exercises were plentiful on the internet.  But how to strengthen my feet?

As luck would have it, I had also picked up a copy of Born to Run at the airport and was riveted by the stories of Caballo Blanco, The Deer, Barefoot Ted, Jenn & Billy and the fascinating Tarahumara.

Seeing as no one seemed to have an answer to fix plantar fasciitis, just mitigate the symptoms, I drank the Kool-Aid about barefoot running and bought a pair of Vibrams.  At worst, I'd be out $90 and still have PF.  But maybe I'd be surprised!

The shoes I wear now, except in green!

And surprised I was! I felt GREAT.  For about a mile.  And then alllllll the tiny muscles in my feet, calves and ankles shouted at me for using after a lifetime of letting them relax.  I was SO SORE for three days, I actually contemplated scooting down the subway stairs on my butt.  But it was only soreness, not pain.

In a few days, I wiggled those toes back in to those vibrams and hit the road again (briefly).  And then just kept building.  I now can't imagine going back, and my PF has disappeared, although my feet still get sore when I up my mileage to anything over 10-12 miles.  I eventually moved from vibrams to Newbalance Minimus shoes so I could wear socks for chilly days and blisters, and so far so good!

I don't pretend this transition is right for everyone.  Amanda still wears the same type of Mizunos she's been loyal to for years.  She says my vibrams creep her out and I don't blame her.  But I'll never ignore my feet ever again! I roll them every day and night on my trusty Theraband roller (a GREAT Christmas present, by the way). I won't deny that I still love my un-sensible shoes for a night out, but always try to take a pair of flats, and once I'm home, the shoes come off! Let those puppies run free in all their glory.