First day wearing vibrams

This is the first day I had my Vibrams on. I just wore them around the house but I have to say, many of the reviews I read were completely true. They really do mold to your foot and sometimes you forget that you are even wearing a shoe. The ground is much more noticeable, I even noticed a difference in the hardness of the asphalt between my driveway and one of my family members. I also can notice a difference in the thickness of different carpets throughout my house.All in all they are very comfortable shoes and while they do get a little sweaty, It causes me little or no discomfort. I feel like these shoes will be used strictly for trail or track running, asphalt seems like it would hurt to run on. I'm taking my first run in them tomorrow, only 15 minutes which would equal about 2-2.5 miles.

Upcoming Posts

Sprinting mentality vs distance running
Balancing Speed and Endurance (in mid distance and distance racing)
The Importance of Core strength in both sprinting and distance running
Value of Cross Training
1st run in vibram
***Note all topics discussed on this page are of my own personal opinion. I cannot promise that there are any valid scientific claims for any of them. I am writing based off of my own experience and of research that I have done on my own. Feel free to disagree with me, I would like to get other people's opinion.
-Jake

What are Vibram 5 Fingers?

The Vibram 5 finger Bikila is basically a 3mm insole that is kept on your foot by under armor-like material and a Velcro strap. Basically someone along the way had the thought that "humans have been running barefoot for millennia," its how the early man started to hunt, with the lack of guns and other ranged weaponry, humans were forced to run their prey into the ground-and they didn't wear their ultra stable brooks adrenaline shoes or ASICS Gels. They wore their own feet! There is new research that-while controversial-holds some degree of truth. You see, according to the research that I have read, not many of these hunters ever got the common running injuries such as shin splints, stress fractures, inflamed tendons, etc. If they did, then natural selection would have quickly killed them off. There was a foot study done comparing the feet of barefoot tribes in africa and a population that wore shoes for everything. The result-the barefoot tribe had much healthier-and stronger feet. There was another interesting result of this research-People who wear one type of shoe a lot (say dress shoes for work) tend to develop a foot shape that looks like their shoes. (I'll be posting several articles at the end of this blog post so you can see the pictures yourself.

     So back to the running thing. What makes these shoes so different?? Well, the main difference is how your foot strikes the ground. Next time you go for a run notice how your foot hits the ground. It should be heel to toe. this is the most comfortable way to run in most training shoes. Now once your run is over, try doing some barefoot stride outs. Notice the difference? The ball of your foot strikes first and your heel follows it. This is how people ran thousands of years before the invention of the shoe, let alone the trainer. Vibram 5 fingers allow you to run as if you are barefoot, it "frees up" your legs and lets your muscles do what they do best in the most natural way possible. Its an interesting theory, and to me, it makes sense. Over the next few months I guess I'll find out.
Here are the links from my research:
http://www.fourhourworkweek.com/blog/2009/05/07/vibram-five-fingers-shoes/
http://www.wired.com/wiredscience/2009/07/barefoot/
also if you go to the vibram 5 finger web site it gives a pretty good overview of what their products are meant to do-after all they ARE selling them haha

About Me- a long and boring history

I am a Freshman in college and I have been running since my sophomore year of High School. I have run 3 seasons of cross country and 6 seasons of track. I have been a varsity runner for 2 of those cross country seasons and 4 of the track seasons. I started out running cross country with times that ranged from 24:00 (my first race) to 20:30 (my Pr my first season). During track I really decided to focus on speed and during indoor I ran with the varsity runners even though they were well above my head. I earned my first varsity letter during Outdoor track when all of my training kind of paid off. I substituted twice for our 4x800 meter relay and once for our 4x200. My "PRs" of the season were 5:07 (mile) 11:17 (3200) 2:17 (800) and 24 (200). Overall I was happy with my season.
      The summer before my Junior year I got lazy, I only ran 7 or 8 times the entire season. But I got lucky. My body retained much of the "work hard mentality" and once cross country came around  I found myself starting 5th on the team. This year my times ranged from 20:17 (sick during this race) to 17:47 (ridiculously easy course). But usually I fell around the 19:20-18:40 range. During indoor track my Junior year I used it much like i did my sophomore year, as a building stage. My prs this season were a 2:10 in the 800 and also a 56 in the 400 (I was a fill in for the 4x4 relay). These were the only races I ran during this season. Also, our 4x800 team made it to states this year, but due to myself being sick and foul play (a trip) to our top runner we didn't do very well.
    During outdoor my Junior year I continued with my 800 time, dropping it to a 2:09. My coach also found that I had potential as a 400 runner. So, halfway through the season he had me start running the open 400. My time quickly dropped from a 56 to a 53, a pretty solid time for only a few races run in my opinion.  I found that my best weapon during this race was the endurance I had from cross country, in the last 100 meters where everyone was dying I was the guy still sprinting up from lane 5.
      My Senior year came with a surprise-captaincy for the cross country team. Over the summer I had trained hard and started off the season very well. Our team did very well during the season , taking second in our county as well as second in our region (we tied for first and the other team beat us out by half a point in the tiebreaker) My Pr this season was during the second race of the season, an 18:09. until the middle of the season I ran around 18:25 and under. However I got sick for a week and had to miss 2 meets and a week of training. This majorly hurt me mentally and physically. For the second half of the season I was struggling to get under 18:30. During our championship season I began to notice the outside of my ankle acting up-painfully. Turns out nothing came of it, but it did affect my performance in all 3 of our championship races, making my best time 18:30 and my worst 21:20.
   During track I decided to forgo distance work and concentrate solely on my 400. During the indoor season (again used for building) my prs were 1:16 (500) 39.09(300) and 56(400) . I was a bit disappointed with my 400 time, but when your indoor track is 200 meters, the turns really kill you.
       Outdoor track is what I consider to be my most successful season of my career. I started off running a 52.2 in the 400. and a 24.01 in the 200. I then began to realize that the 200 was my key to a successful 400 race. as the season went on I still ran in the 52.6 and under range, but never breaking that 52.2. Then during one of our mid season meets I passed out on the last 100, skidding across the finish line and receiving 2nd degree burns on my shoulder and arms, as well as my face (luckily no scarring occurred on the face). This put me out for 1 meet and 1 week. As the season drew to a close, the seniors on our team realized something horrible-senior prom was the night before our regional championship.Personally- I only got about 3 hours of sleep. The day of the championship was the biggest success as well as the biggest failure in my career. I qualified for the finals in the 200, running a 23.2 and received 5th place in the finals by .02 seconds. This meant i did not qualify for the state meet by .02 seconds. i was quite upset. Our 4x2 also got 5th place by a similarly small margin. I decided to sit out the 400 because the 4x200 and 400 are always back to back. I shouldn't have done that. There was literally an hour between the 4x200 and 400 today. the 4th place time (last time to qualify) was a 53.6-a time I knew that I could have beaten. Needless to say, once the 4x4 came around I was pretty angry at the entire day. I was determined to make it up in this 4x400. Our team, once again, was seeded at 5th and we only needed to drop 2 seconds in order to get the 4th place. I believe we could have done it. Until our 2nd leg got cut off almost dropped the baton, and pushed into another lane. By all means, according to the rules and regulations the other team should have been disqualified, however, I guess the official was feeling sympathetic that day so he didn't do it. Needless to say I was furious. by the time the baton got to me (I was the anchor leg) we were in last by a good 100 meters (thats a lot of ground to make up in a 400 for those who don't know). However, I didn't care. I went after that runner fueled by fury and caught up to him at the 250 mark, stayed with him until the 300 and passed him right at the 315. Even though we didn't qualify for states I was "happy" with my race, and I consider it to be the best race of my career.
    Over the summer I ran with a few of the guys from the cross country team, we mostly did long runs 6-13 miles. I decided not to run cross country my 1st semester in college, I was worried that my ankle would start acting up again. Now I have started my training for indoor track which begins on January 19th.

Whats going on

Hello,
I created this blog to put my thoughts on the vibram 5 finger Bikila vs traditional running shoes down on "paper". As many people know, sometimes thoughts and impressions fade the longer we do something or use a product. Mostly I will be blogging after my runs exactly how I felt during the run and then again sometime after. Hopefully it will help other people make the decision if minimalist footwear is right for them.