Thursday, March 25, 2010

VFF: Not My BFF...Yet

You can’t stop progress. My last run in the VFF (that’s what kids these days are calling the Vibram Five Fingers) was really quite pleasant; four miles on a soft trail over lunch. I ran in them sans socks, which was a pretty good idea until I blistered, otherwise I would have gone another couple miles. Next time I’ll be wearing a pair of socks.

It’s virtually impossible to miss the barefoot craze. ‘Minimalist running’ is blowing up. Beyond Born to Run, other prominent and varied organizations have weighed into the fray including Brooks, who did so via an open letter from CEO Jim Weber; as well as Popular Mechanics; Nature, Harvard University Skeletal Biology Lab, among countless others. As Rocco mentioned in one of his previous blog posts, Marathon Sports was even hosting a debate this evening on the topic. Of course this all makes for fascinating reading and discussion. How is it that for millions of years, man has coped with the impact of running barefoot before the dawn of modern running shoes in the 1970s?

At this point, I don’t intend to give up on my running shoes, but I do anticipate training in the VFF at least once per week to strengthen my feet, which I believe will only benefit my shod (not a typo!) running. Personally, I’ve had some positive physical results that I’ll share in an upcoming post. In the meantime, check out the links above and feel free to weigh in with your own two cents.

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