Vibram Five Fingers: 1 Month Later
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Well, it’s nearly a month now since I got my Vibram Five Fingers and I’m happy to say I’m still very impressed with them. More importantly, I’m also still injury free and starting to really notice my feet adapting.
To get a true reflection of the effects of running in the Vibrams, I’ve run exclusively in them. My “normal” running shoes have been relegated to the status of a fashion item (I wear them with shorts when flip-flops aren’t appropriate) and plan to keep it that way.
The first few runs were a little fairy-like as I ooohed and aaaahed each time I encountered a small stone or some particularly course tarmac, but now I hardly notice them. It actually feels like I’ve got a lot more cushioning under my feet than I really do.
I’m still keeping my runs relatively short (3-6km range) and sticking to grass one day a week (round the boundary rope of a nearby cricket field) at the moment as whilst I’m not getting any injuries, I don’t want to get any either; switching to being almost barefoot is a major change. I’m also trying to strengthen my feet and the muscles around my feet as they can feel a little tired at the end of the longer runs.
The only negative aspects I can find with switching to the Vibrams is the anxiety to go further and faster than I really should, and the strange looks and comments I get from people who see me in the Vibrams. I don’t give a monkeys about the latter, I just wish my feet were stronger so I could get over the former.
Unfortunately, that’s not going to be happening in the immediate future as my running is going to have to take a bit of a back seat over the next few weeks as I get married and head off on our “familymoon” (Mum and Sam arrive from SA tomorrow and we can’t really send them packing on Saturday morning 
).
One thing is for sure, running in the Vibrams is quickly bringing back the love of running I once had and now I’m actually starting to set myself some running related goals. The first goal is to get back to running 10k road races, and I’m being quite realistic here too by aiming for sub-45 mins and not the sub-35 mins I was doing before I stopped running. The long term goal is to one day get rid of the Vibrams and run barefoot for all distances on all terrain, but I expect this to take many years to happen, especially for the longer distances.
Only time will tell how I get on, but I’ll keep the world updated as I get on.
2 Responses to “Vibram Five Fingers: 1 Month Later”
- 1 Pingback on Aug 1st, 2008 at 16:34
I heard about the Vibram5F on the Phedippidations podcast and managed to pick up a pair on a trip to NY,NY 2 weeks ago. I got back to the UK to find that I too had gotten a size too large - but I kept my pair anyway and spent a week walking around in them to get use to them (the 1/4″ gap at the heal hasn’t made much difference because as Colin say’s you walk/run on the ball of the foot in them so your foot doesn’t slop about much). I finally went for a 4km run in them the other day on the road and whilst I agree with your experiences I have to caution others that I have had stiff calves for 2 days now; 4km was a bit too far for a first outing. To give this context I normally run 16km 2 or 3 times a week but clearly I have come to rely on shoe-tech too much
and would urge others to try these shoes but like Colin advises you should take it slow and build up. The feeling id great; happy running!