Finally a Fair Amount of Walking in the Fivefingers

I've been wearing the fivefingers almost everynight this week, but a non-barefoot disaster struck on Saturday when I got sick with all the oh-so-fun flu type symptons.  Miserable weekend and been a bit slow recovering this week.  So finally on Wed I was feeling good enough to get out of the house and do something at least.

Over the past few days of wearing the shoes it has become obvious that learning to walk is going to take some thought to do it right, running on the other hand is a no brainer you just automatically do it.  It turns out that even though I don't wear shoes at all when I'm at home in my apartment, I still don't walk right and this is because the carpet is soft enough that I can still walk with a heel strike, and actually if your walking slowly the fivefinger sole is soft enough to allow you walk with a heel strike.

Today’s grocery shopping trip to Walmart is the most I have walked around in the fivefingers with a conscientious effort to walk correctly.  Certainly gave the feet a workout and it’s a lot easier to understand how much atrophy has occurred in my feet.  If you’re reading this keep in mind that when I say “my feet” unless you’ve already begun your own revolution this applies to you also.  The best thing I discovered today is that reverting back to walking naturally as we were meant to walk isn’t going to be all that hard, I found myself walking correctly once I got home also and had been off my feet for a bit and had a chance to forget about making an effort.  As expected though, it didn’t take much walking and the muscles in my feet were worn out.  Wow did it feel good though, I felt my whole body thanking me as I padded around.  Really looking forward to getting the Vivobarefoot shoes, it was ugly cramming my feet back in their steel toed coffins to go back to work this morning.  It’s even uglier to have to walk in the things…

The Barefoot Revolution Begins

Picking up a copy of Christopher McDougall’s book “Born to Run” is the same thing as winning the lottery (and a big payout at that)! Maybe not a payout in real money, but who can put a price on your general health and well-being? The answers that Christopher discovers in Born to Run are so basic and fundamental that they are revolutionary! One of my biggest pet-peeves in life is believing something that is not true, and after reading this book, thinking about the biomechanics of the human foot, and doing 5 minutes of experimenting, I have no doubt that walking and running barefoot is how we were designed! I now compare wearing shoes as we know them to drinking Mercury as medicine, both were considered true at one time and both are now known to be bad for you! I highly recommend picking up a paper copy, or an electronic copy, which is really how I “read” the book, (when I say read, I really mean I listened to the book…) The book tells a tale of a real life adventure to remote parts of the world on a journey to discover the truth, and along the way Christopher meets some really interesting people and most importantly discovers the truth and makes life better for anyone who decides to embrace the most fundamental truth of his discovery!
Summary of my new now known truth: Running Shoes = coffins for your feet = drinking Mercury as medicine
Side note Rant:

It angers me to think that companies like Nike and Addidas have known this for years and have conspired to not only bury the truth, but continued to develop products they know are not healthy for human beings. It angers me even more that now that the truth is going mainstream they continue their conspiracy by leveraging marketing power over publications like Runner’s World…

OK, moving on,
THE REVOLUTION BEGINS: DAY 1 – Going to buy some Vibram fivefingers
Amazingly Redman's Shoes in Kearney, NE had the fivefingers in stock,  I drove over afterwork and picked up a pair of KSO's and a couple pair of Injinji socks.  Obviously, wore them for the rest of the night. Looking forward to giving them a test spin.

 Injinji Socks - Of course they have toes, how else would they fit in the fivefingers?

Leadville 100 - Nope

Yes or No emails were sent out yesterday for the Leadville 100, and I didn't get in. Unlike last year, I'm not going to pay a $1000 for the Carmichael camp. I would like to, as it was a fun camp and the race lives up to all the hype, but in the end I don't want to put a dent like that my wallet.

There is however plenty of 100 mile mtb races, so I'll have to look into finding another event to replace the Leadville experience.