linh.nguyen

I will warn you now,  you’re going to see a picture of my foot, naked and all.  If you have a large monitor/high res, it may be too late.  And if you don’t know about barefoot running, Google it.

With that, I had my first jog with the Vibram Five Fingers.  I got the KSO‘s in grey-palm.  It took nearly six, yes six, weeks of constantly checking the site  until my size was in stock, in the color I wanted.  Yes, I really did check almost every day.  And no, I’m not a crazy runner.  BUT, I was really anxious to try it out given I’m completely flat footed and always had odd issues jogging.

I’ve had these for a little over a week now, wearing them here and there to get a sense of how they feel.  Off the bat, I noticed I strike my heel quite a bit.  Of course, given my shoe wear pattern, you can tell this as well.  What struck me was I don’t really notice it walking purely barefoot, but I could instantly catch it wearing the Five Fingers.  I slowly adjust my stride to essentially be shorter and more focused on the ball of my feet. Other than that, not much to report.  It’s odd walking around “barefoot,” that’s all.  No one has yet to stop and ask me anything.

Today, I went for a jog.  First jog this year actually.  I’ve been on the elliptical exclusively since I bought one.  But I remember jogging after not jogging for a while, and how my legs felt.  This certainly was that, and then some.  I could feel muscles in my calves I did not feel before, haha.  I mean, my calves have been sore from jogging before, but this felt… different.  I could also feel my arches stretching more at times.  I’ve had this happen jogging with normal shoes, so I’m not sure what to think of it, especially for my first outing.

Unfortunately, halfway through my short jog (aka, 10 minutes in), I felt a cutting pain in my left foot, inner side.  Something in the shoe was cutting me, or so I thought.  I stopped and inspected my fat-flat foot to find out it was somehow getting pinched.  The result at home is as shown:

Sexy, no?  It was actually a straight line initially.  If my Pre had macro, maybe I could show you (listening HP Palm?). *edit* yup, it quickly blistered *end edit*  I tried to readjust the Fives but ended up hobbling back home.  The trial jog was sadly cut short.

Overall, I will say it was actually a very enjoyable experience sans foot-pinching.  I had to focus a lot more on where I was stepping, and felt my toes doing more work in balancing.  Now, I don’t know if they were, but the glove like nature of the shoe made it feel that way.  I followed the normal path I take, so nothing new, on pavement (grass is tall, lots of dogs.. no thanks), some inclines, etc. I’m guessing some of my excitement is more that this is something new to try.  I have yet to get back to the point where jogging was relaxing for me.  It’s more of a chore now because I’ve gotta lose some inches, heh.

So the jogging via Five Fingers has begun.  We shall see how I feel 3 months from now if this has been a positive experience or if I’ll go back to my New Balance running shoes.   Assuming I last that long.