Ted – If you’re hesitant, I’d wait until after the marathon to try it. I
know a few people on Twitter/Dailymile who are doing just that, but I’m
terrible at holding back under any circumstances, so I went for it. Legs
are stiff tonight, but no real pain of any kind – just feels like i did
resistance training with them for the first time in a year!

Pete

It has been a worthwhile journey. My legs and feet haven’t felt this healthy since being a teenager in the 1970s.

The only painful part of VFF running is frozen toes in the winter.

Thanks Pete! Love your blog and thoughts, keep it up. I meant to say i like the Virbam – so freeing!

You are dead on how the injury came on- makes total sense. I am glad to hear that there might not be a good translation from running in shoes, aka, cloggers, to five fingers and that there needs to be a deliberate process to change the biomechanics. I guess i had some irrational exuberance going on. The Five Fingers just felt great and didn’t want to put on the old cloggers!

Now that i have this injury, do you think i will be predisposed to this injury in the Five Fingers? or if i changed my routine and went back to typical running shoes with five runners interspersed will be ok? I want to keep running in my five fingers, but now am a bit apprehensive. Course I now need to sit out 4 to 5 weeks!

Are you a forefoot runner or do you push off hard with your toes? It’s
interesting since I have very little wear on the sole of my KSO’s, which I
have had for about a year. I tend to land midfoot, so wondering if this
might explain the difference?

Pete

Thanks for the comment! Regarding the frozen winter toes, try the Injinji
socks – I ran down to about 10 degrees F last winter without much trouble as
long as I paired the socks with my KSO’s.

Pete

Sorry to hear about your injury! We’re you running 2 miles every day in them
– that could be the problem?

When I started, I just went once a week in my KSO’s, and anytime I felt
anything unusual I took a break for a bit. Vibrams expose you to a whole
different set of forces, so being a long term runner probably doesn’t have
much bearing on the adaptation process. What happens is you begin loading
your metatarsals in ways that they are not used to (particularly if your
footstrike moves forward toward the forefoot), and if you don’t allow time
for bone remodeling to occur, that can lead to a stress fracture. Sore
calves from initial Vibram running can also compromise shock absorption, so
that can play a role as well. You can think of it not that your form was
bad, but rather that it was right for the shoe, and the body just needs to
adapt to that new form.

I’m at the point now where I was able to do 13.1 in mine last week, and have
been doing a lot of miles in my Bikilas lately.

Pete

Initial exuberance is what gets most of us when we try out the Fivefingers –
I had some pain in my foot after the first run in them, and opted to hold
off for a few weeks. I’m not a medical guy, so hard to say if you’d be
predisposed to further injury. You definitely want to let things heal up
fully before you get back at it, and if you do start mixing Fivefingers back
in, take it very slow. I used Nike Free 3.0s as a transition shoe to the
Fivefingers – I was still heel striking in them, but the lower heel and
extreme flexibility did seem to help with strengthening my feet/legs. A
racing flat mixed in can also help – I’m running in Brooks Mach 12’s right
now for racing and speedwork and I like them. Saucony Kinvara also has a
lower heel, and is cushioned enough for longer runs. I do know several
people who have recovered from metatarsal stress fractures and are now
running great – Steve is one of them (ran a sub-3:00 at Boston about 9
months after his non-Vibram related met fracture):
http://www.runbulldogrun.com/5….

Pete