A couple of points I would add:

1. Many people seem to think barefoot running is all about the feet, and that couldn’t be further from the truth. Barefoot running is about allowing your feet to receive feedback so that you can improve your overall running form. I’m trying barefoot, not because I like getting my feet dirty, but because my legs absolutely LOVE it.

2. As a political scientist, I am always a little biased toward following the money trail. One doesn’t have to be a politician to support whichever view puts money in his or her pocket. I expect most (though not all) podiatrists to do everything they can to sell orthotics. I expect Chris McDougall to do everything he can to sell books. You can expect me to try to spend as little as necessary on running shoes. :)

Regards

Tommy from http://www.skyhighhobby.com

can you mention some of them? i failed to find any
thanks!

I’ve tried both. Running with Macs is great and they look great too, but they are expensive and there are some places they just don’t go. PCs are cheap and support running pretty much anywhere, but occasionally they freeze up and sometimes I have to reboot.

I just found your blog and it looks great. I commend you for offering a sober appraisal of the shod vs. unshod/minimal shoe debate. The pendulum tends to swing too far in these situations.

I’m not sure if you’re familiar w/the Science of Sport (http://www.sportsscientists.com) but they’ve done a very thorough, even-handed discussion of the issue. You can look here (http://www.sportsscientists.co… for that discussion and a lot more on all things running-related.

Thanks,
Kyle Norman
http://www.DenverFitnessJournal.com

If you go to Google Scholar and search for “shock attenuation running” a bunch will come up.

Julie,

Free’s and Green Silence do feel quite different – both are light, but the
Free’s are a lot more flexible. Green Silence feels a bit closer to the
Ground, but it’s hard to say if that’s real or not. I just ran a race in the
GS on Wed. and they worked great for the 5K – I also wore them for most of
my 28.5 mile Relay for Life and the experience was positive. There are some
new GS color schemes coming out apparently in August:
http://www.facebook.com/brooks…
.

Pete

Thanks for adding your thoughts George! I’m very tempted to do the same with
my Frees. You might be interested to know that the new Free Run+ 2 allows
you to choose the Free Run upper with a 3.0 sole. Check out NikeID.com.

Pete

Heeled shoes extend back centuries – Mongols used them to lock the feet into stirrups, royalty wore them to increase stature, people wore them to raise the feet above slush and excrement in the street. Heels were raised on shoes in the early seventies in part to ease strain on the Achilles tendon, but that created instability leading to the idea that pronation causes knee problems. Next came pronation control. New technology added to correct for side effects of other new technology so to speak.