Questions & Answers

I am a Chicago firefighter and have been running seriously for 4 years. I am transitioning to a mid/forefoot strike and am seeking guidance. I have struggled with IT band issues the last two years as my mileage has increased. My last traditional shoe was the Asics 2150 and now I am running in the Saucony Kinvara. My next shoe will be more minimalist and I want to make the right decision. I would like to get a good rotation going between 3 or 4 different shoes, from the Kinvaras to maybe VFF Bikalas (or something similar), in descending order of minimalism. So I am in the market for 2 or 3 more pairs of shoes, however at the moment my ITBS has put a stop to all running. Yep zero miles the last two months. The end is in sight though. I will probably start running again the end of the month...Thanks for reading!

I am a Chef, a father of three, and a runner. I wear my snow and ice Run Amocs in the kitchen despite the gentle ridicule of my cooks. I've been running for a year and a half now. Initially I saw running as a cheap, stress free way to trim fifteen years of fat from my useless blob of a body. But what started as a means to an end became a passion. I was no longer running to get in shape; I was in shape because I loved to run. Over the past year and a half I've been experimenting with various footwear starting with the shoes I used to mow the lawn in to a pair of high heal, one pound, foam blocks, to the Green Silence, to the FF Trek, to home made huaraches, and finally to my beloved 2mm sole run amocs. I tried them in the kitchen but they didn't have enough grab on the wet greasy floors, so I had to get another pair with the snow and ice sole and get the smooth rather than the perforated leather due to food getting trapped in the little holes. I'm taking a break from running through these cold months, allowing the feet to recover. It takes a long time for them to heal if injured due to the 10 - 12 hours per day in the kitchen. Various problems persist. I'll get into those later. Our new baby boy was born on December 30, in our tub, at our house. Just passed him to the wife to nurse after holding him for an hour while I cleaned the kitchen and made myself some coffee. Pleased to meet you.

I'm new to running

and have had orthopedic troubles all my life. Discovering barefoot style shoes has made an incredible difference for my walking! I spent the summer walking extensively and was amazed at how my feet no longer hurt.

The transition to learning to run has been more difficult. Looking forward to some good insight and useful advice from this new community :)

Knee issues (patellar-femoral syndrome initially diagnosed in summer of 2007) sent me down a path of re-evaluating the active side of my life... I have fully converted to minimalist footwear and when warm enough (and light out), barefoot running. Running in a minimalist shoe has gotten me into running and I enjoy it for the first time in my life. Running in a minimalist shoe retrained me how to run with the correct form and now I know how terrible my form used to be. I was a heavy heel striker, so it's now wonder I've always had some sort of knee, ankle or hip issue.

My minimalist shoe line-up started off with VFF KSO's (Oct 2009) and then I added Feelmax Kuuva Boots (Dec 2009), Feelmax Osmas (Feb 2010), Terra Plana Oaks (Dec 2010) and recently won a pair of Vivobarefoot Neos (or Evos depending on availability) through Donald's Running and Rambling blog. I love testing out new shoes and have pretty completely only wear a minimalist shoe whenever possible.

I do have a pair of Inov-8 295s (Almost 3 years old and ready to retire) and recently purchased a pair of New Balance MT 101's. These don't fall under my definition of minimalist, but have worked well for me for trail running, running in snow and hiking/backpacking. The elevated heal of these trail runners doesn't seem to affect my gait too much on an uneven surface.

However, my enthusiasm with running caused me to overtrain for a 25k trail race last spring and since then have been wrestling with IT Band issues. After much research and testing to keep it from flairing up, my plan for my training will now consist of 1 long run per week and cross-training (core exercises, hiking, biking, weight-training, etc.) I've also found that the slow-to-medium pace running seems to irritate my knee the most, so I've adopted a modified Fartlek method of running. It seems that my knee doesn't seem to bother me when I run fast and it doesn't bother me when I walk. So after I warm up, I run hard and then power walk (to catch my breath), run hard and then power walk, repeat, repeat.... This seems to be the ticket for now and maybe at some point I can reintroduce longer runs with consistent slower running. This and icing my knee after every run seems to be the key to keeping the knee from flaring up from the IT Band irritating it.

Hey all, looking forward to this. I'm a Feldenkrais movement educator in NYC. I'm thrilled that there are finally more viable shoes hitting the market!

Chris

Hi,

My name is Josh Leeger. I'm passionate about getting people in touch with their inner exuberant animal...usually through movement. I'm a personal trainer (and exuberant animal trainer), ex massage therapist, and finishing my master's degree in Kinesiology this year! I went through Vibrams and the like a year or so ago, and now rely mainly on moccasins, BFT's Luna's, or my Adidas Sambas (I know, not minimalist...I'm checking out the Adams for a possible next "sport shoe" purchase).

Happy to see the site, Damien. Looking forward to some good exchanges here!

Josh

Hello,

I'm totally non-atheletic and in fact have had such health issues the last 15 years that I've hardly run at all (and regretted it when I did.) I'm finding minimalist shoes are great at realigning my body in a more healthy way, and I'm slowly becoming more active. (If I can avoid doing Too Much Too Soon and having to take a few days off every other week.) I've been wearing minimalist shoes nearly full time for a couple months now, and off an on for a couple months before that. I'm very crafty, so I'm making my own shoes and having fun doing that.

I have been hanging out on the google huaraches group, but am glad to find a place that's less running-centric.