Califoregon Living

This has been my view lately when I head out for my morning run…

Let me introduce you to my friend, Shanti.  She is the kind of friend that you thank God for bringing into your life.  She and her awesome husband, Chris, live a life that is inspirational and entertaining to others.

• Chris is a middle-school math teacher, and Shanti homeschools their kids.
• They have a ten acre farm in Newcastle, complete with a llama, goats, pigs, chickens, turkeys, etc., a pond with rowboat, and an orchard with a wide variety of trees.
• Chris and Shanti have five kids; one son is biological, and four are adopted.  They are a beautiful family, full of love, joy, peace, and very little quiet.
• They slaughter their pigs, goats, and chickens for meat.
• Due to severe food allergies and issues among the family, Shanti cooks ‘Paleo’: They’ve {pretty much} completely eliminated all grains, dairy, soy, sugar and anything processed or with ingredients they can’t pronounce.  She has an excellent blog and shares her recipes: Clean Eats in the Zoo
• She is one of my running buddies, a Vibram Five Fingers fan, and ran the half marathon with me.
• They are active with our church’s adoption network and are currently establishing a ministry called ‘Safe Families for Children‘.
• Shanti and Chris are hospitable and open their house for wonderful events, such as an Easter Egg Hunt, BBQs, even allowing others to watch the seasonal slaughter of their animals (the things you can learn in the homeschool family…let’s keep it real y’all…:))
• My nickname for Shanti is ‘Shamrock’ because my phone does not recognize Shanti as a real name and automatically changes it to ‘Shamrock’.
• This family has an awesome sense of humor, and I have to share with you this year’s Christmas card I received from them.  I laughed out loud upon opening it!
  

We got a kick out of this because this is something we always say!

Initial impression: Did not give them much thought and kind of considered them weird. I also assumed that running in them would cause at least shin splints due to the pounding on the pavement.

In April this year, I was running between 3 to 5 miles, four times a week. I had been doing this routine consistently for months. At that time, I had a very mild pain in my left knee; not something to worry about, but something to keep an eye on. Also, regardless of how much stretching, my right calf was always tight, as in, ALWAYS.

One day, I walked in to have my back adjusted at the chiropractor, and saw a picture of the Vibram Five Fingers on my doctor’s computer. I asked him what he thought about them, and he went off singing their praises.

He said he thought they were great. When I asked him about the pounding of the pavement and injuries from that, here’s what he told me:

“when we run in the traditional shoe, we run with a heel strike; the heel hits the pavement first, then the foot rolls forward. Even though momentum is carrying us forward, technically, when the heel strikes, we are forcing our body to “stop” with each strike, and the impact runs up to our joints; the ankle, knee, and hip. This repeated impact causes wear, tear and injury.

With minimal shoes, or barefoot running, the foot strike is mid-foot first, then the heel touches lightly after. This causes a shorter stride with a forward momentum. The positioning of the body with this strike has the impact moving away from the body, not running up the leg. So, there is actually a decrease in injuries by using these shoes.”

Intrigued, I went to REI and talked to a sales guy who wear nothing other than these shoes. He confirmed what the doctor had just shared with me. He added the following:

“I sometimes hear people say that they were injured using these shoes. When I asked them about their running routine, they would say that they bought the shoes, then ran the distance that they normally ran.

This is crucially important to know before you run in these shoes. No matter how far or how long you have been running in traditional shoes, you need to go back to couch-potato and build yourself back up as if you were a beginner runner. These shoes have you use tiny muscles in your feet and legs that were never used before. You need to build these muscles up and allow your foot and body to acclimate to the different foot strike.”

I decided to try on a pair. The first time I tried them on, my foot cramped up. They also felt really strange. But, I decided to buy a pair, and a friend of mine bought a pair later that day, and we both went back to the beginning with running.

It took us six weeks to go from “couch potato” back to running the five miles. On the negative side, I developed two large blisters on both inside lateral feet. (They healed, and I have not had any issues with blisters since then.)  But, on the positive side: within the first two weeks, my knee stopped hurting, and about six weeks later, as I was standing at my kitchen sink, I felt something like a rubber band snap, and a rush of release on my right calf. The tightness was instantly gone, and I have not had either issue return.

Trained for and ran the half-marathon. My feet physically hurt after the run, but felt perfectly fine the next day.

Now, when I run, I feel more grounded and stable. I am actually afraid at the idea of ever having to run in a traditional shoe again. There’s no going back!