new post-er
2009 November 25 (19:02)
categories: Stubbed Toes, Vibram FF
I started down the road of barefoot running for all the right and good reasons.
I’ve had three foot fractures over the years, the most recent was in Feb 2009. While near the end of my daily 5-miler, I landed on a good-sized rock, but on the inside edge of my shoe. As we were going pretty fast, my ankle rolled hard to the outside. Rolled so hard, in fact, the tendon attached to my cuboid bone detached from the bone, taking a hunk of bone with it in the process. I knew it was broken before I finished rolling in a big heap on the ground, as I’d done the same thing to the other foot in 2005.
I eventually healed, and my foot doctor (I’ve just about put her son through college…) prescribed some bigger orthotics than what I was wearing when I last went down. After trying to run through the summer in Dallas, my feet and legs were killing me and I packed it in, convinced my running was permanently over.
I ran across a web article about barefoot running and saw this as my only chance. I had been doing it for three or four weeks and was out for a run in my Vibram FF’s when disaster struck. I failed to get high enough when transitioning from the street to a curb, struck my big toe on the curb, and bent it down hard and broke it.
That was 3+ weeks ago. When I get out of the boot I’m in in another week, I fully intend to start over with the barefootness. Aside from the obvious warnings of watching where I’m going, are there any words of wisdom for re-starting my barefoot running?
Rick - Dallas, TX
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Comment
from climbhoser
Time 2009 November 26 Thu at 8:21 am
What Ken Bob said…ditch the VFFs.
I tried VFFs, too, thinking I could keep mileage high while my feet slowly toughened and eventually I could do distance totally barefoot. That’s not how it works, though.
I read Ken Bob and others saying as much, but passed their comments off as extremist and dogmatic. I mean, Ken Bob is obviously a big believer, but I wanted to hear folks like myself saying they tried VFFs and it didn’t work. I had to learn through experience…but you can take it from others and myself and start right.
VFFs allowed me to run too far and I got a stress fracture. I was off running for weeks. Don’t let that happen to you.
Baby steps. Start REALLY slow, and do more walking than running. Run really short distances. You will feel even .25 miler runs.
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Comment from Barefoot Ken Bob
Time 2009 November 25 Wed at 7:05 pm
First of all, whenever practical (not too cold, not running 100 miles over gravely mountain trails), lose the Vibram Five-Fingers.
They will get in the way of your bare soles telling you to run even more gently, and paying even closer attention to how you are running, as well as encouraging you from NOT going further than your bare soles, feet, etc., are ready to go.
Think like an infant, just beginning to walk, before you run. Take time to teach your feet to feel the ground – various types of ground – and to teach your brain to learn to understand what your soles are trying to say.
And of course, read at least the Beginning and How to Run pages and categories on this website.