That's it, I've decided I will NOT be running in shoes ever again, if I can help it. By shoes, I mean those heavy, expensive things with huge wadges of foam and rubber and laces - not Vibrams or other minimalistic "foot protectors".
The reason is plain and simple: it hurts.
Now for a bit of background into this decision. Monday was a bank holiday here in the UK. It started off a bit dull and grey, but the sun soon prevailed and it turned into a glorious day, so the wife and I went out for a nice long walk in the sunshine around some nearby lakes. I've been wearing my Vibrams more and more recently, not just for running, but also for things like cycling into and walking around town, and I thought I'd wear them for our long stroll. Brilliant idea. As expected, it felt great and no complaints after over 3 hours of continuous walking on tar, gravel and grass.
As can be expected in the UK (we measure summer by hours, not months), the next morning was grey and very wet. Instead of a run, I thought I'd hit the rower for a bit of indoor fitness. This only lasted 13 minutes as the fire alarm went off. I was a bit naughty here: instead of dropping everything and getting out of the building to stand in the peeing rain whilst someone walked into the kitchen to confirm that the catering staff had forgotten to turn off the smoke alarms over the cooker, I snuck into the change rooms, grabbed by ID badge and took a run round the office block - in my trainers. Hey, if I'm going to be in the rain, I may as well take advantage of the time and do something useful 
. Bad idea - the shoe part that is.
I didn't actively try and run any differently than usual. I just ran and quite enjoyed the short run too. No problems during the run, but as the day wore on, the pains started to appear. The inner lower part of my shins started to feel very tender - almost bruised. I haven't had this feeling in a very very long time and I can only put that down to not running in shoes.
Thankfully, things felt much better on Wednesday morning and Wednesday's run in Vibrams was good and the day ended without any niggles what-so-ever.
Now this isn't a scientific study, but a very simple personal test that quickly showed that running in shoes unintentionally changes my running style and to the detriment of my body.
So that's it. No more running in shoes for me. It's barefoot, Vibrams (or similar) or no run from now on.
Good for you! Looks like the barefoot training has paid off and encouraged you to run with better form.
I have been slowly building up my running - remember I was a starter! Small runs barefoot at the park, and for the longer runs I have been using my nike rifts. I know they aren't as good as the real thing, but they are a step in the right direction - I'm training for a 10K so need to put in the distance. Think Vibrams are on the cards for this week - gonna go check them out.
How long were you running in traditional trainers before converting to the barefoot option?
Good to hear it Peter. Keep it up and you'll cruise your first 10K.
WRT the shoes, I started writing a response here, but it ended up turning into a huge life story, so I've actually created an "About" page with the answer I was going to put here.
hi
I'm a keen triathlete aiming to take the sport up full time next year. I've been running since i was very young and have always loved it. Unfortunatly i was given some 'proper' runnign shoes for winning a race when i was about 13. i used these instead of my green-flash. all went downhill from there. injury after injury followed and for some reason (probably being young and not thinking for myself) i never thought to blame the shoes!
over the years my feet became weak and lost their arch and i now hardly run at all. i study biomechanics and after properly thinking about running i disagreed with all my lecturers and am now teaching myself to run again. I'm so excited to get little glimpses of what it used to be like, up until now i've been doing drills barefoot but running in shoes (ive gradually changed these to reduce the level of support). I've had some problems with sore ankles, which are slowly sorting themselves out from some early errors in my technique. I want to start properly running barefoot now but think my feet need to be a little stronger first. do you know of any conditioning exercises that I could work on to complement the running that I'm starting in vibrams?
I am competeing at the triathlon world champs in september and am hoping to get good form back by then!
love the blog by the way and will put a link on my website once its fully operational.
Hi Tom. Wow, sounds like you've gone through a similar shoe history as me. Welcome to the world of barefoot/VFF running.
Sadly, I don't have any foot specific conditioning exercises, but I've found the POSE method drills performed barefoot along with offroad running in Vibrams have been ample in strengthening my feet.
It'll take time, but soon enough you'll get pretty strong feet and those arches will strengthen and maybe even appear soon.
Good luck with the tri champs.
...g one more run in shoes. Bad idea. It hurt and on 28 May 2009, I drew a line in the sand and stated I would not run in shoes again.Following my declaration, I enjoyed a fabulous ...