A couple of months ago Jason Robillard approached me asking if I'd be interested in reviewing his book The Barefoot Running Book: A Practical Guide to the Art and Science of Barefoot and Minimalist Shoe Running. Being one eager to see how others can learn about barefoot running, I graciously accepted Jason's offer and a couple of weeks later a copy of his booked dropped through the letterbox. Thanks Jason.

The first thing that struck me was the size of the book, or more precisely the lack there of. The book is A5 in dimensions and has only 52 pages of reading material, excluding the exercises and appendix at the back, however the lack of size is easily made up by the wealth of information contained within. The book is broken up into 5 progressive sections: Why Barefoot Running, Pre-running, Starting to Run Barefoot, Intermediate Barefoot Running and finally Other Topics which covers things like hecklers, training and cross training.

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Following on from my review of the VivoBarefoot Aqua shoes by Terra Plana, I've been kindly sent a pair of the much talked about VivoBarefoot Evo running shoes for review and critique and fast approaching two months after receiving them (I've been a busy boy) I'm finally getting around to documenting my experience.

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Looky looky, my VivoBarefoot Aqua review has been given a mention in the press section of Terraplana site. How cool is that??!!

In my quest to go completely barefoot, or as near as possible in as many environments as possible, I've had my eye on replacing all my chunky shoes with more minimalist shoes. I've had my eyes on a couple of brands, including the VivoBarefoot range from Terra Plana, but haven't really seen any in person to get an idea of what they're like. I also wasn't too keen on blindly shelling out for a pair of shoes I'd seen on the internet, have them imported from the US only to find they're hideous in person.

Well, luck was on my side as I was approached by a kind lady on behalf of Terra Plana and given the opportunity try a pair of shoes from their VivoBarefoot range. After much umming and ahhing - "Do I go for the casual looking Aquas for everyday use, or the more formal looking Dharmas for work use?" - I opted for the Aquas, in white (other colours are available), and placed my order.

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What do most people do when their foot starts to hurt after running? They go see their doctor and most of time they're told any number of things from they need a new pair of shoes, their form is bad, they need orthotics and maybe even that they, and all humans just aren't made to run.

That's precisely what happened to Chris McDougall and rather than take his doctors' (both of them) word for it, he set off on an epic journey to discover if man really was meant to run, especially when both doctors had just told him that he just was not meant to run (he's a big lad, like me).

The whole book evolves around the build up to a race between a random group of America's best ultra runners and the Tarahumara tribe - reputed to be the best long distance runners in the world who literally wear pieces of rubber strapped to the bottom of their feet - in the Copper Canyons of Mexico.

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