Day 1 of Kyle's barefoot running

So here is a little bit of a background with my barefoot/minimalist running. As my wife had said before, we started the change in our lives in October 2010. In March 2010 we started running, and I got my first pair of Vibrams in June I believe. There were a pair of black Vibram KSO and I loved how they felt. They felt so light on my feet and I loved how strong and free I felt when I wore them. I eased into them slowly, adjusting my running form as needed. I still got quite a number of blisters, but that got better as I ran more. I was starting to run some pretty long distances in them while we were training for the Harvest Half Marathon. The facebook admin for the HHM was a barefooter. Barefoot Neil of the Because all the cool kids are doing it blog. I read his race report from last year for the half and the idea struck me that maybe, just maybe I could run the half in just my Vibrams. I ran longer, improved my form and I am proud to say that I did run the half, my very first race ever, in my Vibrams, with a finishing time of 1:46:XX. Much better than I would have ever thought I could do (although all the extra gravel sections weren't much fun).

Following the half my wife started using her Vibrams and we started talking more and more about Barefoot running. We both started walking around more barefoot and actually loved the feeling. We had done small runs up the street but today I took the plunge. For my noontime run I decided to take off my Vibrams and start off going barefoot. I ended up running for 2 miles barefoot and then putting on my Vibrams for 3 more miles.

I felt alive and free and I loved the sensation of running barefoot. I used the same form as with my Vibrams and I thought I was doing fine. This was not true. My big toes both started feeling very raw and looking at them later I know have two blood blisters on my big toes. Ouch.

When starting barefoot, if you push off with your toes when you run, as I was doing, you get blisters. Barefoot Neil was kind enough to give me some pointers.

"Lift your foot off the ground, don't push"
"Basically pull with your hips instead of push with your quads."

Too late for my poor toes, but I will attempt to do so next time. I'm not discouraged, I knew it would go slowly to transition. Robbie was able to use this advice for her first run, and hopefully I can figure out how to make my body do the same. We shall see next time.

Kyle