Just make sure they're not planning to dissect you.

Neat! We'll be waiting for the results! Arla

But he doesn't share his log so how do you really know?

Because I run with him most weeks and I've gotten to see new models that he is wear testing?

The data collection was today, it was interesting. The researchers taped a bunch of reflectors to different points on my foot, leg, and hip. The reflectors were tracked in three dimensions by five infrared cameras. I had an accelerometer bound to my shin measuring vertical impact. I was running across a pad that measured both horizontal and vertical forces. And I was filmed on a high-speed digital video camera. They explained that the gold-standard in biomechanical studies is to actually embed pins into your bones, to track exactly where each bone is moving. But they had to make do with approximations measured through the skin, which suits me just fine! I ran down a 50 foot test track about 80 times. Some barefoot, some with fivefingers, some in Asics Cumulus. First on a hard surface, and then on a padded surface. They had me adjust my starting point so my right foot would land in the zone where the sensors were. I got to look over the raw data with them. The force measurements were just raw voltages, so it's hard to draw conclusions until after they're standardized in Gs, but they said it looked like my overall impact was pretty low. The video was interesting, it confirmed that my heels do touch the ground first, but my forefoot rotates downward rather quickly and appears to takes a lot of the load. In the video, it looked like my form barefoot and in fivefingers was identical, whereas in the Asics it was different. They shared a couple interesting observations. They've observed that habitually barefoot runners are very consistent (in terms of repeatedly hitting the sensor pad) while barefoot, and then all over the place in shoes. Habitually shod runners are the opposite -- consistent foot placement with shoes on, and then all over the place while barefoot. They also observed (in an earlier study) that when people learn to run barefoot, their ability to run in shoes actually increases too, in terms of reduced impact. And they've also found that it's harder to keep the sensors attached firmly to the barefoot runners, because they have more soft tissue (muscle and fat) in their feet. They're going to send me detailed results in a couple months after they've gone through it all, including the video. Definitely looking forward to getting it and hopefully posting it.

Great report! Did you get your free goods?

Not yet, I'm supposed to get them by mail from Vibram.

Oh, and one whole mile BF with no next day soreness!!

Congrats!