Can you please give me some advice.

Background:

I've spent most of my childhood barefoot, trained karate barefoot  for 6 years (age7-13), and walk barefoot around the house all the time and run on the beach a couple of times a year.  in other words, being barefoot is not a new experience for me...in fact, it's always been my preference, now I dont' even wear sandals to go shopping anymore.

I've been training Kung Fu for the past 6 years (not 100% dedicated due to life, but I'm back in full swing for a few months now).  This shows that I've got a solid base of cross-training and my legs/core/back are quite strong.

I've been running for 5 years  to supplement Kung Fu.  I've been generally comfortable running about 12km in under 1h20m.  I've  run 2to4 half marathons per year for the last 3 years.

Current:

I bought a pair of VFF KSO's 2 weeks ago and am LOVING IT! I ran/walked/jogged 8km(Sat) and 12km(Sun) on the first weekend.  Ran 6km on a treadmill(Sat), and 12km(Sun) on the 2nd weekend.  In between, I have had a few 2km runs and 2 Kung Fu sessions a week in these things.  I'e also taken 2 barefoot walks for about 1km each (tender soles).  This sounds like a very large load when compared to the recommendations that I've read (start with 30min sessions in VFF's), but my body is fine aside from a few lazy aches when I get out of bed...these are gone by the time I'm out of the shower.

Tomorrow: I'm racing a 10km Valentine's race in  my VFF's.

My Question is:  In Jan, I  started training for a 21 km on 21Feb.  I was on track until I bought my VFF's.  I *know* that I've got the legs/lungs to complete the race *IF* I wear shoes, but I think that 1month of minimalist training is not good enough for me to run in my VFF's.  I am still set on entering the run.  My options are:

1. train as I am in my VFF and run the race in shoes (10km race on Friday, 15km run on sunday, taper during the week, 21km race on Sunday 21 Feb)

2. train as I am in my VFF's enter the race and quit when my legs say STOP...my wife agreed to pick me up :-)

3. ???

I am scared that option 1 will hurt me because I haven't worn my Asics since my last 15km run about 3 weeks ago!  AND I will lose the gains that I  made when running minimalist.

regards

XCal

If you can race a 10k in FiveFingers and not feel bad, you can probably also race 21k.  Make your decision based on the 10k.

Most people do need more time to get to that level, but it sounds like you already have some pretty good fitness from some significant time spent barefoot.

On the other hand, I wouldn't worry about doing the 20k in your old shoes if you want to.  The time you've spent in VFFs isn't going to make the shoes suddenly more risky.  It just might make the shoes feel annoyingly heavy and clunky.