My vast 4 weeks of barefooting as a benchmark.  I think you should start with .25 miles of completely barefoot and leave the kso's at home.  My reasoning is that barefooting will kill your calves until you build muscle/ develop your form.  If you go out in your kso's for 2 miles you will end up either running with improper form or injuring yourself.  I would recommend completely disregarding any previous running experience and start from scratch with your barefooting.  Start with .25 miles at a time then add maybe a tenth of a mile per week to your runs, then add the kso's once you have it figured out.

I just wrote about my experiences with starting barefooting on my blog here (don't worry, I'm not selling anything here, I swear):

http://www.dragonslife.org/barefoot-running-the-beginning

 

Perhaps you'd find something helpful, although I am by no means an expert of any kind. If you have any feedback, I'd love that as well.  Good luck, and I second the notion of listening to Ed!

 

 

 

Interesting.  I do have a question on the blog post though.  You said that you should start running and go as far as you can without getting blisters, but how do you know how far that is without getting blisters?

 

For example, my first ever BF run was a half mile.  It felt great and I didnt get any blisters.  My next BF run was 2 miles.  It still felt great and I got no blisters, but should I have pushed it farther.  For me the problem doesnt seem to be blisters, but building up the muscles in the feet that I havent used because of the shoes.  I can feel the soreness in those muscles the day after a BF run and am glad I didnt go much farther than I did, but if the problem was jsut blisters I think I could probably have gone another few miles.

 

So I think a mention of the strengthening of those unused muscles and not pushing them too far (which I think could be easy to do because they are such small muscles) might be helpful as well in your blog.

 

 

Thanks for the feedback Jeff.  For me, the limiting factor was blisters, and I can definitely feel them forming.  It feels like a specific hotspot on your foot that is becoming more tender. 

 

I should probably remove the part about the blisters and leave the distance aspects in there.  That seems to be the bigger component since the calves tend to tighten up quickly on us.

 

Keep on, keeping on and you'll get past that tight calves time. I found it really difficult to get over the hump including shoe based running my schedule though.  Good luck!

 

I think the key is to be sure to listen to your body and shut the barefooting down before you feel overwhelmed.

 

Well, i "ran", if you can call a 25 minute per mile pace a run, 0.5 miles on Monday evening.  I think I chose the rockest, worst gravel dirt road for my first run.  But I loved the fit and feel of the VFF, and neither my feet nor my legs hurt afterwards.

 

SO this morning I went to trail and went about 2.5 miles.  This trail was more natural, but still had plenty of rocks (part of WS100).  I found I was very hesitant going downhill, which is usually my favorite part of trail running.  I was afraid of landing too hard on a rock edge, or of stubbing my toes.  But the rest of the run went really well, and no pains afterwards, yet. Yes, I feel every rock, and there is "pain", but I think I'll get used to that?  i think of it more as a foot masage .

 

Also, on this longer run, I was able to "zone out' and enjoy the scenery and the run, etc., like i normally do, so I think am getting more relaxed already.

 

MTA: And my pace this morning was up to 17 minute miles (note: lots of uphill walking on this run).

Fantastic news, keep us posted!

Wow, 8/10 to 2/10. That's a huge difference.  Hopefully the pain will continue to recede.  I sympathize with the heel too. I've taken a few painful missteps as well. The longer I run barefoot or with VFF the less frequent these missteps seem to occur.

 

I've found that the most difficult trails are those that were once roads - and were gravelled or paved and now falling apart.  These tend to have an insane amount of smaller rocks at the surface, causing me to slow down to carefully place my feet. I seem to be running my "shod" pace except for on those sections of trails with lots of small rocks.

 

I agree completely with this. The smaller to medium sized rocks, particularly on hills can be very troublesome. This too appears to resolve itself with practice. I've found something that seems to hurt more than those rocks. Wet snow tracks (foot prints, sleds) that have since frozen into solid ice.  Cover that with some snow and it's like a treasure hunt for pain.

 

I ran last week on a frosty/icy day/slightly wet trail, and had some problem with lack of grip. Going up and down hills was slippery. Will be interesting to see how the VFFs do throughout the winter. I'll wear them as long as they seem to "work".

 

I've had no issue with the VFF's this winter, despite running on ice several times. I can't imagine what else you could wear on your feet that would be better. What did you have in mind?

 

I've run with hex screws screwed into the bottom of my running shoes and felt as though I had less control than when simply wearing the VFF. I think it may have to do more with the stride.  Instead of pushing off, the feet pickup is much kinder to running in icy conditions.

 

Congrats on the success so far, stories like this are inspiring.

trails2run-

I don't know if you've seen the VFF Treks, they have leather uppers and a much more grippy tread. They have noticeably better traction.