Hi all, so my title is a bit wordy but here is the background before the question. Since the birth of my daughter three years ago, I have had a difficult time getting more than 15 MPW in without injuring myself. I've had enough and decided that I was going to slowly integrate in barefoot running and hopefully, eventually get myself some VFF. I developed plantar fasciitis last summer (July 2010) and it seemed to subside when I rolled my foot over a tennis ball but somehow it's come back again and the ball isn't helping anymore. My doctor had me get some orthotics and I also got some new Mizuno's (all last December). Nothing helps. Then, to top it off, I started having pain on the right inside calf...  about 8 inches above my ankle bone. I took off 2.5 weeks from running and cross trained and I was so put out. I'm tired of being injured. So I thought, geez, I have all the padding, cushioning and whatnot that is "recommended" so I basically said, forget it and I took up barefoot running three days ago (well, barefoot jogging... for a couple blocks) and my pain is lessening and since running barefoot I haven't had any calf pain. It's exciting and terrifying. All I want is to be able to run healthy, something that hasn't happened in 3+ years.

So my question is, should I now start running again, in my regular Mizuno's with the orthotics and do barefoot drills for a few blocks while slowly building up barefoot mileage?

Or should I only run barefoot and continue cross training while I build up barefoot mileage?

Thanks for sharing your experience. I guess I'll just take it slowly and see what works best for me... I tried running today with my shoes on and immediately started feeling some tightness in my calves. Once I removed my shoes, the tightness went away. It was unreal. I am still feeling the plantar fasciitis in the morning though. And it's weird, but walking around barefoot in my home is somewhat uncomfortable... In that I feel the plantar fasciitis more walking around barefoot than anything else. Oh well, patience right?

+2 on what H said.

I was going to add the suggestion to go BF around the house and where ever else you can and to wear zero heel drop shows when not BF. When I first started experimenting with BF over 18 months ago I bought a pair of Tom's shoes, thin soled, zero heel drop, canvas upper because DW liked the look and they give a shoe to a needy child for each one they sold. Well my feet hurt like heck when I first wore them all day. I almost returned them but realized what was happening was that they were minimal to beat all heck and I was using BF type muscles when I wore them. So I wore them as much as I could and after a couple of weeks the aches stopped. If you have flip flops with a hard sole and even thickness (zero heel drop) you might try wearing them as much as possible as well to strengthen the feet and get them read for longer BF runs.

Last comment - form. As I have been learning at a local Austin BF Meetup, try running in place to get foot strike feel, also use high knees so that you don't push off the ball of your foot. I had to learn not to heel strike (hey after 64 years in shoes.... it takes some relearning), and now not to push off ball of foot. Both of which lead to blistering. Had blood blister on right heel, don't get that anymore, and am now practicing more high knee to eliminate blisters/hot spots on ball of rt foot. I have left calf injury from 1986 and still compensate by favoring rt foot, which strikes harder etc and is most likely the underlying cause of previous rt side running injuries. 

Good luck, relax, patience, and enjoy! And keep us up to date on your progress!