I am so happy to see this conversation taking place. I have been a runner for 20+ years and have developed Plantar FaSciitis in my right foot and IT band pain in my left knee. I recently purchased the Vibram Five Finger shoes and started slowly. The most amazing thing happened the first time I wore them, I started slowly as suggested and ran only on grass. My first time out, I was thinking I would just go until I felt my same old pains in my knee and foot. I was running on grass and after about 30 minutes I realized I had runn over 3 miles, so I stopped - Crazy I thought, I usually start to feel pain at about a mile or so. It was so much fun running with my toes free and feeling the grass, a really enjoyable run. It has been about a month and I am up to 5 miles now and can run on pavement. With 2 races coming up this month, I thought I should adjust to the harder surface. I will say that I have not felt any pain with the exception of muscle soreness as my calfs adjusted, but no more ITB or PF. Also - I found an easy way to clean the shoes. Us a bit of baking soda and some Woolite. I just wash mine in the sink once a week and set them outside to dry.

Ha!  Mine are brown too - they only looked gray because I run on dusty gravel roads!  There is another brand that makes a similar shoe to the five fingers without individual toes.  They're called Feelmax, but I have no idea if they're available in the US yet.  Check out http://www.feelmax.fi/.

Feelmax are available in the US.  I bought one from this online retailer - just got it yesterday: http://www.extremeoutfitters.us/feelmaxniesa.aspx

I paid $80 + shipping.  I order it 1.5 sizes smaller than my running shoe.  I havent run in it yet but feel that it may be a little tight; either that or I am use to the roominess of my running shoes. 

I was planning to integrate some Feelmax running into my schedule this month, but I changed plans.  I am going for some huge miles this month (for me) and do not want to throw a wrench into it.  So Feelmax running will have to wait till next month.

James

I just read the book a few days ago. I also finished C25K a few days ago.

I wrote about this over on the C25K forums when I graduated, I'll just copy it here because what i wrote deals with the book, running barefoot and  minimalist shoes

-

I began working out in January, was getting in pretty good health, but

running is something I could never do, not even when I was young. I

love to bike, and I enjoy my gym workouts, but I wanted to both do

something I could do anywhere without any equipment and something that

I'd never been able to do: run.

When I began C25K on July 6th, I

could not run a block. But i knew that many other people had done this

program and that they had succeeded, and so I set out to do it exactly.

I printed it out and put it on my fridge.

Now I am fortunate to

have in my family a triathlete. My stepdad is 69 years old and still

swim-bike-runs them, and he wins his age group almost all the time. He

is an avid health freak and was really excited that I decided to do

this.  He found, a couple of years ago, a philosophy of running called

POSE - similar in some ways to Chi Running, Evolution Running - a

barefoot philosophy with some other bio-mechanical theories and

exercises.

So I figured *since I had never been a runner and had

no bad habits to unlearn, that i might as well start off with POSE. I'd

read the book, I watched a video, I did weeks 1 on a football field,

barefoot*.  Liked it.  I asked my stepdad to join me once during week 2

to help me work on my stride, tempo, form and so on, which he did. It

was very helpful.

The following week I moved onto the rubberized

track that ran around the field. At this point I wanted shoes so *I

borrowed my daughter's Puma H streets which are pretty much a thin

strip of leather on the bottom*, as close to barefoot as I could get

without going to the Vibram 5 Fingers. 

I followed the program

exactly, never running less, never running more, always doing the 5

minute warmup walk and adding a 5 minute cooldown walk as well.

As

an aside here, once distances were offered in the plan (week 3), I used

those instead of time. I figured my point was to get to 5K, not 30

minutes, and since I don't own a watch and I had this track available,

it was much easier to measure distance than time anyway. (I didn't find

out about the podcasts until week 6).  So I ran it as 1/4 run, 1/8 walk

etc.

I went on a family vacation to central Oregon during week 4

and my dad helped me find a local trail with KM markers. I ran two runs

there, joined my my daughter and brother. Despite the crazy heat, those

were good runs. I also got to do a lot of hiking and realize how much

more fit i was becoming...a mile and a half, up and down mountains was

not only doable, it was enjoyable.

When I arrived at week 5 I

did the track the first two days. Looking at the third day's straight

no-walk run, I decided it was time to hit the street...or bike path,

anyway. I was a little nervous about my minimalist shoe style and how it would

adapt to asphalt, concrete, pavement.  My stepdad assured me that my

running barefoot and nearly so had been strengthening my feet and that

I could run on hard surfaces without padded shoes...but never having done it, I was

nervous.  I had decided on a real 5K to run and it was on the street,

so I knew I had to get out there at some point.

So I pulled up

Google Earth and mapped myself a 2 mile run. I did my warmup walk to my

start point, set my water down in someone's yard, and set out.  I won't

lie, it was hard...mainly because in my head I knew I'd have no walk

breaks.  But i did it, and it was one of the most satisfying runs

ever...because to me it was a "real" run. 

Also, my feet did fine.  *To

this point I've been injury-free...except for after the Oregon runs

when I was forced to wear shoes with a significant cushy sole (as my

daughter was running with me and she wore her own that I'd been

borrowing). I got some hip pain from those runs that did eventually go

away...but whenever I've run in the "running" shoes, it returns.*  I've

since learned more about why that is, and will be getting my own shoes,

I just need to make a decision about one of two kinds.  Anyway...

Weeks

6, 7 and 8 had some good runs and some tough runs. Sometimes it was

really hot (it was August) and sometimes I caught a cool evening. I

learned to map runs with lots of shade if I had to run in the daytime.

Sometimes I mapped myself a run that turned out to be much hillier than

i thought....but I did them.  I let myself walk for a few seconds on

those....and that got me through.  After those I returned to a couple

of favorite routes, flat

I did the first run of week 9 and it

was hard. Really hard, not fun.  Here i am so close to the end that I

can feel it, and it's gotten harder.  And now I've gone and signed up

for a 5K...I HAVE to do this.  Enter labor day weekend and a camping

event, music, friends, drinks...I took 5 days off.

This week,

Wednesday, I did W9D2 and it was FUN!  I added the .1 miles to my 3

mile run so I could actually do a 5K and I DID it!  Man, that was a

high.I did it in 38:55 - almost a 13 minute mile pace but I didn't

care...I ran it all and I knew I could do the real race in a week and a

half.

In the meantime *I'd requested a book from my library

called "Born to Run" by Christopher McDugal, and it came in yesterday.

I picked it up and started reading it at 8PM last night. I read it all

the way through, couldn't put it down, finished it around 2AM.I knew I

had to finish today - not this evening (when i prefer to run - never

been a morning person) But this morning.  The love of running that

comes through in that book made me excited.*

*So I got up and put

on my duds and realized my daughter was wearing "our" shoes.  Wow. I

really didn't want to run in the puffy running shoes.  But that seemed

like an excuse to me this morning, it was too important to me to go

on and finish the program...so I put them on and set out on the same route I did Wednesday.* 

*It

was harder,* *I could feel the muscles  of my foot trying to feel the

ground through the soles and not getting the feedback they wanted*, but

I did not let that stop me.  I just ran.  When I got to a sunny part of

the path, I ran faster, back in the shade i slowed down. I ran as fast

as I could the last hundred yards, to where my water was stashed, and

then I ran past it, just a bit, to add the .12 miles I needed to call

my 3 mile run a 5K.

And i finished.

I have my 5K race on

9/19 - next Saturday. I will use my daughter's shoes for that, then I

will either get a pair of those for myself or go "all the way" and get

the Vibram Five Fingers.  Not sure yet. But i know I don't want to run

in the thick soled running shoes anymore.

Do I LOVE running? I

don't know. There are times I feel good when I'm doing it and times I

do not. I always feel a huge sense of accomplishment when i finish a

run, for sure. I love what it has been doing to my body...muscles have

popped out in places I didn't know they were there.  I can hike, I can

run, I can do a lot of things that were hard for me, or even

impossible,  before this experience.  I love that I set a goal and

worked towards it and accomplished it.

I love that I have

options open to me now....do I want to become a One Hour Runner? Do I

want to go for a half marathon? Do I want to work on my swimming

technique so I can do a triathlon? Do I want to keep biking and working

out and simply run 3 miles a couple of times a week?

I don't know yet. But it feels great to be able to consider the possibilities, and know I can do any of them if I choose.

So thanks, C25K, you have been an empowering experience.