That sounds pretty typical, including sore calves, even to hurting your foot on a, shall we say, "less appropriate", surface.  I do a small percentage (10%) of my running barefoot for the reasons you cited.  I haven't convinced myself that VFFs would be worth the investment for me.  I may at some point to minimize the "ouch, you really shouldn't have stepped on that" feeling.  My PRs are 15 years behind me (I'm 62) so I don't expect any startling improvement there.

I do have to wonder why you, like so many others, seem to feel obligated to say things like "big wedge shaped sneakers" (or "two inch heels" as another runner said).  Simply saying "traditional running shoes" makes the point without getting anybody's hackles up.

Len

While I'm not a full time barefooter and I don't have a goal to be, I do believe in it and minimalist running.  I have very flat feet and I've run in motion control shoes and rigid orthotics for years.  I'm now out of those (both) completely and running in very unstructured thin-soled shoes.  I occasionally barefoot for strengthening as well as for giving me the fantastic tactile feedback barefooting does - to see if I'm staying with the form I want to.

From just watching the forums I'd say be even extra cautious using VFFs if you haven't done any barefooting.  (I'm only relating what I've read - I've never tried VFFs.)  Some say you should do some barefooting PRIOR to going with VFFs.  My sense is that the VFFs can give you a false sense of security.  For example, you may be pushing off more than you realize and, if you do that too long, that can cause issues.  Barefooting will give you that immediate feedback so you can catch that issue if you have it.  I know in my thin-soled shoes I can think I'm not pushing off but, when I take them off and go barefoot, I can feel the pushoff like crazy.

Jim

Like Jim, I am interested in the minimal approach, but am trying to make a gradual transition.  I just changed from a relatively low-heeled neutral shoe to an even flatter one (Saucony Kinvara, along the lines of a Nike Free). It's certainly not the most minimal thing out there, and I doubt I'll ever go all the way to barefoot running or even VFFs. The latter are too pricey an experiment, like Len said -- and I think they make people look like they forgot their gorilla costume at home.

Does anyone remember the Dr. Scholl's ads from the 1970's with people walking on the beach, showing how your heel makes a deeper imprint in sand than your forefoot? They were marketing sandals in which the heel was the lowest part of the shoe. The ads proclaimed it was more natural (I guess if you spend all your time walking in sand!) but apparently they were a flop. I can only imagine how sore people's calves were and how many returns were made to stores!  I'm waiting, bemused, for the day when running shoes are marketed this way.

I own a pair of VFF Sprints and have never run in them.  I wore them hiking for about an hour last summer and I occasionally wear them for quick errands.  They're fun, but I'm not going to risk my running with injury for the increased strength benefit.  You can benefit a lot from barefooting by doing it a small percentage of the time - Len, you have the right idea.  I've talked before about how minimalism is a tool (http://bit.ly/bhlQY7), not something to strive for in itself.  If you're working toward running barefoot all the time, then that's your goal, as opposed to running a PR in an upcoming race.

My suggestion is to keep your barefoot miles where they are right now and increase the time spent in more traditional running shoes.  With more volume you'll become a better runner.

Cheers, - Fitz.

I bought a pair of VFF about 4 months ago and tried to work my way into running in them.  I went way to fast and way to hard and developed a bad case of PF that still gives me some grief!  I have an old Achilles injury that always flares when I'm putting in high miles and what I found was by doing the minimalist approach (VFF)  really helped loosen and strengthened my Achilles and my feet in general.  What I've done since my first overzealous VFF running experiment is I walk 2-3 miles a day in the VFF to keep my Achilles loose and do all my running in my running shoes.  Once I've overcome my PF totally I may try to go back to a small amount of easy running in the VFF. I like Len's approach, 10%.  I would really warn people to use caution getting started to quickly with minimalist running though. PF really stinks!!