Somewhere along the line we seem to have confused comfort with happiness.

-Dean Karnazes

Changing your stride sucks. It’s awkward, sometimes painful, and it takes an aggravatingly long time. There are myriad excuses for not trying to change from a heel striker to a midfoot landing — the most repeated one is lack of comfort.

“I’ve been running in sneakers too long.”

“I can’t change now, I’m too old.”

“Running like that is for those fast Kenyans.”

All wrong, and all things I’ve heard. The truth is they’re scared. They’re scared of taking a step outside their comfort zone and taking a risk.

It may all blow to hell in your face, but what if it doesn’t? What if you struggle, fight, toil, and one day find yourself at the end of the road? What if one day you find that you succeeded?

You set out to change your stride, you worked at it almost every day for a year (except when you did too much and got hurt), and now you can’t remember what it was like to heel strike. You’ve shifted your comfort zone to something you desired through effort and strain while racking up a thousand or more miles. What could possibly make you happier than that?

Changing your stride takes time, but most of all it takes a commitment.

No one saves us but ourselves. No one can and no one may. We ourselves must walk the path. – Buddha

Take a step

This spring, as things thaw out and blossom into the heat of summer, is a perfect time to start your transition. Here are a few reason why:

1. If you get caught too far from home, you can walk back without a risk.
2. It’s the perfect weather to let your feet breath daily, running or otherwise.
3. The earth is warm, the mood is rebirth, and they daylight lasts long.
4. Because it’s now, and now is all you’ll ever have.

So take a leap and suffer through your lack of contentment. Your journey may bring you running happiness.

Each of these people tend to focus on one solution being the best. These people are often the most vocal proponents of their methods, as they see their success and want to impress it upon others.

Surely there must be other ways to run? You don’t need to stick to simply one type of shoe (or unshoe)! If you want to try running barefoot, you aren’t locked in to running all of your miles barefoot. This is obvious but it often bears repeating as it’s easy to lose focus on one’s purpose.

Know your purpose

Since you’re reading this site, you’re obviously interested in exploring different forms of running. Why? Is it injury prevention? Because you read about it in a newspaper, online, or elsewhere? What do you want to gain from this exploration?

Why stray from solely barefoot?

For some, there is no reason and that’s just fine.

Whether you stray from solely barefoot depends on:

1. What you value out of running.
2. What your goals are for running.
3. What works for you — after all, no one cares how you run.

Source: James Rohal

Why mix barefoot and minimalist running

I value running fast over trails and other unstable terrain. My goal is to often traverse the area as quickly and as efficiently as possible. I am able to run faster on trails with minimalist shoes than with barefeet. There simply isn’t the need to think as much about footfalls.

Also, the shoe helps ensure each step is more stable and consistent. This helps reduce chance of injury on trails as it dampens the effects of errors due to bad steps.

Running shod leads to deviating from your natural form. The tendency of those wearing shoes is to get too confident, not think enough, and by extension not run with as good of form as possible. This allows you to run faster, however it can also act as a degradation of your running form.

This is where running barefoot comes into play, this is your reset to zero, the removal of your bad tendencies and your migration back towards natural perfection. I think of running in shoes as a fast progression towards bad form, running in minimalist shoes as a slow progression towards bad form, and running barefoot as the baseline for proper mechanics.

Barefoot running is particularly useful for:

1. Learning to run correctly to begin with, when speed shouldn’t even be considered.
2. Continuing lifelong as a method of perfecting, improving, and maintaining running form.
3. Mental stimulation, due to the feedback provided from unhindered feet.

Utilizing minimalist shoes is particularly useful for:

1. Technical Trail running
2. Mitigating footfall variation

What to look for in a minimalist shoe

To reiterate for the hundredth time, each person will be different. In order of priority, here is what is most important to look for in a minimalist shoe:

1. Zero drop - Nearly all traditional running shoes are twice as thick in the heel than the forefoot.  Zero drop running shoes simply applies a 1:1 ratio — meaning that the heel and forefoot are the same distance off the ground — there is no “drop” from heel to toe.
2. Simplest solution to what you need. Any part of the shoe that exists, but does not serve a purpose for you, is a detriment. 
   
3. Lightweight – minimized weight and sole. The less you’re carrying, the less effort you’re expending.
4. Built for surface. Traction is vastly different when traversing technical trails than it is when cruising through the streets.
5. Forefoot protection.

Forefoot protection is key because having a protective plate of some sort in the forefoot not only makes one less timid on rocky, rooty trails (a definite improvement over the bare foot), but also provides rigidity and energy return in one’s footstrike and stride that would otherwise be absent. By having a solid platform to push off of with every footstep, a greater confidence in one’s footing — the ultimate goal — is achieved. [link]

How to implement in your life

1. Make sure you understand why you want to attempt this. If you don’t have a purpose, you won’t have success.
2. Throw out your preconceptions of how fast and how far you should be running. If you are in a marathon training plan, you can not implement this. This transition in itself is a training plan.
3. Start training by learning how to run barefoot. Only barefoot. Pour all of your running energy into learning how to run lightly and gently on nothing but your two feet. Don’t run with sneakers, don’t run with minimalist shoes, and don’t confuse your body by putting anything else on your feet. Force the change you desire by being in the state which allows your body no choice. This can be hard, which is why you spent time earlier deciding why you wanted to accomplish it. Remember these reasons now and that there is help transitioning.
4. If, and only if, you’re comfortable running barefoot, it is time to add in a minimalist shoe. Do you still get pains when running barefoot? Do your calves still hurt after every run? Then you’re not ready. You will know when you’re ready — when a run feel painless and you end with a smile as opposed to a grimace.
5. Review your shoe needs (trails, street, etc.) and experiment with the least amount of shoe that meets these needs.

I received a pair of the Men’s Trail Glove in December and have had the opportunity to use them during some my winter runs. Past receiving the free pair of shoes, I have received no requests from Merrell, just to be honest and to link to their barefoot site.

General Use of Trail Gloves

Due to the Michigan winter, my experience has covered (~100 miles):

1. Snow covered trails
2. Treadmill (to experience how they responded)
3. Roads/Sidewalks (mostly snow covered)

I have attempted using the shoes with both wicking socks and without socks. I enjoyed them more without socks.

Comparison to Vibram Five Finger Bikila’s

The majority of my winter running has been performed in VFF Bikila’s so I am qualified only to compare these two together.

The first thing I noticed was the difference in ground sensation between the VFF’s and the Trail Glove — the VFF provided much more ground sensation. It’s difficult to articulate the difference without experiencing it for yourself, however the best example I can think of would be explaining the difference between a thin glove and a thicker glove. The Trail Glove’s are still no comparison to an actual running sneaker however, which reduces sensation to zero.

Second, both the front sole and the heel of the Trail Glove feel more “built up”. I like this for the heel as ideally it would absorb sharp blows from rocks. Having this on the forefoot has taken some adjustment. At first I hated it, but now I feel indifferent.

I expect that I would make particular use of the Trail Gloves on actual technical trails, where I have bruised my heel a few times when landing on embedded larger sized rocks. These type of obstacles are difficult to avoid, especially descending. Unfortunately I haven’t been able to test the shoes in the place I would find them most useful.

Despite my thoughts to the contrary, the shoes provided no more “grip” in the snow than the VFF Bikila’s. This may be due to my running style, but I expected more traction out of the shoe.

Initial Conclusion

I prefer the Bikila’s on normal roads, sidewalks, and dirt trails due to the increased flexibility and ground sensation. The Trail Glove is the best shoe I have ever worn however, which is saying something, as I have found no others I would ever think of wearing again.

I am looking forward to trying the shoe out on the more technical trails come spring/summer to alleviate the issues with rocks. I think that this shoe may find itself a permanent home.

Updated Conclusion (8/2/11)

My initial conclusion stands. I have now utilized the trail gloves for approximately 300 miles of very technical trails. They have served the exact purpose I had intended them to, which is to full the sensations in my foot when dealing with embedded rocks and fresh cut saplings (1-2″ off the ground). If the situation does not meet this criteria, I find the Bikila’s much more to my liking.

Photo by: 666 is money

Even if you’re not interested in running barefoot all the time, you can still reap benefits from kicking your shoes off as part of supplemental training.

Before you start the process, you should be clear what benefits you hope to gain and ensure they match up with what running barefoot can provide. Here are some things that can be reasonably expected from running barefoot:

• Strengthening and awakening of feet and ankle muscles — many smaller muscles that never get activated in shoes
• Improve a slow stride rate
• Improve the form of an existing mid-foot or forefoot strike
• Improve balance

Barefoot running performed as supplemental training can also be dangerous. There are a few things you will want to be sure you’re aware of:

• It will be easy to overdo it by being overconfident, especially if you’re already running quite a few miles shod
• Smooth concrete or asphalt will provide a more consistent environment than grass. A soft surface will dull the feedback loop and make it more difficult to improve
• The bottoms of your feet may require adaptation time
• You can not heel strike while running barefoot. If you heelstrike in shoes, and don’t plan to change your stride, running barefoot will most likely just screw up your stride and get you injured.
• Expect some level of blisters, especially in the first few weeks, if you’re not adapted to being barefoot.

Think about whether you’re serious about accepting the risks of running barefoot. Many of the benefits of being unshod can be gained simply from walking barefoot. This is often a better and less damaging place to start your unshod journey.

Since I have authored much of the original research regarding the bare foot in running and its advantages, I feel responsible to counter incorrect ideas regarding minimalist shoes. There is no evidence that minimalist shoes are superior to thin soled running shoes (racing flats) that preceded them. I consider them simply as a attempt by running shoes manufacturers to exploit runners through misleading marketing indicating that they resemble running barefoot – which is false. The detailed arguments can be found at my website

http://www.stevenrobbinsmd.com/

Barefoot runners should realize that the human foot is best adapted for running on naturally deposited ground. Running barefoot on man made surfaces certainly represenst some additional risk of injury, the magnitude of which is not known, but probably lower than running without shoes. Shoes are required to extend the running season in regions with severe winters, and for use on extremely low frictional resistance man made surfaces.

Be sure to check out his site for some invaluable information regarding barefoot running. Thanks Steven for the information. We are listening and appreciate all the insight you provide.