Pitty Pat... Paleo

I'm guessing most folks probably don't consider their footwear as part of their lifestyle change... I however have considered mine as part of the changes I'm making. As I was reading Mark Sisson's "Primal Blueprint" alot of what he was saying about training and being active barefooted made alot of sense to me. If this whole process is getting back in touch with the way we were designed to function, then I could totally see his point about how training barefooted allows and requires your muscles to work together in different ways than they do when you have the support and stance provided by wearing shoes of different sorts.

I've been running 5K's since August 2010 and in that time I have seen runners in their "five fingers" I always thought they were the strangest thing until I started understanding why. I shared some of my findings with my husband and he actually did alot more research about the Vibram five fingers. I was given some cash for my birthday and wanted something tangible to purchase as a "gift" else I would probably by guys and groceries with my "birthday money" so we went to REI and I purchased a pair of Vibram five fingers. These little babies are apparently increasing in popularity and are fairly hard to find in sizes. I lucked out and got mine first try, but we did a bit more shopping about to find some for my husband.


We are both proudly "Five Finger Freaks" now... (my term) It is amazing how much we have already noticed about how our feet prefer the "bare-footed-ness" of their design. We often comment about how unnatural and/or uncomfortable our feet are now in work shoes and other shoes.

I have not yet worked my way up to running in my five fingers, which is the reason I bought them.  They say you really have to work your way up to your normal distance so I've just been wearing them as often as possible and doing Zumba in them.   They say you should run 10% of your normal distance for the first two weeks then increase by 10% every two weeks there after.  I'm hoping to run in them at my next big 5K event in September so I better start running in them soon.  I hear alot of folks say they actually run faster in their five fingers.  It will be interesting to see how they perform for running.  I very much enjoy them thus far.

If you'd like to learn more, check out their FAQ at http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/faq/barefoot_running_faq.htm