[at-l] Rethinking Footwear?

[Tom McGinnis]

--- On Thu, 10/29/09, Tenacious Tanasi <tenacious_tanasi at yahoo.com> wrote:

> Fourth thought: This has the makings of a fad.
> ###  You betchya!  ;)

@@@ Okay, so, TT already mentioned the Injinji socks -- I'll just mention that after years of having ultramarathoners I respect try them and rave about them, I tried a pair myself this past Labor Day, on a 19 mile run from Newfound Gap across to LeConte and DOWN (10.5 unrelieved miles) to Gatlinburg. From the first mile, I LOVE these socks.

@@@ Now, are the toe-oriented, low-heeled shoes (in this case, the Vibram Five-Fingers "KSO Trek") a fad? Absolutely not. The idea of over-built, thick-heeled athletic shoes was a fad, but a fad that caught on DESPITE THE HORRIBLE ERGONOMICS, and much to the chagrin of Achilles tendons and mis-used knee and hip joints across the nation. The natural motion restored by running in these toe-oriented, low-heeled shoes returns us much as Steve cited in the NYT article, on evolution's gift to us of easy, efficient locomotion.

@@@ When people ask me "How should I run?" my answer has been the same for years: run barefoot across an asphalt parking lot, or barefoot on a soccer field with a morning frost. You can NOT run poorly like that -- you are forced within a few strides of starting to correct what the stupid Pillow Shoes of the past 30+ years have thrown us to. Within a few miles, it's a natural as can be, and you *won't* want to go back.

@@@ I am *trying* to get back to some serious running, and I have been holding off on purchasing new trail runners until I had updated my (now 3-4 year old) knowledge of what's out there and who's the closest to ideal. It's not my favorite New Balance. It's not my Montrail racing shoe. It's not even the Inov-8s I was leaning towards. Nope. It's the KSO. (Or KSO Trek -- not sure yet.) Sa-WEEEET shoes. And my Injinji socks will slip right in. Primo.

And for any of you familiar with Barefoot Ted, he's been all over these from the get-go. He just ran a 26 hour Leadville 100 in them.

sloeandnearlybarefoottoe

Still backpack in my Limmers, though...