Date: 2012-02-16 18:48:02 Created: 2011-12-11 15:36:43
It all started with a great shopping experience.
In preparation for a trip to New York, the idea of going for a run in Central park naturally came up and was enthusiastically greeted. Clothes were packed, excluding shoes as we intended to get new ones in the city. Thus, we walked into a running focused Footlocker store and were met by one of those nicest sales guys. The kind who knows their stuff inside out because they really care about it and use it themselves, who grasp the level you are on and what you are looking for and help you along with pros, cons and tips without trying to sell you on anything.
Thoughts about barefoot-like, or Vibram five finger-type shoes or whatever one might call them had been swirling around in my mind for well over a year at this point. However, I had never tried a pair on. The Ecco biom I had been using for most of the same period were a step in the same direction though - lighter, promoting the same kind of (supposedly) more natural front-of-foot step as barefoot-type shoes. They also came surrounded by similar types of warning about starting out really, really slow to let your body get used to the new kind of running. I had got used to the Eccos pretty fast and liked them to bits, they were my favourite shoes ever. To sum up, my thoughts were definitely to either get very similar shoes again or move on to even lighter ones. So it was not actually a surprise that I ended up picking these Adipure up, but it certainly was not 100% planned either.
The sales guy and I chatted quite a bit about what I would be using these shoes for - running outdoors that is, on asphalt and softer surfaces - and it all sounded great. Reading up while writing this however, I discovered the adipure seem solely aimed at indoor gym training. Nice, I have shoes made for something I never do. But since they feel so good to me, as will beome clear below, I am unclear on how exactly that might pose a problem to me. Perhaps they will wear out quickly or something? They certainly do not feel made to step on sharp things in, but I doubt some other barefoot-type shoe would be either. I will find out, that is for sure.
In any case, pick them up I did, and I started walking in and getting used to them the very same day. One of the first small moments of magic was when I was walking downstairs. I realized I could bend my toes around the edge of each step. Your feet are suddenly much more in touch with the surfaces on which you walk, much more sensitive and responsive. Each foot is a multitude of sensors and discreet elements, instead of the numb lump it becomes inside the average shoe.
My very first run was around 7,5 kilometers, the first 2,5 on asphalt, the rest on forest track. Before that I had got used to the shoes by walking up and down Manhattan for a couple of days - I guesstimate the total distance to between 15 and 20 kilometers.
The feel of the first few steps was very … stiff? I quickly got the feel that "barefoot" shoes give you very clear feedback on each step. "Good" steps will feel smooth and comfortable while "bad" ones will feel stiff, sort of numb and generally like a bad idea.
You clearly notice how much heel all other shoes have, and this seems to naturally push my step toward the front of the foot simply because it feels more comfortable. Even when walking (not running) and standing, it feels better to keep weight off my heels. As a result, the feeling of being lighter on my feet increases another notch.
Running uphill, it is very easy to completely keep my heels off the ground. I have no idea if that is a good idea or something I will keep doing with more experience, but at this early stage it feels both easy, natural and "right" (as in feeling like it is the right thing to do).
Another early sensation was that of having something between each toe. The only other time I have had that is when I have worn a band aid or something similar, so it feels unusual but good. To top that off, you also have the open space between your toes, so you get cooling and ventilation between each one as you walk.
My second run, two days after the first, was the same stretch as the first, but I only timed myself on the non-asphalt part and used the first 2,5 kilometers as warm-up. This is the way I normally split things up. I already felt lighter and more comfortable running faster, and I made much fewer steps which felt "wrong" or uncomfortable. (Despite, I might add, this run being on a dark autumn evening while the first was in daylight.) I did not feel any unusual pains after either run, only the standard sensations of comfortable wear on new parts of the body.
For someone like me, who finds it too easy to get hung up on numbers (like, say, speed or total time), this adaptation process also had the advantage of taking my attention away from numbers and making me focus more on running itself. That will probably not last long, but I intend to enjoy it while it does. Noticing how each step feels, how I move, how I breathe and what the steps sound like, are all great things I could do a lot more often.
The day after my second run, I was noticeably more worn in unusual parts of my legs but did not feel strained in any other way. It was clear that my body was still used to the work of running, but that the new shoes were altering things as expected and adding some load in new places.
The third round was a calm lunch run. Again, my body felt perfectly normal after a relaxed run, while the now usual places felt more worn than they would have been with other shoes. But those places felt less worn now than before too, so I was clearly moving in the right way. I planned to try my first ten kilometer run on Saturday, three days later.
Yes, Saturday went well. My right knee and some other joints felt a bit more worn than usual - more on the informative side than an acutal warning - but otherwise things feelt surprisingly "normal" or adapted already. On Monday, two days later, I went for a five kilometer run, including my usual jog there and back (2,5 kilometers each way). My feet were already so much more used to the feel and the right ways to move. It was a great feel, even the first few steps on asphalt, which are uphill and right after I leave the house, flowed so much better and felt so much softer than a few runs ago.
Yum! On Wednesday of the same week I had my fastest and lighest run yet, despite stumble-worthy darkness and a few fallen trees to look out for. For a while I was thinking that my joints would be paying a bit of a price afterward, but once I got warm that feeling disappeared, and it did not made any return later either. This was the first time I did my whole usual routine; jogging to the track, running and then jogging back home without any real breaks. At no point did it feel like I was hitting my feet, knees or any other part too hard.
Some points possibly worth making: These shoes breathe, and they take in water easily. Foot temperature is also noticeably, and expectedly, lower than in other shoes. It does not really matter while running, especially not since it also feels like water gets out again easier and bothers less than in other shoes. But if you walk or stand around in cold and/or wet weather your feet will start to feel seriously chilly rather quickly.
This is the easiest time, by a very long shot, my feet have had in new shoes when it comes to blisters, chafing and other minor bruises. I do have two minor ones on my right foot though, both of which I clearly spot when I look at my foot, and neither of which I notice when walking or running. The larger one of them is, I think, actually from the patch with manufacturing information and such. I had the thought of cutting that patch away pretty much from the start, but as I did not actually feel it when running I thought an edge after cutting could easily be more annoying. Now that I see the blister I guess I am moving a step or two closer to bringing out the scissors.
During my latest run I got the sensation that two of the toes on my right foot were interlocked, as if they would have been taped together or somehow jammed into the same toe of the shoe. That was not the case, everything was in fact in perfect order. But I find it fascinating that after two weeks in these shoes I already get a feeling like a wish for something even less restraining.
One last thing for now: realizing the adipure are not really intended for running only makes me even more eager to try on "proper" barefoot-type running shoes. There is so much more to discover.
Tonight, some days later and after 15 kilometers in rain and wind, ten of which were on asphalt, I noticed some more details.
First, I had a little blister on one of my toes, the cause of which likely was a small rock wedged between the toes of the shoe. Could that possibly have caused that earlier feeling of two toes being too constrained too? I do not know, but I realize the increased value of keeping my shoes in good order.
Second, I have for many years have a bit of extra hardened skin on the "outside" of my big toes. It has never really bothered me, I have been content to leave it be and file or otherwise remove any chafing. But tonight I noticed both those areas are considerably softer than I recall them feeling in a long time. Perhaps a result of being quite straight out of the shower and after a rather wet run? Perhaps a sign of pressure points of more rigid running shoes being removed? Time will tell I am sure, but in any case it felt good.