What type of person is attracted to barefoot running/vibram five fingers?

SOOOO, your tribe is not IAAF recognized, but she's a multiple time Olympian? She competed for the US then, and the US must stake claim to her accomplishments. I understand the IAAF and IOC are not one in the same, but there must be a governing body that recognizes what she did, and have record of it.

Otherwise, you must think we're all on the fire-water too.

alex V. wrote:

hapslappy wrote:

"Last Saturday I ran a road 3K in 8:57.14! Pretty good for a master's female."

Ummm...not a chance in hell. Maybe a 2K.

That's because "eg" is a world class runner who is a multiple olympian. Her lifetime bests are much faster. She ran 5:41 plus 2K the Saturday before on the track. But our tribe (although a nation) is not IAAF recognised so those times won't be on any official lists.

I still sometimes train barefoot too and I have no use for vibrams.

You are a stupid person. Please spare us. Thanks.

Well this thread certainly answers the question, What type of person is repulsed by barefoot running/vibram five fingers.

I'm glad I'm not you. :D

My fastest time in minimalist footwear last year was 17:31 in one of my high school 5Ks. People seem to think footwear or lack thereof will make them faster.

It's something called training smart.

I've tried the 5 Fingers. I don't wear them a lot, but I should. I'm afraid to jump in too quickly. I also do some barefoot running in the infield grass after track workouts to cool down. What I can say for sure is that all of my injury problems have gone away in the last few years since moving from standard running shoes to a more minimalist shoe. I see 5 Fingers/barefoot as the next logical progression, but it will be a slow one for me.

As one person mentioned earlier,the Vibrams are to protect your feet from things like glass, sharp rocks, thorns, etc.

That said, I saw some neo-hippy chick in a vegetarian restaurant wearing them with a dress and a skinny old dude with a ponytail wearing them with jeans at the library. Both just looked weird.

joiwef wrote:

laza wrote:

i saw a dude running in vibrams yesterday while i was out running. it was great. i love seeing people going back to basics. i agree with the person who said its partially as anti-big business, but i think the reason people do it cuz of anti-big business is more because the industry has tricked us into wearing crap cages on our feet. so the only reason its anti shoe industry is cuz those big shoe companies don't know what the hell they are doing anymore. they pay attention to the ka-ching of dollar signs rather than to anatomy, science, nature, and common sense.

so to answer the question fully, i'd say its the smart type of person, who is open to truth hidden behind the layers of propaganda.

Bet they couldn't break 20 in a 5k.

Hahah. I've run 14:51 in a 5k - i'm not bragging, I assure you, I know exactly where that puts me in the grand scheme of things - and I am one of these people who is "attracted to" vibram five fingers and barefoot running.

Read 'Born to the Run', and get a better idea of what you are criticizing, before making any further judgement. I don't own a pair of five fingers, but i run trails frequently barefoot. Ever since I started my running career about fifteen years ago, I have been running high mileage for my age - and just high mileage period - and have never been injured. Attribute part of it to lifestyle, genetics, etc, of course, but also, I don't go to the running shoe store every 250 miles to drop another hundred bucks on some absurdly padded shoe just for giggles. Right now I've been running in the same pair of shoes since last July - there are almost 3,000 miles on my shoes. And aside from torn mesh, and dirt, and no cushioning - they are unscathed.

It's not any kind of plot against big business. It's just a fact. Shoe companies want you to believe you need them more than you really do.

Barefoot running is not a fad, and it is not extremism, it is just common sense. We were not born with cushions on our feet. No other animal - save horses - has ever grown accustomed to wearing shoes on their feet. The pain we recieve from running barefoot automatically corrects our stride, forcing us to run erect, more closely to the balls of our feet. We change the way we land to more correctly absorb the impact. Our bodies do this for us natually. What sense would it make for the world's greatest endurance animal - humans - to break down with stress fractures every time they tried to fulfill their biological imperative to hunt and survive?

This is not to say that everyone should hop immediately into barefoot running or five fingers. Do it slowly, do it carefully, and listen to your body. As a rule of thumb i hate nearly all running 'fads' and 'secrets' with a passion. This is nothing that a runners world columnist discovered. This is simply how we were meant to live.

I haven't been in a race yet where I have seen someone run fast without racing flats or trainers on. Until a runner beats me in a race with a minimalist approach, I'm not going to believe it works. Another thing, running strides barefoot has absolutely nothing to do with the barefoot movement.

You've run 14:51 for 5k, but not in Vibrams, and not barefoot.

We're trying to find someone who has run a fast race in Vibrams.

Basically you are a normal runner who runs barefoot on trails once in awhile.

"What I can say for sure is that all of my injury problems have gone away in the last few years since moving from standard running shoes to a more minimalist shoe. I see 5 Fingers/barefoot as the next logical progression"

Why? You aren't getting injured anymore. Why not just keep wearing what you've been wearing?

My question is why would you drop a hundred bucks on some absurdly unpadded shoes that serve the same purpose as strapping some tire rubber to your feet?

I think the whole point here is that these companies are selling something that you can do for free. I personally think that padded shoes are necessary for running on concrete because running on concrete is inherently unnatural.

If you're going to run barefoot, do it on trails, as you have mentioned and I entirely agree with. Its the people that take these five fingered foot gloves and run on concrete, or decide to do a few squats in their local gym that I disagree with.

If you're going to run barefoot, go find a soft trail or field and have at it. If you need to protect your feet, fine, but leave the fashion statements behind.

Why live a life of costs and payments if you can die for free?

Your nihilism is contradictory, skewed and unappealing.

I had pf for years. After I tried minimalist footwear (wearing cheap xc racing flats) it finally went away.

Then I began wearing my Nike trainers again and ran 100 mpw for 3 years in them. Soon my hips/si were totally out of whack and I have ended up with a variety of problems, the latest of which is hamstring tendinitis at the knee insertion.

I can run only in my Brooks Mach X flats. I tried running in my Nikes one day, and I could barely walk the next.

I have not tried the Vibram shoes, as I can get cheap flats that last forever and feel good on my feet--no point in running in anything else.

By the way, when my athletes develop shin problems, invariably I have them run barefoot in the grass on the inside of our track.

johnnyb1610 wrote:

I haven't been in a race yet where I have seen someone run fast without racing flats or trainers on. Until a runner beats me in a race with a minimalist approach, I'm not going to believe it works.

Um, racing flats are minimalist shoes.

johnnyb1610 wrote:

Another thing, running strides barefoot has absolutely nothing to do with the barefoot movement.

Wrong.

What is really being said on both sides:

non minimalist "NO, the world is flat and I refuse to believe otherwise"

minimalist "you got to be freeeee puff puff. It's not a fashion statement puff puff it just feels good. Don't give into THE MAN. puff puff"

me. I am one of those bulky-muscle-y gym guys that you mention. I did read the Born to Run book. And I can't tell you how excited about running I am now that I can go out in my vibram 5 fingers and run. It is like playing. I just smile sometimes knowing that the barefoot running thing lets me be a part of it.

Am I fast? nope. Am I lean? nope, but I am getting leaner. Am I reading this forum and looking for little 5k's to run? Absolutley, and without being introduced to barefoot running (through the book and these shoes) I would not be here.

I hope this is a good thing for running. I know it is a good thing for me.

thanks.

Hilarious. I was attracted to them because I was sick of running in narrow, high heeled shoes that made me pronate; even racing flats weren't flat enough, and spikeless shoes were never wide enough (and made me pronate horribly). I tried them as a last resort after spending the month before duathlon nationals afraid to run and injure myself further. The result? I was able to get back to running, taking 20 seconds off my mile pace in the process.

The shoe doesn't make anyone faster, so wear what feels comfortable.

o.k. you are disagreeing that it takes more energy to move forward at the same rate for the runner who has one leg shorter than the other leg by 1 cm than the runner who has equal leg lengths, given all other parameters about the two runners are the same? That was the point I was trying to make, so you may have misinterpreted me here.

I said there is a SUBSET of people for whom barefoot running can be very dangerous - not that barefoot running can be dangerous for everyone. This subset of people may not know they are potentially at risk.

If a person has one leg or foot assymetric from the other, ie: shorter left leg, more pronated right foot, you are saying it is the two symmetric shoes that caused this? If so, please explain to us how that happens.

I'm glad to hear it worked so well for you. Is your theory that because it worked beautifully for you, it must therefore be the answer for everyone? What about the guy who has permanent structural misalignment such as a shorter left leg or a deformed navicular bone in the left foot only (accessory navicular) that causes a structurally disadvantaged posterior tibial tendon on that side, how can barefoot running make them symmetric again? It cannot, because they were never symmetric to begin with. How, then, do you know it is the better solution for them to run barefoot than other alternatives that can make them more symmetric when they run?

dfsddsd wrote:

???

this type