I recently transitioned to zero-drop shoes from 10mm drop Nikes, and they have felt pretty natural for a couple months now. No injuries. I also purchased a pair of FiveFingers...and I have begun to use them for a couple miles once or twice a week. At this pount I feel like I could go much longer but really wish to avoid getting injured. How long does it typically take to transition to minimalist shoes, and how did you do it?
There is no transition without injury if you're running decent paces and mileage. I feel like even as little as 30 mpw would be risky
Please don't wrote:
There is no transition without injury if you're running decent paces and mileage. I feel like even as little as 30 mpw would be risky
Please explain how that works.
The modern foot and Achilles is too adapted to having support and being coddled. Unless you spend at least a few years strengthening the foot, arch, and lower calf injury is hard to avoid. It's also hard to say how much time is needed because we don't know the drops of the shoes the OP ran in previously.
a few runs. I felt better running (training) in racing flats almost immediately. Probably within 2 weeks, once the first flats I was using, the brooks t3 were broken in, it seemed natural to be training in them.
I would guess you have gone through the riskiest period. However, I got injured a few months after I transitioned and then a year later, both times an Achilles problem. So maybe it takes a year or two to fully adapt. I would recommend being careful and scaling back your training any time you start feeling something funny in the calves.
About really thin soles like the Five fingers, note that it is not only about your form with zero drop shoes, but also about how much they absorb shocks: very little. It is probably best to avoid running on asphalt in such shoes (in particular, there is a risk of stress fracture in the foot).
Also, I think for competitions the advantage of bouncy shoes like the Takumi sens is huge. Think cutting a 2 hours 10 minutes run to 2 hours or better. However, by the time you have completely adapted to zero drop shoes, 6mm drop ones will feel awkward and going back to that may even be injury-prone. To fix the issue, I do like these Polish blokes (someone linked to their pictures in some thread here, but I don't feel like searching) and cut the heel with a knife.
The T3 are a 12mm Drop. In order to get that Strength/ Rest recovery stimulus I train in a footwear lineup of varying drops all neutral. If you look at Elites they may do 2-3 runs/week in Spikes or Streak LT(4mmdrop) and the rest in Pegasus.
My lineup: found on the cheap on ebay, 1.)Altra Torin 2.5(size up) 2.)Brooks Pureflow 1 (OG), 3.) Nike FS lite (cheap underrated 3mm drop Nike free) 4.) Brooks 👻 5.) Pegasus 34 for 12-18mile long runs/recovery.
6.) Brooks Hyperion or Adidas Adios Boost 3 as Propulsion devices for racing.
I don't think any one of these shoes would feel as good without the other...Racing in natural shoes, Altra& Frees just seems like your doing too much work whereas racing in Adios is like Free Speed (think Nike 4%)
Please don't wrote:
The modern foot and Achilles is too adapted to having support and being coddled. Unless you spend at least a few years strengthening the foot, arch, and lower calf injury is hard to avoid. It's also hard to say how much time is needed because we don't know the drops of the shoes the OP ran in previously.
I did say I ran in 10mm Nikes before switching to Altras (which are always 0mm drop). Altras feel very good now, I feel like it is much easier to run in them than higher drop shoes. I always ran with a forefoot strike anyway. I'm not really worried about my Achilles and calves in that sense, from what I have heard the biggest risk at this point would be a (metatarsal) stress fracture? Hope this clears things up.
Variety wrote:
The T3 are a 12mm Drop. In order to get that Strength/ Rest recovery stimulus I train in a footwear lineup of varying drops all neutral. If you look at Elites they may do 2-3 runs/week in Spikes or Streak LT(4mmdrop) and the rest in Pegasus.
My lineup: found on the cheap on ebay, 1.)Altra Torin 2.5(size up) 2.)Brooks Pureflow 1 (OG), 3.) Nike FS lite (cheap underrated 3mm drop Nike free) 4.) Brooks 👻 5.) Pegasus 34 for 12-18mile long runs/recovery.
6.) Brooks Hyperion or Adidas Adios Boost 3 as Propulsion devices for racing.
I don't think any one of these shoes would feel as good without the other...Racing in natural shoes, Altra& Frees just seems like your doing too much work whereas racing in Adios is like Free Speed (think Nike 4%)
Seems like the hardest part of minimalist running is adapting to the lack of cushion, not the zero drop. That's why use Altras as well, they are cushioned.
grox wrote:
About really thin soles like the Five fingers, note that it is not only about your form with zero drop shoes, but also about how much they absorb shocks: very little. It is probably best to avoid running on asphalt in such shoes (in particular, there is a risk of stress fracture in the foot).
Isn't the point of minimalist running to teach your feet to absorb the shock by landing lightly, instead of depending on what's below your feet? Running on grass or soft surfaces is just like running on a cushioned shoe...pavement lets your feet absorb all the shock and teaches you good form.
Please don't wrote:
The modern foot and Achilles is too adapted to having support and being coddled. Unless you spend at least a few years strengthening the foot, arch, and lower calf injury is hard to avoid. It's also hard to say how much time is needed because we don't know the drops of the shoes the OP ran in previously.
I agree. All of the muscles, ligaments, tendons....everything, is not as strong as they "should" be.
Here is my experience. The injury will happen suddenly and you won't necessarily feel/notice any kind of build up to the injury, even though the causes are cumulative, not some kind of an acute injury.
the problems i had and have are the calves, but only the calves.
i don't do minimal anymore, but i love zero drop and will never go back to anythign that has any kind of a drop
I first started running when I was around 14, and ran in Brooks, Asics, and some Nike shoes. When I was 16, I decided to transition to minimalist shoes.
In my experience, some parts of my calf and my Achilles were really sore. I adjusted by first wearing them just during warm-ups and cooldowns, then eventually by doing workouts, and then recovery runs in them. This was for when I was using one of those New Balance Minimus trail shoes. The whole process took me about 2 months to go from no experience in the shoes to running in only minimalist shoes.
I also had some experience running with FiveFingers. It's like you said, probably the hardest thing about them was the impact of running on pavement all the time (I was still in high school). Also, you might have had some issues regarding the use (or lack of) socks with these shoes. I only ran in them for a season.
Altras are definitely a good shoe. I've been running in Saucony Kinvara's for the last few years, and was thinking about going back to Altras when my current pair is worn down.
All that being said, I had some friends who jumped straight into minimalist shoes with no transition who didn't get hurt. So, it might all just depend on your form and experience.
5 minutes in a saucony store
Tall Matt wrote:
I first started running when I was around 14, and ran in Brooks, Asics, and some Nike shoes. When I was 16, I decided to transition to minimalist shoes.
In my experience, some parts of my calf and my Achilles were really sore. I adjusted by first wearing them just during warm-ups and cooldowns, then eventually by doing workouts, and then recovery runs in them. This was for when I was using one of those New Balance Minimus trail shoes. The whole process took me about 2 months to go from no experience in the shoes to running in only minimalist shoes.
I also had some experience running with FiveFingers. It's like you said, probably the hardest thing about them was the impact of running on pavement all the time (I was still in high school). Also, you might have had some issues regarding the use (or lack of) socks with these shoes. I only ran in them for a season.
Altras are definitely a good shoe. I've been running in Saucony Kinvara's for the last few years, and was thinking about going back to Altras when my current pair is worn down.
All that being said, I had some friends who jumped straight into minimalist shoes with no transition who didn't get hurt. So, it might all just depend on your form and experience.
Nice!! Do you prefer Kinvaras and other cushioned low-drop shoes to minimalist shoes?
I guess it must really depend on the person, since it only took you two months and with zero injuries. Personally, I prefer the lack of cushion in the Vibram fivefingers, I just don't know if my feet can handle a larger volume in those yet. I'm going to move from 5mpw in FiveFingers (with the other 65 in Altras) to 10 and so on, trying to build slowly to prevent injury.
Onerunner wrote:
Isn't the point of minimalist running to teach your feet to absorb the shock by landing lightly, instead of depending on what's below your feet? Running on grass or soft surfaces is just like running on a cushioned shoe...pavement lets your feet absorb all the shock and teaches you good form.
Minimalism most certainly helps you adjust your form. But as much as I hate it, I broke my third metatarsal while running on asphalt (running 15km one day, 2 x 15km the next). And it had probably nothing to do with heel-striking, since I didn't heel-strike at the time.
Is this a thread from 2012?
No, look at the date lol
grox wrote:
Onerunner wrote:Isn't the point of minimalist running to teach your feet to absorb the shock by landing lightly, instead of depending on what's below your feet? Running on grass or soft surfaces is just like running on a cushioned shoe...pavement lets your feet absorb all the shock and teaches you good form.
Minimalism most certainly helps you adjust your form. But as much as I hate it, I broke my third metatarsal while running on asphalt (running 15km one day, 2 x 15km the next). And it had probably nothing to do with heel-striking, since I didn't heel-strike at the time.
Yeah that's why I plan to ease into it. I run in the Altra One V3 most of the time which has some cushion but it is very firm and feels somewhat minimal. I only use the FiveFingers for a couple short runs (3-4 miles) every week.
I've been running in Kinvaras since the 4th edition came out, and I've loved all of them (I'm less partial to the 7 though, it feels too stiff to me).
It has been awhile since I ran in truly minimalist shoes (think 4 years since the Five Fingers), although I remember the New Balance minimalist shoes were some of my favorites. Personally, I do almost all of my easy running on pavement or sidewalks, so the cushioned shoes seem much more necessary. So, in that sense, I would definitely take what surfaces you primarily run on into consideration. If after a few weeks with the Five Fingers as your main shoe your joints start to feel sore, that might be a sign that it's too much. If not, them keep going!
On a related note, nearly all of my friends who went minimalist with me back then run in Kinvaras or some other similar shoes; one of them even runs in Hoka's now!
I would consider walking around in them for awhile first, it can't potentially hurt more than going straight to running