Heel-toe, why did I live with you so long?

A little over a hear ago I was training for a marathon and in doing so suffered a knee injury that I’ve been dealing with ever since. The injury was my own doing – I went too far too fast. I was scheduled for a 12 mile run and went 16 instead – not cool. Not cool at all.

I tried all sorts of therapy to try and address the pain; strength training, stretching, icing, etc. Nothing seemed to work. I couldn’t get past 2 miles without knee pain – for days.

At the beginning of summer I asked a friend who is the epitome of fitness if she had any recommendations. She asked around to a few of her fellow athletes and came back suggesting Vibram’s Fivefingers. I had never seen or heard of them, but I was willing to look into it. I had read several articles about runners getting closer to nature (or pavement) by opting for either no shoe at all or a very low shoe as a cure for knee pain (along with a host of other reasons).

I didn’t pull the trigger until a month ago, and regret waiting so long. I’ve been running in Fivefingers for a couple of weeks now and so far, no sign of knee pain.

Speaking from my own experience, here is why I think they are solving my problem: Because the shoe has NO soul my instinct is to not run the traditional heel-toe stride – and because of that, I have a LOT less impact on my knees and other joints. I’m landing on the fronts of my feet and my ankles are absorbing the initial contact.

I’ll admit, the first couple of weeks my legs were KILLING me. My stride was working muscles I didn’t know existed and on top of that I gained a couple of blisters (no socks). Blisters and muscle soreness go away though – and they did. I ran six miles the other day and everything felt wonderful!

For the first time in over a year, I am enjoying running again!

Thank you Fivefingers!

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