Vibram Five Fingers

(no not the machine at motels that shakes the bed for a quarter).

Having always been a fan of barefootedness, I thought I’d give the Vibram Five Fingers model a try. The VFFs are supposedly as close as you can come to running barefoot, without coming close to contracting say, hepatitis. They have a thin sole and the toes are separated, with the body of the shoe being made of canvas. The sunglasses to hide your identity when you run in them are extra.

I tried out my pair (classic) on Saturday. I went for a three mile run down to the beach and back. The recommendation is to start out with a few minutes each day to build up your ankle and foot muscles, that have until this point, been resting on their cushioned laurels. After feeling like I ran up the Empire State buildings stairs...twice…in high heels, I can full heartedly recommend actually listening to this recommendation. But, even though my calf muscles hurt, the run was actually less tiring than usual, which is due having more leg muscles available to help carry the load, so to speak.

I’m going to keep wearing them occasionally, but I’m going to look into getting one of them motel massagers – my calves could sure use a good shakin’ right about now.