- Total weekly miles
9 miles.
- Number of running sessions
3.
- Total weekly barefoot mile
0 miles.
- Number of barefoot running sessions
0.
- Running terrain
Mostly flat, one steep hill, on a mixture of pavement and mud.
- Ground surface of barefoot runs
N.A.
- Runs in minimalist shoes, e.g. Five Fingers.
RunAmocs on one run, Vivobarefoot Evo II on two runs.
- Weather for barefoot runs (rain on road?)
I’m going to fill this in weekly even though I’m not barefoot at the moment… This week has been really wet, so the ground surface for running has been really muddy and greasy.
- Condition of skin on feet — hotspots, blisters
Good. No side-effects of wearing my new shoes.
- Interesting/amusing comments received during the week: e.g. ‘You’ve got no shoes on!’
Nothing.
- Treading on nasty things: e.g. glass, thorns, poo — how you dealt with any
No problems this week.
- Changes in your running style that you’ve noticed.
Interestingly, the first time I wore the Evos, for the first few yards outside the front door I reverted back to my old heel-strike before I caught myself and started concentrating on my form again… I don’t quite know why. It was probably the old ritual of sitting on the doorstep, putting on the socks and trainers and lacing them up that put me back in my shod-runner mindset. RunAmocs are so different that this doesn’t happen. But after those initial few yards, I made sure I concentrated on my form. My second run in the Evos was fine.
- Injuries incurred, or reduction of existing symptoms.
Still noticing calf tiredness at the end of runs.
- Useful tips and nuggets of info you’ve picked up along the way.
None this week.
I’ll just note down my initial impressions of the Evos. I tried them on in the shop and took them for a little run up and down the road in Covent Garden (the shop there is really nice by the way, lovely people!). They felt good, so as an early christmas present to myself I handed over my credit card with watering eyes… At £99 they are not cheap. My first run in them, I was expecting great things from all the other reviews of them I’ve read over the last few months. But I was a tiny bit disappointed. The shoe itself is of great quality, I can imagine it lasting for a very very long time. The tread is good, certainly up there with my old trainers and far better than my RunAmocs for running in mud. But… the tread, which is why I bought the shoes, is also the bit that disappointed me a little. Because the sole is a bit thicker and has this tread, you sacrifice quite a lot of the groundfeel. The overwhelming sensation I had in my feet the first time I went out in them was of the tread, not the ground. I’ve started to get used to it, and I’m positive they’ll grow on me, but I think for road running, or running on hard surfaces, the RunAmocs will be my preference.
Now I’ve hit 3 miles with ease, I’m going to try and do Jason Robillard’s “10k Pronghorn plan” from his “The Barefoot Running Book”. I’ve never run a specific 10k or half marathon plan before, I simply increased the milage slowly without any other kind of speedwork or anything. So it’ll be a new experience for me! We’ll see how it goes.
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