I have been running a lot lately and as a service to my three readers, I decided to do a comprehensive review of the Vibram Finger Finger KSO, Nike Free Run+ and my old ass New Balance shoes. In the end this post turned into a diatribe on running, a book review and partial shoe review. Enjoy it.
I used to hate running. To me, track always seemed like you were replacing the much faster horses on a track with some humans and calling it a sport. I like sports with quick thinking strategy, e.g. soccer and hockey. I swam in high school because it was great exercise and I was a fat ass, but always hated meets. A swim meet is a whole bunch of waiting and then a minute or two of excessive energy exertion and just plain boring.
It wasn’t until after getting ACL replacement surgery that I really started running with any bit of seriousness. It helped me drop 70 pounds (245 down to 165 (and those 165 days are long gone)) and found that running was a lot like swimming practice: solitary, in the zone physical exertion. Plus, before the days of waterproof mp3 players and ear buds, unlike swimming you could listen to music while running. Also, unlike the bottom of a pool, the scenery changes when you run. Thus, I became a jogger.
Once I started running I discovered that it was a great way to mellow out and clear my head. In law school I jogged almost every day. Blasting punk rock, I would take off down back roads working out the leg kinks and panting like a dog until I hit my Stride. Ahh, the Stride. Some people may call this the Zone. It is that perfect time in life when your legs feel clear and are in perfect unison with your breath. It is very Zen-like. You are acutely aware of every nerve, your feet and legs adjusting as the terrain change, yet at the same time you are aware of nothing. Your mind calm and turned off from all intruding thoughts and you coast along. It is a great feeling.
My body, however, is in no way built for competitive running. Short legs supporting a bulky upper body does not a Prefontaine make (not to mention my inability to grow a mustache). Therefore, my running has never reached any competitive level – 5Ks, a few 10ks and one half marathon. Also, there has always been a lingering pain from when the doctors sliced into my knee, cut out the middle of the patellar ligament, crafted it into and ACL and bone screwed it into place. Running built up my knee enough that the pain was slight, but it would flair up every now and then, just enough to be annoying. I have always been searching for a way to stop that knee pain. A cheap patellar stabilizer strap helped, but was annoying and never 100%
I made the mistake/had the fortune of reading
Born to Run: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen by Christopher McDougall during the annual family Christmas at the beach in February this year. The book begins with a humble premise: the author, a writer for Men’s Health, started running and got knee pain so he went to the doctor. The doctor’s answer for him was that his knee hurt because running was bad. Being a journalist McDougall asked the obvious, why was running bad? To which the doctor replied, running is bad because it makes your knee hurt. With that medical analysis in hand McDougall went out in search of answers.
The book becomes part Sherlock Holmes search, part philosophical musings and part rally against shoe companies. McDougall soon discovered the Tarahumara, a tribe of natives in Copper Canyon, Mexico, who run hundreds of miles at a time, often after rowdy nights of boozing, while getting energy from chia seeds and other native whole foods. And they do it all in handmade sandals, literally old tires cut up and strung onto their feet. These people with no gel arch support stabilization, shock absorption systems or pronation concerns have no knee or ankle injuries. They also don’t appear to die of cancer or modern disease. They don’t war with other people and are generally a tight knit, secretive, serene and peaceful community.
In exploring this mysterious tribe, McDougal starts consulting ultra-marathoners, an odd group of people who run 100+ mile races, and their figurative leader, Scott Jurek. Jurek has been getting a lot of ink lately, even gracing the pages of the New York times. McDougal haunts down a mysterious outsider who has been welcomed into the Tarahumara, Caballo Blanco, and plans a race of the best ultra-runners versus the best of the Tarahumaram on their home turf. I’ll let you read the results.
What McDougall discovers in his journey is a fundamental biological fact: humans were born to run. It is in our blood and genes. We have arches, nature’s support structure, to support our foot and body. Humans can sweat and don’t have to breathe every step like most mammals. Our feet our filled with nerves to sense the ground we walk on. We, as a race, did just fine for 10,000 years running with no support before the 70’s running shoe craze.
Now we are cramming our feet into overly supportive shoes. This false support means we aren’t using what we are supposed, so we are deteriorating and atrophying our muscles. We strike with our heels instead of the balls of our feet, jarring our muscles, ligaments and tendons. In sum, shoes are killing our ability to run.
Born To Run specifically mentions Vibram Five Fingers (VFF). VFFs are basically foot gloves/toe shoes. They have individual toes, some rubber on the sole and a breathable synthetic upper. VFFs are meant to give you a little protection while allowing your foot to run in its natural, unsupported way. The back-to-nature hippie in me couldn’t resist this glowing recommendation so while I was in Florida, I bought a pair of Five Finger KSOs. I don’t know what KSO stands for. Killer Shoe Organism?? [edit: checked website, “Keep Stuff Out” – makes sense] KSOs have a little more fabric than the normal VFFs, which I figured would be good for cold Alaska.
VFFs come with a warning to go slowly at first because your feet and legs are used to artificial support. Well, like everybody who gets a pair, I ignored that and immediately went out for a run. Feeling like a barefoot child again, I ran four miles, on the beach, partially in water. I came back with a nice blister and sore calves for the next few days. I wasn’t deterred. From February until the present my KSOs have been my all purpose shoe. I run in them, I lift weights in them and even play indoor volleyball in them. It took a month or two on the treadmill to get my calves and Achilles stretched back out to its natural state, but eventually the pain went away.
What really surprised and impressed me was that my knee pain also went away. ACL surgery can really wreck a person and I still had a few spots that would flare up on run, most notably the top inside portion of my knee where the bone screw is. VFFs stopped the pain. Once I made the concentrated effort to run correctly – straight up, knees bent, landing on the balls of my feet – my muscles and ligaments started doing their job and taking the shock out of running.
Then, the weather in Nome broke and outdoor running beckoned (I HATE treadmills. Staring at myself in a mirror and not actually moving makes me feel like a hamster). Let me say that Nome is not a running town. The row of bars on Front Street that still permit smoking is the first clue that running on the tundra is not a common activity. Cross country skiers are the about the only foot traffic the tundra sees, with four wheelers and snowmachines being the norm. Thus, there are no good trails to run on. From my apartment I have basically two choices to run on – north on the main paved highway that goes to the high school or east along the ocean on a dirt and gravel road. Neither are particularly enjoyable with the eastern route having less cars. The dryness of Nome also means that most times you will have dust blown into your face on a regular basis.
Regardless, dust and traffic still beats a treadmill so I began running outside. The first couple of times was great. I was out in the semi fresh air, pounding pavement/dirt shoulder and just feeling great. Then, the massive amounts of gravel started to take its toll. While you can avoid a lot of large patches, one inch hunks of rock are routine on every road and you eventually step on them. Here is where VFF’s lack of padding becomes a liability. The first couple of times, your foot just takes it in stride, but repeated strikes wear it down. Then you finally hit one and pain shoots up. That is what I did and managed to severely and deeply bruise the ball of my left foot.
Nursing my foot bruise, I took about 10 days off from outdoor running and then tried again. Again, 20 minutes into the run and I hit a rock and the pain shot up. I finished the run in an unnatural hobble/twisting my foot inward in order to strike on the outside of the ball. Looks like I was back to shoes.
Back on went my worn out, three year old New Balances and I headed east. It was strange, yet kind of nice running in shoes again. The padding of insoles and a thicker sole took the brunt of the gravel with no problems. I was feeling good, having flown by two of the small band of Nome joggers. Then 2.5 miles down the road the front of my arch cramped. Not just any cramp you can run through, this was an acute shooting pain. At this point in life I know the difference between muscle fatigue and injury pain. This was the latter. I stopped, took off my shoes and tried to massage it out. No luck. I put the shoes back on and start limping the 2.5 miles homes. When the pain started to subside I tried to lightly jog and the pain flared up again. Screwed again.
I of course blamed the cramp on my feet being used to unsupported running and cursed running shoes. But not being one to take a single event as proof, I took a few days off and tried again. This time within a mile I could feel my arch cramping. I stopped, took off my shoes and massaged my foot. Staring at my shoes an idea struck. I removed my insoles, slipped the shoes back on and took off. No pain for the remaining four miles. My feet had actually become insole adverse.
Realizing that I could run in sneaker and continuing in my pseudo scientific barefoot running endeavor, I decided to try the much touted Nike Free running shoe. I am strongly opposed to Nike on moral grounds and not just for all the sweatshop scandals, but for also for their blatant copyright infringement of hardcore legend Minor Threat’s iconic album cover when launching their skateboarding line. (http://boingboing.net/2005/06/29/minor-threat-vs-nike.html) However, their snappy ad men and the naked running camp video won me over. (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=m474JNTLKnQ) What can I say, I’m a weak minded child of the 1980’s consumer television marketing. Moving pictures make me buy things.
When my Zappos box came I eagerly tore it open and found my glowing lime green Frees. Nike Free shoes are supposed to mimic barefoot running by providing little insole and unique corrugated sole that is extremely flexible. Picking them up and bending them, they are extremely flexible. They are also incredibly light which is nice. I have a pair of bulky Salomon trail runners which are good for hiking, but not so great for running. The one thing I immediately noticed about the Nike Free Run+ is that they fit a half size too small. My big toe was hitting the top of the shoe pretty hard. Still, I decided to give them a shot and took them to the gym for some treadmill time. One minute on the treadmill confirmed my shoes were the wrong size so the VFFs went back on and the Free Run+s went back to Zappos.
The one minute I did run in them, even with them being too small, felt good. The sole really does flex a lot and I am predicting that the lack of weight will really be helpful towards the end of a run when my legs are tired. Any day now my correctly sized shoes should arrive. When they do I will give them an extensive evaluation. Until then, happy trails.
