Never ever trainers again

I had the same experience 2 months ago. I'd been trading off, Asics vs. VFFs, and increasing the trail mileage to ~40/week total, over a period of >8 months. I needed to go slow because I had a heavy rear-foot strike and my first VFF runs caused a lot of calf pain and an injury that had me walking for 6 weeks.

My feet had gotten bigger over the past year, so I'd switched to size 11.5. But after building mileage on the VFFs, my feet were smaller again and my shoes were getting loose and feeling heavy. 2 months ago, I took them out for a long trail run, but felt horrible, tired and slow. The problem was that I couldn't figure out how to land. The rear-foot landing felt unstable and heavy and I twisted my ankle twice. The forefoot landing I have in my VFFs didn't work because the heel of the shoe got in the way.

I'd been holding of on going full-VFF because I was concerned about running on asphalt with them, but after that incident I gave up the Asics and have found that my hips and legs relax and absorb the shock of asphalt pretty well. I'm still building up mileage, however; running these days is more of a muscle strain than an aerobic strain, as I get used to the new style.

That being said, I knocked 3 minutes off my 10 mile PR (OK, I wore Kinvara's for them) to 1:12:49 at Broad Street last Sunday, so the improvement in my form has been paying off. Best wishes to you, thomaslp.

I've watched a lot of folks, including myself, go through this process now, and oftentimes getting rid of the Top of Foot Pain only requires ditching the VFFs for true barefoot most of the time. I hope you find a good solution that works for you.

Hi Pihl,

thank you for your advice. My last three runs (5.5K, 9K and 5.5K)were BF not in VFF. I brought a pair of aqua shoes because my feets are notready for gravel roads with big sharp rocks. They are easy to slip in when it is absolutely needed.

The news is that my TOFP is gone I think I will only run in my VFF when I run in "unknown territory".

/Thomas

Hi Scott. That's a nice record you got there. I can't compete with that......yet

11 June I am gonna do an official 14K and I will run it BF or in VFF. I think I will break a personal record. When running in trainers my average pace was 5 minutes per km. Now, running in VFF or BF,I often look at my Garmin Forerunner and notice that my pace is between 4:30 and 4:50 per km.....and it even feels good running at this pace.

Trainers should only be used when mowing the lawn