Sore soles in my Vibrams

So I did a 3-miler in the Vibrams yesterday. The calves continue to be crazy tight, but I'll get over that. What was more concerning was that the bottom of my feet felt sore. Not sure if it's my feet muscles adjusting to the new shoe, or if it's just the pounding without padding. If it's the former, I'll get over that too, but if it's the latter my Vibram trial might be much shorter than a marathon.

When I was running in the Vibrams back in the States this didn't happen at all. There are two reasons I can think of that might have led to the difference. First, I was running less; I might not have gotten the critical mass of distance needed to get sore soles. Second, I was running a lot on grass; ever since high school running around suburbia, I've made it a habit to run on grass when it's there between the sidewalk and the curb or otherwise, and that would have certainly softened the blows to my feet.

That seems to lead into one of the core criticisms of this whole barefoot running craze; when we were evolving these awesome running feet, we were running around on dirt, etc. Now us city boys have concrete to run on, and we're just not evolved for it. Let's hope that's not the case.

Anyway, today I decided to put my old heel-to-ball Nikes back on and take them for a 5-mile run.

With my Nike+ sensor back in pretty-accurate land (due to being in a Nike shoe that doesn't need to be synced so much), I ended up running about 9-minute miles. The run itself was uneventful; felt easy and was relaxed, even though I was pushing it just a wee bit above a cakewalk run.

One thing I noticed about switching back to regular shoes after the Vibrams is that I still tend to go ball to heel. I wonder if that's why I ended up at 9-mile pace (a bit faster than I typically go in my first week of running after a break).

And it was also clear how much nicer it is to run downhill with some padding under there. With my Nikes, I could coast downhill without even thinking about. Vibrams require some thought.

If I can get a run in tomorrow, it's back to the Vibrams.