Soft Star Sale!

(Disclaimer: I have nothing to gain by plugging Soft Star, other than helping ensure that they stay in business!)

Soft Star Shoes, the makers of my minimalist running shoes of choice, are having a sale. I just picked up a couple of pairs of shoes for half price - enough to last me to the end of the year and beyond. The second pair I bought seem to be lasting much longer than the first, which I got about 1,000 km out of before having to buy a new pair.

Article on Minimalist Running Shoes in SporTraining

The article I wrote on Minimalist Running Shoes will be out any day now, in the latest edition of SporTraining. What could be better than to have one of my heroes on the front cover.

Soft Star RunAmoc update

After my original review, I thought I would post an update on how my RunAmocs were holding up to the punishment:

Interestingly asymmetric wear patterns...

Uh-oh

As you can see, the upper has torn slightly - it was probably the result of stepping too close to a sharp rock - but it has been like that for over a month now and doesn't seem to be getting much worse. I'm just glad that it was the upper that ripped and not my foot! On the other hand, after what I estimate to be about 850 kilometers, the soles are starting to wear quite thin. I reckon they've got another few hundred kilometers in them before they wear completely through, so I've already placed my order for my second pair that should hopefully arrive this side of Christmas. The "elves" seem a lot more busy this time of year, though. Last time there was only a lead time of 4 days between placing the order and the shoes being handmade and shipped. This time I haven't yet received the email saying they have been shipped. Maybe my review has turned so many people on to them that they can't cope with the demand! It's a shame that the soles aren't a little more durable - at this rate I'll be getting through a pair every couple of months in Marathon season. In this regard, I think that the Vivobarefoot soles are more hard wearing but, in that case the uppers are the weak point. In any case, I can't imagine training in any other "shoe" than the RunAmocs now.

I've also ordered another model, the RunAmoc "Dash", with a different upper and a thinner "road" sole. I plan to use these for casual wear but I thought I could also try out these options for running at the same time.

Run & Race

I just picked up this month's Run & Race mainly for the narcissistic reason that they have included a photo of me from the training camp I went on in Morocco recently:

There were a couple of genuinely interesting articles on running shoes. Now, when people ask me for recommendations for running shoes, I often start off by saying that there are basically two paths that you can take. The easy one is to have your gait analyzed and be recommended shoes and possibly even orthotics based on whether you are a pronator or supinator. The harder path, and the one that very few people I know have chosen, is to retrain your gait and go for minimalist or "barefoot" running shoes, relying on your own natural cushioning from the arch of your foot, the pronation of the foot and the elasticity of the Achilles tendon. These two paths are pretty much orthogonal to each other so you can't really try one of them out before deciding which to follow. If you choose "minimal" then you have to make a big commitment to reconditioning your muscles, tendons, ligaments and bones to a completely different set of stresses and strains. This means building running up again from scratch, something that few people are prepared to do and that others do not have the patience to stick to. And there is nothing wrong with that. You can perfectly well go down the path of orthotics and motion control shoes with lots of cushioning but you should be aware that you are creating a dependency, rather like someone who needs to take sleeping pills to sleep at night.

 I mention all this because there were two articles back-to-back that appeared to be saying completely the opposite of each other. On closer reading, they both made a lot of sense only that one was for those traveling along the path of motion control shoes and the other was for those traveling along the path of minimalist shoes.

"The truth about running shoes"

The first article was actually written by the guy who recommended I should run with orthotics and who had some custom ones made for me to run in. With these orthotics I could then choose "neutral" running shoes because the orthotics would correct my tendency to overpronate. With hindsight I can see that this was just a patch to correct the fact that I was running with poor technique, with shoes that encouraged me to heel strike (and therefore overpronate) and with weakness in the supporting muscles of my feet and lower legs. On the other hand, just like taking a pill, it worked. The pain I was getting in my ITB (isquiotibial band) immediately subsided and it was only months later that knee pain forced me to choose the other path. Apart from the ostentatious title "The truth about running shoes", I can appreciate that what he says applies to the majority of runners who are not prepared to go down the same path as I did.

"Minimalist shoes - are we ready?"

I was excited to see an article in a running magazine about minimalist shoes that was not an attempt to pass off lightweight racing flats from major brands off as such (unlike the review sections in Runner's World, for example). It's a shame that it has taken two years since I first came across them for it to appear - one would expect the running magazines to be ahead of the curve - but it doesn't take to much imagination to understand why this might be. I wasn't too surprised to see that the author of the article was actually Jonathan, my trainer. In the first paragraph he mentions the impact that the book "Born to Run" (only recently translated into Spanish) has had. In fact, I was the one that gave him that book a couple of years ago! As I would expect from Jonathan, it's a very well balanced article that avoids the evangelical side typical of those of us who have chosen the path of minimalist shoes and instead emphasizes the point that the adaptation to the different style of running that this entails can take a long time. I remember him saying to me in Berlin where he was running the Marathon and I was not (due to my foot being in an airboot for precisely not allowing time for adaptation) something that he also closed the article with, that "perhaps 37 years of wearing shoes can undo millions of years of evolution". In other words, it may be that our feet are amazing works of engineering that have evolved to allow us to run for hundreds of kilometers unshod but that doesn't mean that we can ignore the adaptations our bodies have made in the short space of our lifetime to wearing shoes.

Thanks for following!

No, this is not the profile of one of the stages of the Tour de France. It is a graph of the number of hits my blog has been getting a month since its inception almost exactly one year ago. (By the way, the sharp drop off in November just reflects the fact that we have only just started the month.) Another milestone is that the blog has received more than 20,000 hits. So, thank you to everyone who has been following this blog, either publicly or from the sidelines. I get a big kick out of knowing that people are interested to read what I have to say because my wife and most of my friends are not. This blog has been an outlet for my obsessions much like deejaying was (will be again?) for my passion for music.

I thought this might be a good moment to link to some of my best and most popular posts over the last year, especially for those of you who are new around these parts.

Race reports
Maratón de San Sebastián 2010 - 3:07
San Silvestre Vallecana 2010
Media Maratón de Getafe 2011 - 1:23
Lisbon International Triathlon (Half Ironman) 2011 - 4:44
Ironman Brazil (Florianópilis) 2011 - 10:45
Lake Merced (San Francisco) 2011
Media Maratón de Valladolid 2011 - 1:22

Usung heroes
Graeme Obree
Chrissie Wellington
Kilian Journet
Pertti Karpinnen
Andy Holmes
Marc Herremans

Shoes
Soft Star Original Run Amoc LITE Review
The quest for the ultimate all-round minimalist running shoe
Kids and running
The Imelda Marcos of Triathlon

Running technique
Running Technique #1
Running Technique #2
Running up and down hills
Treadmill versus road: To lean or not to lean? 
Keep those knees up boy!
You gotta have rhythm
Compact arm swing

Trips
Budapest
Morocco

Miscellaneous
Epilogue (post Ironman Brazil)
I'm back with a vengeance
Tempting fate
Time management
A week during my Ironman preparation
Top triathlon iPhone apps
Home gym
Nutrition plan for Lisbon Half Ironman
Master class

Soft Star RunAmoc review

Softstar Original RunAmoc Lite

I said I would wait until I had notched up several hundred kilometers in these shoes before writing a review but I love them so much that I can't wait that long. Having said that, I have done well over a hundred miles in them, on tartan track, on the treadmill, on tarmac and trails (with anything between small stones and rocks) both with and without socks. Just as I suppose it is possible to fall in love with someone and subsequently find them attractive rather than experience "love at first sight", I now regret the harsh comments I made about their appearance after first un-boxing them. Especially as I received a very polite reply from one of the Soft Star "Elves" that makes the shoe after reading my initial review, saying that they had another, more conventional looking shoe (the Dash RunAmoc) if I was still "unsatisfied with their appearance".

The first thing to note about these shoes (which, strictly speaking, are in fact moccasins) is that they are extremely comfortable for wearing about the house. I have always gone around barefoot in the house for as long as I can remember (in spite of having trodden on a nail on one occasion and getting a massive splinter from wooden floorboards on another) and yet my feet seem to feel even more comfortable with these shoes on, even if I have my feet up. I can't really explain it. I think it may be something to do with the quality of the soft leather, or the breathablity that the hundreds of tiny perforations provide. Leather shoes make me think of sweaty, stiff and clunky work shoes but it stands to reason that millions of years of evolution can come up with a material that is tougher, more waterproof, more breathable, flexible and quicker to dry than any synthetic material we are capable of inventing.

Fit

I've said it many times before but it's a fact: I've got very big feet. In the RunAmocs, according to the measurements I took, I am a size 12A, which is the biggest standard size they do. If you go up to 13A, you have to pay a little more (which is fair enough - at least the size exists) and you can even send in a tracing of your foot and have custom shoes made exactly to order. (You can even customize the colours if you so desire.) In my case, the fit is perfect. The toe box is very generous giving my toes plenty of room to splay out. As I mentioned in my initial review, the "bagginess" of the shoes is a little disconcerting at first. Many other people have also commented on this. The reason it feels weird is that the sole of the shoe is free to move around slightly as your foot is in mid-flight and you have to trust that the sole will be in the right place at the right time when your foot hits the ground. At first, there is a tendency to try to grip the sole with your toes which is a thoroughly bad idea but, once you realize that the sole sticks firmly to the sole of your foot while your foot is preparing for landing, you begin to relax and even appreciate the extra ventilation that is provided as a result of the bagginess. Some people have also commented on the importance of getting the tension of the drawstring right. To be honest, I haven't had an issue with this. There have been days when I have pulled it slightly too tight and been left with a red, slightly itchy impression around my ankle; other days it has been on the loose side and the shoe has flopped around in mid air more than usual. Neither of the two extremes bother me that much. The proof is that these are the first shoes I have ever been able to run sockless in without incurring any blisters. I should qualify this by saying that the part of my sole around the forefoot is quite leathery itself, rather like a Hobbit's foot but less hairy. Nevertheless, I usually get blisters at the ends of my toes, under my big toe or in random places on the top and sides of my foot where the uppers crease or have seams; with the RunAmocs there is no possibility of this happening. One aspect I appreciate is that there is a piece of hard leather that comes into contact with your foot and, over time, molds itself gently to the contours of your foot.

Ground feel

I chose the thicker 5mm "trail" soles so the ground feel is ever so slightly worse than that of my Vivobarefoot Evos, for example. However, there is a clear trade off between ground feel and ground hurt, and it is certainly the case that I also feel the small stones and sticks on the trail much less than I did with the Evos. For the mix of roads and trails that I run on, I definitely made the right choice, although Soft Star do offer a thinner, "street" sole which is only 2mm thick.

Protection

As I've just mentioned, the protection offered by the soles is much better than other minimalist shoes that I have tried. I recently gave the RunAmocs a run for their money in Morocco where I had no choice but to run on trails that were more rocky and treacherous than any I had previously attempted. Here I reached the limit of the shoes and had to slow down although I was able to continue to run without injury. I think that minimalist shoes are simply not appropriate for this kind of terrain. I'm sure there are people that are able to run barefoot over such terrain but that is not really the point. That takes many years to develop and has to be constantly maintained to the point that, given the norms of the society we live in, it would have to be a lifestyle choice. The uppers give excellent protection against grazing against rocks although, unlike the Evos and most running shoes, the sole doesn't wrap around the foot: the sides and top of the foot are only protected by the leather upper and the generous size of the sole.

Here you can see the wear after 100 miles or so

Durability

So far they seem to be withstanding admirably the paces I am putting them through. My other shoes have tended to show signs of wear on tear on the uppers by now - partly because they are more tightly sized and partly because they are made of flimsy synthetic materials. As these are made of leather, you can actually clean and polish them as you would any other pair of leather shoes. The soles are made by Vibram and seem to be quite durable, as you would expect. The little nodules on the bottom are starting to wear down in the places where I make ground contact but I think I will get many more miles out of them before I think of replacing them.

Versatility

This is where the shoes really come into their own, in my opinion. If I could get away with it, I'd wear them around the house, to work and for running. Even just being able to use them equally on roads as on trails is enough for me, as many of my routes are over mixed terrain. I would even consider using them both for training and for competition.

Flexibility

The shoes are very flexible as you would expect. Having a relatively thick sole for a minimalist shoe, they are slightly less flexible in the sole than the Evos, for example, but the roomy uppers mean that the toes can bend upwards (the technical term is "dorsiflex") without meeting any resistance whatsoever. Part of the protection given by the sole is by virtue of it dissipating any sharp pressure points over the whole surface - this kind of rigidity you want but not at the cost of not being able to flex your toes. In fact, the only structure that the shoes have other than the sole itself is a small rubbery insert in the heel which keeps it from collapsing completely.

Comfort

I''ve talked about the fit but there are other aspects to comfort. Firstly, they are very breathable and airy so your feet are kept nice and cool. Either my feet sweat less as a result or the leather wicks away sweat more effectively - either way, the shoes are usually dusty dry after a run. The exception is when I run on the treadmill. On the treadmill there is no wind chill to cool you down so you tend to sweat a lot more and your sweat falls directly onto your shoes (partly because of lack of wind and partly because of lack of lean while running). Even so, the shoes dry out very quickly and don't become stiff and crusty with dried salt (sorry) unlike other shoes that I have known. They also still smell of leather which is not just a bonus but an indication that they are not going to rot away any time soon.

Traction

The grip on the soles is about as minimal as it gets: just enough to prevent you from hydroplaning on a puddle of water. Actually, this is just how I like it because I don't believe in running with an active push off (which would rely more heavily on traction). On the other hand, most of the trails I run on in Spain are dusty with stoney patches and I rarely have to cope with mud. I'm not sure that they would perform well either running uphill on wet grass or through marshland or bogs. People tend to use spikes for those kind of conditions.

Performance

They are clearly very light compared to regular running shoes and they still compare favourably to minimalist trail shoes. The 5mm trail sole does make them weigh a little more than the thinner, 2mm version. What is perhaps a more significant aspect of performance is the response of the sole. Being very hard it has a very sharp response like the Evos but quite different from the spongey feel of the Vivobarefoot Ultras. When I run on tarmac my footsteps are virtually silent - this is definitely a good sign.

Summary

These shoes have quickly become not only the "ultimate minimalist all-round running shoe" that I was looking for but also my "favourite shoes of all time". Sometimes you buy something that gives you so much pleasure that you want to buy it again, even though you don't need it and you know that the pleasure will not be the same as a consequence. I'm already thinking of buying another pair with the thinner 2mm street sole, or perhaps with the more funky stylings of the Dash model.

WARNING: As mentioned on the Soft Star website, these are minimalist running shoes that require a certain period of adaptation for the muscles, tendons and bones in your feet and lower legs if you are not already accustomed to them.

The quest for the ultimate all-round minimalist running shoe...

As I noted before, in my post on minimalist running shoes, buying running shoes can be something of an obsessive activity. There is nothing quite like a new piece of kit to motivate you to get out and hit the trails. So my quest for the ultimate running shoe is the perfect excuse to acquire ever more outlandish shoes. The shoes I have been using for most of my training since June are Vivobarefoot Evos which are so tantalizingly close to being perfect but have a few drawbacks (apart from being fairly pricey): they don't make them quite big enough for my plates-of-meat (feet) and the uppers can't handle the paces I put them through so, while the soles have still got many kilometers left in them, the uppers are torn in several places. Also, I have to admit, that there are few things quite as annoying as landing directly on top of a stone and the Evos (with the inner sole removed to make room for my aforementioned extra large feet) do not offer quite enough protection for the trails I often run on. On the other hand, I certainly don't want a soft, spongy sole, nor do I want a sole with thick, grippy lugs on, which would only get in the way and wear down while running on roads.

Here is my list of demands for the ultimate all-round minimalist running shoe:

- Minimalist. That means zero drop, low profile, no toe spring, light and flexible.
- Versatile. It needs to have a hard sole that is thick enough to protect my feet from sharp objects and stones while still having good "ground feel". It should be equally at home running on tarmac.
- Durable. I don't want to have to replace them every few months. Not only should the soles be tough, but the uppers must withstand rubbing against the odd jagged rock.
- Breathable. I hate sweaty feet and wet feet are more prone to blisters.
- No "hot spots". I expect to build up thicker skin around the balls of my feet but I want to get a whole new set of custom blisters from a rubbing strap or flexing material.

With this list in mind I asked some of the experts in minimalist running shoes in the blogging sphere for recommendations and came up with the Run Amocs from Soft Star which arrived yesterday in the post, less than two weeks after I ordered them. Considering they are handmade in America (by the "Elves"!) and the postage was quite reasonable, this is pretty remarkable.

As their name suggests, they are not really running shoes but running moccasins. My youngest son said they looked like my wife's orthopedic slippers (which, incidentally, I used to take the piss out of my wife for wearing around the house). He asked if they were for running (even a 6 year old with me for a dad has preconceived ideas about what running shoes look like) and then commented that they were "strange". I think a more appropriate description is UAF.

With no disrespect meant to the Elves, this photo just doesn't do justice to how ugly these shoes really look in real life. But who cares about how they look? Exactly. What we perceive to be ugly are those things which don't follow certain norms. I didn't include "they should look cool" on the list above. What if you were to design a minimalist running shoe purely based on function and not on form? You would probably end up with something like the Run Amocs.

Soft Star has actually been making handmade shoes for 25 years, long before the whole barefoot / minimalist running fad got underway. The Run Amocs are the product of active feedback from runners, such as Donald from the running and rambling blog. They are made of a exquisitely soft leather which is perforated making the uppers both durable and breathable. They even smell great although I'm not sure how long that will last. The only problem is that, if you wear them with white socks (in an effort to be as uncool as possible), then you will find that you white socks are no longer white. I suppose this effect will wear off in time. The shoes are more like little leather bags that you tie around your ankles with the shoelace. There are two big vents either side of the tongue which add to the airy feel.

What is for sure is that they are the most comfortable shoes I have ever worn for padding around the house. I almost prefer them to being barefoot which is really saying something. At least I don't have to keep brushing off bread crumbs and dog hairs from my feet when I am wearing them. The sole is made by Vibram and has a very subtle tread pattern. I prefer to have very little traction on my shoes and I believe that generally we should learn to run relying as little as possible on the tread, as I explained in a previous post about running on ice. The soles come in two variations: one a 2mm thick version for road running and the other a 5mm thick version for trails. I went for the thicker sole because I am fed up of treading on stones and terrified of getting another stress fracture. They have slightly less ground feel than the Evos, for example, but this is an inevitable trade off and, for this reason, they offer both models.

What is curious about running with the Run Amocs is that you have to trust that the sole will be firmly in place when you put your foot on the ground. While your foot is in flight, the bagginess of the upper allows the sole to shift around slightly but, as your foot prepares for landing, the sole fixes itself tightly to your foot and doesn't budge one tiny little bit. One reviewer put this feature down to "magic" from the Elves; my explanation is somewhat more mundane. As your foot prepares for landing the toes curl up a little - this has the effect of tightening the leather around your toes and holding the sole in place. It seems to me like the leather bag inflates with air slightly in the process and then expels it, adding to the ventilation. At first it is slightly disconcerting and you tend to try to "grab" the soles by curling your toes in mid-flight. This is definitely not a good idea (and, if my theory is right, actually works against the shoe's mechanism for holding the soles in place). Once you learn to trust that the sole will always be there for you when you need it, you start to relax your toes and forget you are wearing any shoes at all. I have to get some more mileage in before I can really say that I don't get any blisters or hot spots but, so far it's looking good. I'll write an update on whether the Run Amocs are the holy grail I have been searching for once I have logged several hundred kilometers in them.

Another bonus is that they pack extremely flat because the uppers have no structure whatsoever (except a tiny piece in the heel). This means that I can take them to Morocco without sacrificing any luggage space. Although they are so comfortable that I'll probably want to wear them on the plane, even if they are UAF.

Kids and running

I've got two little boys, aged (nearly) 7 and 9. They love running about as much as any other kids but what about running in the sense of running just for the sake of running? I don't think so - not yet, anyway. They seem to associate running with the absence of their father and have more of a memory of the times I have injured myself running or come back with bloody feet or nipples than of the times when they have come to support me in a race. For the eldest, my moment of glory was when I came home with a trophy for second place in a race at work! Better to come second in a provincial race than 10th in an international competition! Of course I would like them to discover the joys of running and of triathlon, for that matter, but I'm also conscious of the importance of it feeling like something that they have chosen rather than something an over-reaching parent has foisted upon them. We've started to run occasionally to the park and back - about a kilometer - but they start off very enthusiastically, running ahead and dropping back and then get quite tired. I've been running barefoot alongside them, the thinking being that my feet will get conditioned for running at about the same rate that the kids (and my wife) do.

As a parent I have a big dilemma about what to do about shoes for my kids. The eldest has my flat feet and the podiatrist has recommended shoes as stiff as a board with orthotics (special insoles). The fact that we bought these items from a shop that had probably been in the same place since the civil war didn't do much to allay my fears: how can I live by one philosophy and yet have my kids live by another? When people ask me about my minimalist running shoes I tell them why I think they are better than normal running shoes (while they look on with politely disguised boredom I suppose) but I also say that I wouldn't recommend them to anyone who was not willing to really commit to re-conditioning their feet. But the kids' feet have not yet been turned into squashed, mushy pulp by shoes yet and they always go barefoot in the house. They have strong looking feet with a nice separation between the toes. Even so, it takes some guts to go against the doctor's orders - the responsibility would be all mine if something happened to them. Then, last year we stumbled upon the Terra Plana Vivobarefoot shop in Brighton where I bought my first Evos, my wife bought some funky shoes and - to my delight - she also agreed to buy some "barefoot" shoes for the kids (thus sharing the responsibility). I'm now looking to replace them because they have been completely worn out. There are still very limited options for minimalist running shoes for kids. Merrel have launched some which I am currently unable to buy over the internet because of the shipping restrictions and Merrel's antiquated policy of dividing their internet shops into "zones". Instead, I am eagerly awaiting the launch of the Vivobarefoot Neos for kids, which should be out any day now.

Next time you see a small kid running, watch how he or she runs. Doesn't it look like the smoothest, most efficient way to run? Then watch how we run as adults. Something happens to us in that time and I'd like to help my kids avoid it happening to them. I don't claim that shoes are entirely to blame, some of the problem comes from our innate ability to imitate others and our false image of what it means to run correctly. (How many photos can you spot in an issue of Runner's World of people over-striding? Some of them are even elite runners.)

Last long run

This is what I wrote this morning:

I had planned to do this run before breakfast but it didn't seem wise after not having digested my dinner properly last night. Instead I decided to do the run after work. My Vivobarefoot Ultras arrived this morning and it seemed as though the stomach upset was conspiring to tempt me into trying them out for the first time on a 30k run, less than two weeks before the competition. This is where I have to use my head and be sensible. First impressions are that they are ridiculously light and fantastically flexible, although the sole looks much less durable than the (heavier) Evos I bought last year. They look as though they could be my competition shoes just in time for my worn out Puma Cosmos to be replaced by the brand spanking new pair that I have saved for the Ironman.

And now:

Of course, once I tried the shoes on, they felt so comfortable I couldn't resist the temptation to do the run in them. They come with a removable sock which attaches securely to the shoe and has a kevlar like puncture proof sole and the idea is that you don't need to wear another sock inside this one. For the first 10 kilometers or so they felt great on tarmac, on the trail, on the level or going up and down hills. After about 15 kilometers, though, I could tell that some blisters were working themselves up on some of my toes. It's not surprising, my feet are not used to these shoes yet. It was a bit of a risky thing to do so close to the competition but a bit of judicious lancing and draining has left my feet in a perfectly servicable state - in any case, my next run isn't until Sunday. Although I like the Ultras a lot, I'll be sticking with the Pumas for the race - there's simply not enough time to build up hard skin where it needs to be.

Vivobarefoot Ultra shoes

I think I have found my next pair of running shoes. The only problem is that they haven't come out yet - but they are due to be released this month.

Apparently they are noticeably lighter than the Evos and the Neos (which I have and like very much). The first obvious thing to notice about them is that they have holes in, rather like Crocs. The idea is that you wear them with an optional mesh sock which comes supplied. They look just the ticket for Triathlon. Any water (or sweat, for that matter) should drain out and the holes should keep your feet cool. From a review I've read, the soles are a bit more bouncy and less stiff than the soles of the Neos and could be less durable and absorb more of the impact (which, if you've been reading my blog, you will know is a bad thing). Still, they could potentially be the best shoes for competition; for training I like to run in tougher shoes with a crisper, more snappy sole.

As soon as I can get my hands on a pair, I'll let you know how they are.

The Imelda Marcos of Triathlon

I have never understood people's (let's face it, usually women's) fascination for shoes. In fact, if you have been following this blog at all, you'll know that I am quite anti-shoes in general and, if I were President for a day, would pass a law saying that it is socially acceptable to go around barefoot or in socks, especially in the office. I grew up with a minor complex about my feet, particularly because a gruff ex-Army teacher I had used to say that I walked pigeon-toed. I just accepted the fact that I was "flat-footed" in the same way that one might be short-sighted or colour-blind. Having strengthened my feet through running, my arches look much more like arches and - this is the weird bit - I now actually like my feet! I suppose it is a bit like how one feels about their children - to you they are the most beautiful in the world but other people might secretly think that they are ugly and even that they smell.

Along my path of "foot discovery" I have built up a fairly substantial collection of shoes that has certainly not gone unnoticed by my wife. I have very big feet (EUR 48 in running shoes / cycle shoes) which limits my options severely and, in many cases, means I have to buy them from mail order abroad. Apart from the general prejudice that big footed runners must be heavy and therefore need oodles of cushioning, it seems like there are the same protectionist rules governing the sale of shoes that there are for DVDs, CDs, eBooks and video games: I am in Zone 2 (Europe) and most of the shoes I like are only made for Zone 1 (USA) consumers. This is, of course, where ebay comes in.

Things to look for in minimal shoes:
1) Low profile. The sole should be thin so your foot can better feel and anticpate the ground and thus help you land with less impact force and adapt to any uneven terrain.
2) Zero heel to toe differential. Most trainers pitch you forward by raising the heel because you need more cushioning on the heel if you heel strike. Pitching you forward encourages you to heel strike so it is a chicken and egg situation. Better to land on the midfoot / forefoot and do away with the heel counter. By the way, if you are a so-called "over pronator" (what a great marketing invention) then you'll notice that this goes away if you change your landing. This is because the roll of the foot is designed to help absorb (and release) the impact forces with respect to a landing close to your centre of gravity - if you land any further forward the foot is caught in a different orientation. Pronating is not a disorder.
3) Flexibility. Most shoes are like mini-prisons for your feet. Your feet become weaker and more dependent on the support of shoes. A more flexible shoe allows your foot to move as it sees fit. If your foot is strong enough then - perhaps paradoxically for some - the more flexible the shoe, the less chance you have of spraining your ankle for example. Imagine you ran over uneven terrain in a pair of clogs - if you stepped badly then all the force of the torsion would be channeled through the few muscles that were not splinted, dramatically increasing the chance of a sprain.
4) No toe spring. Many shoes curl up at the front so that you can roll off the ground - this is called a "toe spring". If the shoe is rigid then this is necessary otherwise your toes would "nose dive" into the ground. However the euphemistically named "toe spring" actually disables the natural toe spring of your foot.
5) Light. Your foot acts like a pendulum as you run. This is one of the reasons why, the faster you run, the more you tuck your foot into your bum: you shorten the length of the pendulum and it swings more rapidly. However, if you add more weight to the end of the pendulum, it swings more slowly. The energetic cost of a small weight on your foot is much greater than carrying this weight (around your stomach for example). If the shoe meets all the other requirements, its going to be relatively light anyway.

WARNING: Changing your running gait or adapting to more minimal running shoes is something that should be done - if at all - very gradually over at least 6 months.

Feelmax Niesa

This Finnish company still has a real family business feel to it. What is special about the shoes they make is that they have about the thinnest sole you can get away with. The sole is made of Kevlar (the same stuff that bullet proof jackets are made from) and so is pretty resistant. They are extremely flexible and can even be rolled up into a little ball. For a while, I took to wearing them in the office as it was considered to be just too weird to go round in socks. I have also run a bit in them and they are surprisingly good at distributing the impact of a sharp object across the surface of the sole but they are only really suitable for hardcore "barefoot" runners who run on roads but have yet to develop Hobbit like hard skin on the bottom of their feet.

Misuno Wave Universe III (RIP)

I had the predecessor to these shoes which came in a fetching blue colour. They are probably the lightest shoes I have ever run in. As you can see, they are very low profile and have no heel-toe differential, toe spring or any other new fangled nonsense. They are pretty flexible - not to the same degree as the Vibrams or the Feelmax - but they actually look like normal running shoes which is good if you get fed up with comments and funny looks from other people. The problem is that they are priced like normal running shoes but they are not at all resistent to wear. Mine died after only a few months of use - although it is true that, had I not been running on knackered roads in India at the time, they probably would have held out a little longer. Still, the price - and the fact that they are impossible to find in any shops in Spain - means that I won't be restocking them.


Nike Lunar Racer (RIP)

What are these shoes doing here you ask? They look like hovercrafts compared to the other shoes. Even though Nike seems to pretty much lead the whole running shoe movement in the anti-natural direction (with the exception of their experiment in relatively chunky but flexible "Free" shoes), I have to hand it to them: these shoes are a technological marvel. They were the first really light shoes I ran with and they made quite a difference. They were my bridge to more minimal shoes although, in hindsight, being light was the only thing that was good about them. The cushioning was quite soft and felt like it was absorbing all the spring in your step. Also, the upper wore through quite quickly - one pair I bought was already torn when I took it out of the box! I ended up supergluing it back together to avoid the hassle of sending it back.

Terra Plana Evo


These guys are the ones to watch in 2011. Terra Plana are making some seriously stylish shoes which are very flexible, low profile and durable. I've managed to get the kids out of their rock solid shoes with orthotics and they are now wearing various different models of Terra Plana shoes. I picked up a pair of Evos which are virtually indestructable. The soles are so firm that my steps make a satisfying tapping sound, confirming that I am getting sprung back most of what I put in. They are a tad on the heavy side for being a minimal shoe but this is the price you pay for their ruggedness, although perhaps they have gone a bit overboard with the uppers. This one of the problems I have with the shoe: I end up getting blisters on the tops of my toes!! This is because the upper folds back on itself when my foot bends and rubs against my toes. There is a new model, developed in conjunction with POSE Running guru Lee Saxby, that I have yet to get my hands on. It has a more conventional upper. Hopefully it fixes the other problem I have with the shoe and that is that the back of the shoe comes up too far and causes some discomfort by pressing against my Achilles. I still use these shoes for running occassionally and they are my favourites for doing strength exercises in the gym.


Puma Street Kosmos

I have a sort of love-hate relationship with Puma. They have the best and most stylish running shoes in my opinion and they are not even very expensive - that is, IF you can actually find them. The POSE Method followers are very enthusiastic about a mythical shoe that Puma used to make called the "H Street". It was actually supposed to be a fashion shoe but it turned out to have exactly the minimalistic characteristics that the POSE crowd were looking for. I'm sure that a company as big and successful as Puma is not so thick as to not have noticed this little trend. I think that letting models suddenly drift off into obscurity or selling one type of shoe in one market and not in another are perfectly conscious strategies to make us shoe junkies so nervous everytime we see a Puma store that we just have to go in to see whether they just happen to have that elusive model in our size. Which, of course, they never do. When you do find it, then you end up buying fifty pairs just in case they are discontinued. Having said all that, I love the Kosmos. They are my ideal competition shoe because they are light, low profile, comfortable, reasonably durable and breathable. Also, they are not too minimalistic so you don't need to worry about treading on a stone. They have virtually no grip on the sole which is something I quite like actually, because if I find myself slipping or scuffing, it is usually because I am not running properly. Sure, grip is useful for quick accelerations but for running a Marathon - which I have done in these - you just want to get into a good groove. I did once slip over rather embarassingly in the gym, in a pool of my own sweat, just as I stepped off the running machine. Since then I am extra careful.... This is the shoe I will be wearing in the Ironman.

Saucony Kilkenny XC 3 Flat


These are my second favourite shoes (second to the Kosmos). They are very similar in most repects although they have a tiny bit of differential between the heel and toe. The main difference is that they are slightly harder wearing and have much more grippy soles, so they give much more confidence when running cross country like I do on my way to work. They are also a lot easier to get hold of - I still have to order them by mail from the States but its pretty straightforward and they are usually discounted something silly.


Vibram Five Fingers KSO (Keep Stuff Out)

So much has been written about these "monkey feet" that I'm not sure I can add much to the debate. They are a little pricey but they are also extremely good quality - mine still look (but don't smell) as good as new. They are a bugger to get on and I highly recommend that you wear toe socks underneath to avoid getting blisters (typically from the strap) but they are surprisingly comfortable once you've made the effort. Of course, they are the best you can get in terms of flexibility because each toe has the freedom to spread out and really grab the ground. As far as springiness goes, the soles are similar in feel to the Terra Plana shoes. If you like to attract attention then these are your bag - there are even more striking versions available. I have to admit I am slightly scared to use them still, because I managed to get a stress fracture in my foot from over enthusiastic adoption of these "shoes".


MBT (Masai Barefoot Technology)

 How I laughed when I first saw these. They market themselves as the "anti-shoe" and I thought that an anti-shoe, if anything, should be like the Feelmax - something with a waffer thin sole. These shoes are neither flexible, cheap or low profile and they are certainly not lightweight. What happened is that I got fed up of people asking me if I was injured when they saw me walking around in the Feelmax - when you walk barefoot or in socks, you walk on slightly bended knees and tip-toes. The idea behind the MBT shoes is to accept that we walk differently from how we run and that heel striking is OK as long as you are walking. If you start from this premise then, by making the sole of the shoe curved, you find that your centre of gravity moves much less as you walk than it would in normal heeled shoes (i.e., you bob up and down less). MBT market this as it being similar to walking in sand rather than on hard man made surfaces like concrete and it is true that it is a strangely soothing sensation walking in them. The other effect of the sole is that you have no heel counter to lean back on when you are standing - in fact you are constantly in a state of equilibrium like a weeble (until someone sees you are wearing them and pushes you from behind as a joke, as happens to me every so often). The end result is that you expend less energy walking than you would in normal shoes, and more energy standing - at least at first. But that isn't quite the end of the story, because, by being in constant balance, you naturally adopt - by evolutionary definition - the best possible posture. The problem with a bad posture is that some of your muscles become weaker while others become tighter, leading to muscle pain. So your calf muscles may get more tired than usual at first as you get used to them, but - and this is the surprising thing - it works wonders for posture related back pain and knee pain. The shoes are very expensive but they are extremely well made and I personally believe it is worth steering clear of the cheaper and perhaps slightly more fashionable but less effective imitations. You gets what you pays for. Some of them are ugly as sin but I have finally managed to find a pair of MBT work shoes that look like work shoes, at least from above. Prior to my MBT conversion, I was getting pains in my knee from walking even short distances (I have a torn meniscus) although I could happily run for tens of kilometers without problems. This problem has gone away and my posture has improved to boot. Oh yes, and they make me look about 5cm taller....