People who know me, or have seen the picture over there on the right (me from Feb 2011), know that I am not a small guy.  Distance running has never been my thing.  But I knew that getting back into shape needed to be a priority, and this was a small kick start into that direction.

My running over the past few months has been sporadic at best.  My wife Heidi and I have set some good goals and even run in 2 5Ks and walked in another.  Our first 5K ever was the Fans on the Field 5K.  It was a very fun event that was a good goal for both of us to get started.

Our next big goal is to run the Bolder Boulder. Tonight I started toward that goal. I start using the Bridge to 10K app on the iPhone as a training program to get going. I also started to look into getting a second pair of Vibram shoes.

As much as I have loved my Vibram KSO’s, they are starting to wear down and it’s time for new.  Of all of the athletic shoes I’ve had over the years, none of them have lasted more than a year.  So to get almost 2 and a half out of shoes is great.

I reviewed the Vibram site tonight and picked out the Bikila as my new pair.  Hopefully they will get here quickly!

I will continue my journey, and update here hopefully more frequently than I have been about this.

I usually run with a 3 minutes running/3 minutes walking pace for my workouts.  So when I started the run off I was very happy with the feel of the shoes.  Obviously again I noticed a difference to traditional shoes as the cushioning was just not there.  My running style didn’t change much that I could tell, which I am happy about.  I was worried that the change of cushioning would make the way I run a lot different.

As I got to about the halfway point of my run I noticed a strong pulling feeling in the arch of my left foot.  This was similar to the feeling I had when I ran the first time.  I am very big guy so the fact that my feet are hurting during a workout doesn’t bother me all that much, but this was a noticeable difference.  I am expecting this pain to go away over time with more workouts, so I will just have to grin and bear it now.

Overall I am still very happy with my purchase of the Vibram’s.  I think they will really help with my overall foot health.  I will keep updating the blog on a semi-regular basis, so please check back.  If you have any questions or comments, please feel free to leave them in the form below.

I got my new Vibram Five Fingers KSO shoes today.  As soon as I got home I put them on.  It was a very interesting feeling when I put them on.  I have had many many pairs of tennis shoes throughout the years, but these are by far the most interesting.  According to the Vibram website these shoes are designed to help the foot strengthen the muscles, thus lessening the chance of injury.

I figured a good way to try them out would be a quick lap around my neighborhood with my great dog Bella.  Its about a half mile around and after just a nice light walk/run my feet actually hurt.  I wasn’t too surprised that my feet hurt, more precisely the arch in my left foot hurt.  Like I said before these shoes are totally different than any of the shoes I have had before, so a fair amount of pain is expected.

The worst part of the run was the concrete.  I know that my shins were not too happy with the run as I really don’t run too much on concrete right now.  I really did feel the difference between normal shoes and the KSO’s.  Also having the individual toe slots felt really good.

I am really looking forward to my first run on a treadmill, which should happen on Thursday this week.  I will update my experiences as often as I can.