Rich on Running: Minimalist footwear might require some adjustments

Perhaps you’ve seen runners in barefoot/minimalist footwear, the shoes that look like gloves for the feet. Perhaps you’ve bought a pair. Well, last Friday, I put on my first pair of barefoot/minimalist shoes, and yesterday I took them out for a test run.They are a pair of black Vibram FiveFingers shoes ? purchased in, perhaps appropriately, Harvard Square. (My girlfriend alerted me to a sale at The Tannery on Brattle Street.) I tried out several pairs of footwear, sliding my toes into the respective slots. This certainly added a new dimension to the experience of buying running shoes.The Vibrams came with several explanatory tags. One noted that “Our original wear testers soon discovered that FiveFingers helped strengthen the muscles in their feet and lower legs, improving balance, agility, strength and speed.” As I squeezed them on and took tentative steps yesterday, I realized how much they incorporated the feet and calves as opposed to the thighs. They also compelled me to take shorter steps, and they felt much lighter overall than my trusty New Balance sneakers.Originally, I thought of circling a classic Cambridge course: Fresh Pond, a distance of over two miles. Yet I opted for a shorter route on the North Cambridge bike path. In fact, the aforementioned shoe tag encouraged a conservative approach: “It may take some time for your body to adapt to using these new muscles, so we recommend wearing FiveFingers for 1-2 hour intervals the first few weeks.”I sat down by the bike path to readjust the shoes, making sure my toes were more or less where they were supposed to be, and loosening the straps across the top of my foot and heel. Landmarks flew by on the asphalt path: Russell Field, where the Cambridge Rindge & Latin football team plays its home games; the Alewife MBTA station, the northernmost point on the Red Line; the Alewife Brook itself, named for the shad-like fish that still inhabit its waters; and the Cambridge-Arlington border. Ironically, it was in these environs that I had sustained my first injury running without shoes: a scraped toe, just over one year ago. Since then, I had mostly abstained from running barefoot, except on the beach.Well, after crossing the brook yesterday, I sat by its shore to consider whether to go further or head back. No scraped toes this time, but the shoes were squeezing my big toes tighter than a can of sardines (not alewives). Yet I felt I was learning the mechanics of the minimalist stride, so I kept going, letting my toes and forefoot meet the ground gently and then curl back up again in a flowing, wavelike motion.When I reached the off-leash dog park in Arlington, a distance of about a half-mile, I decided to head back. Seeing two other runners approaching behind me, I tried going faster and found you can sprint in Vibrams, going at speed until I approached the T station, then turning it down a little for the final leg of the run.I would try these Vibrams again ? although if my big toes keep hurting, I might search for a larger size. Having run without actual shoes in the past, I may have felt a little more prepared for the minimalist strike. Another introduction to minimalist footwear was running in water shoes on one of the Boston Harbor Islands last year.In fact, those water shoes helped me absorb one lesson about minimalist footwear that I re-learned yesterday. You really feel every bump on the surface. Vibram FiveFingers technology “Protects your feet from scorching surfaces and rugged terrain,” the above-quoted shoe tag informed me ? but suffice to say, the next time I run Lynn Woods, I’m bringing my New Balance sneakers and leaving the Vibrams for another day.Rich Tenorio can be reached at [email protected].