Vibrams

I went out for a 7 mile run in my Vibram Five Finger KSOs yesterday. The furthest I'd ran in them before was abut 5.5 miles, which left a spot on my right foot raw. I decided to pick up some Iniji running toe socks to wear inside the Vibrams to cut down on rubbing and provide some more warmth so that I can use them until it gets Minnesota cold. The shoes felt very snug with the socks inside them, but I was used to them feeling overly snug since my feet and ankles were swollen up for a week or so after my illness. They actually felt a bit less snug! At any rate, here are my observations about how running with the KSOs differ from my Teva sandals, (and other heavy training shoes) :

-My stride changed a little, even though I'm trying to use the same midfoot stride regardless of shoe
-I noticed more rubbing between me legs, which hadn't been a problem for me recently (a result of changed stride)
-I felt very light on my feet
-I felt like my heart and lungs didn't have to work as hard to achieve the same time
-I felt like I didn't sweat as much as normal
-My upper leg muscles (quads and hamstrings) felt like they were not working hard
-The tendons in may ankles and feet felt more strained than normal
-Both ankles felt a little sore at some point during the run
-Several lower leg muscles were being worked much harder than normal, especially the one immediately to the outside of the tibia (shin bone), which I'm assuming is the tibialis anterior and fairly meaty one on the outside of my lower leg which is probably the peroneus longus. (this is based on a quick online search) These muscles are involved with stabilizing the ankle and balance and work opposite one another in turning the ankle over one way or the other so it makes sense that they would both be tired together.
-My "calf" muscles were not especially tired. People seem to refer to any muscle in the lower leg as the calf muscle, but there are something on the order of 12 muscles in the lower leg, the "calf muscle" is actually two muslces, the gastrocnemius and soleus, large muscles at the back of the lower leg that help with plantarflexion--making the angle of the ankle to the shin greater than 90 degrees, aka pushing off with the toes or going up on the tip toes.


Overall the run felt very good, except that my toe was being stressed a little more than it would have been in my sandals. I don't think my muscles and tendons would have been up for running much more than 10 miles in them yet, but If they were in better shape, I felt like I could have kept pace for a really long time. From my knees up the run felt effortless.