6-month experiement with VFFs is OVER

After running exclusively in VFFs for 6-months, I've thrown them in the garbage and gone back to flats. Never been happier.

I guess I was curious to see what all the hoopla was about and they were pretty funky and I did like the feeling of the road on my feet, even when not running. I built up to ~50 miles per week, all road and at the same training pace I was doing previously.

I never got injured, but I have to admit, my feet felt "creaky" in the morning and it took 1-2 hours of moving around until I got a spring in my step. The biggest impact of this is that I didn't want to run at 5am, whereas previously I would roll out of bed, put on flats/trainers and hit the road.

I didn't have to adjust my mechanics, because I've always been a mid foot striker and I've always liked a low delta between forefoot and heel.

I decided to quit and move back to trainers for a multitude of reasons. I felt like they were hindering my training (like to run at 5am), I was concerned about increasing my mileage beyond 50 mpw, I felt slower in them (more effort to maintain my training paces), I don't see any of my peers wearing them (at the front of races), felt like a "follower". Most of the folks I spoke to online about them were much older, heavier and slower. I felt like it was a religion (BF/VFF).

I have to laugh at myself and ask "What was I thinking?", but I am glad I tried them and can speak from experience now.

I tend to agree with you, though I have a feeling I'm both slower than you and put fewer miles on my VFFs before putting them under my shoe rack. I tend to have slightly wide feet and many flats are narrow, so that limits the ones available to me. I also relapse into heel striking pretty easily, so I can't get totally flat without risking my calf/Achilles.

Anyway, my VFF experience wasn't great. I thought it was a good way to get added protection under my feet. (I'm not sure there's a more startling pain than going barefoot and having a nerve or tendon land right on a large rock/pebble.) Otherwise, the shoes don't really give you that much of a natural feel. The shoe wraps to your foot and toes, which can cause all sorts of blistering. Even wearing the KSOs, I found that grass clipping and dirt entered the shoe more easily than others with a little more material up the ankle and with socks.

I've had a lot of people talk to me about VFFs and barefoot running. My suggestion, case depending, is usually that they should try racing flats or performance trainers. I agree with you that it's usually older runners who are trying to go back to nature or fix some sort of injury. When speaking with a person who has been wearing normal shoes for decades, the safest bet is usually to just give them a little less of a shoe, rather than jumping to the other end of the spectrum and putting them in something like VFFs. Meeting a fast runner or high mileage runner who wears VFFs is a bit of an anamoly and the media craze is driven mostly by people who put in 15 miles per week. Sure, doing 15 miles per week in next-to-nothing is very healthy, but it's just not the same sport as people putting in 50+ per week at competitive levels.

Especially for the money, flats are way better. VFFs weren't even originally designed for running. Maybe some of the newer models coming out that are actually designed for distance running will help make them a more worthwhile product. As it is, I only plan on buying lower profile running/racing shoes. My legs can't handle serious training loads in VFFs and I have a hard time believing that anyone who isn't already running barefoot can make a worthwhile transition into them.

6-month experiement with VFFs is OVER

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