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For Runnersdaily, this is a fairly recent shoe to be reviewing. Who knows, one day we’ll be reviewing shoes before they’re released…

Inov-8 describe their philosophy as building a shoe around the mechanics of the foot, which might be just so much glib shoe-company marketing bullshit if it didn’t actually seem to be the reality. I have long raved about their base model, the Mudroc 290, for exactly those reasons, a quick try of a Terroc model a while ago confirmed the impression, and now I’ve been striding out in a pair of these minimalist - even for Inov-8! - F-lites, I can say that Inov-8 must have made some kind of pact with the devil, so spookily accommodating is the shoe to the human foot.

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To count a few blessings: I’ve got my health, a roof over my head and food in my belly, and when I returned to Wimbledon Common to run the 5k event again, the pervasive smell of dog shit had disappeared. And not only all those things, but I had a shiny new pair of Vibram Fivefingers Sprints to help me get around the 5k course. Life is good, man, life is good.

In a nutshell: one minute and 15 seconds faster than a fortnight ago, which works out at 15 seconds per kilometre. Good, eh?

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Can anyone tell me why the smell of dog shit is so strong on Wimbledon Common? Apart from the bleedin’ obvious, that many dogs are brought there for that very reason. I live near a very similar piece of common land (Hollow Ponds, if you’re interested) which is much smaller and would hence have a greater concentration of dog poo than the vast spreading landscape that is Wimbledon Common, yet I have never had a run there (and the tally is up in the hundreds) spoilt by the malodorous miasma of canine cack.

Fortunately there appeared to be hardly any dog-eggs to worry about on the 5k course itself, which was a mix of gravel and hard earth, just like Rod Stewart’s voice in the 1970s. The Vibram Fivefingers Classic were cinched a little tighter this time, after my failed sprint experience at the last 5k, and I set off on the fairly flat course cautiously optimistic that my second Fivefingers 5k would bring me a Fivefingers PB.

The course was mainly dry, so I can’t comment on the grip on wet earth. I actually found I had to work hard to maintain my 5k-speed leg turnover, though, since the loose surface required a fair amount of thoughtful foot contact. And this is a point I’m sure I will return to when I write about running in Fivefingers (or barefoot): protracted hard, fast running and Fivefingers (Classic, at least - when I get a pair of Sprints I will know different, maybe), or barefoot, do not go together that well from the point of view of performance. What about Zola Budd, I hear you howl? And Abebe Bikila? You are so right to bring up those brilliant barefooters, and they are there in my mind to remind me that after years of barefoot running you can run however you want, fast or slow, long or short. I’m still adapting; I am now fairly sure that had I run that time-trial (it wasn’t a race) in my racing flats I would have gone a fair bit faster.

Fortunately pure speed was not what I was after. (Good job, since I went four seconds slower than last time - the shame!) Repeating a hard Fivefingers 5k, seeing how it felt on a very different surface, and again deriving the immense pleasure of moving along at a decent lick with only my own body’s cushioning mechanisms to see me right were my objectives, and I wasn’t disappointed. It still feels awesome, dude. And no blisters this time.

Usain Bolt and Kenenisa Bekele have something in common beyond the total destruction of their rivals on the track in the Bird’s Nest Stadium: superlight, custom-built shoes using the latest ideas.

But as technology continues to play a leading role in running shoes, an interesting dichotomy has arisen.

As a lurker on many running forums, I have spotted many runners pointing out, some even complaining, that standard running shoes are not as light as they used to be. More technology - cleverer technology? - in the shoe appears to mean more grams in the shoe. A quick look at the Asics Kayano, often hailed as one of the best shoes out there, reveals that the 13 model has an advertised weight of 357g, and the updated 14 now weighs in at 370g. The latest Brooks Beast, a very popular motion control shoe is advertised at 396g.

On the other hand, or foot, the shoes worn by the fastest runners in Beijing were astonishingly light, the fruit of technological advances and lateral thinking. The most gifted, fastest, fleetest runners were being helped to run even faster. It was calculated that Kenenisa Bekele’s specially designed shoes for Beijing, weighing a mere 90g, or half the weight of the lightest racing flat, gained him one metre per kilometre purely from the weight saving over his standard running spikes.

Down here on Planet Normal, however, less gifted, ploddier and plumper runners are being asked by running shoe companies - who don’t ask how much technology you want in your shoe - to carry more weight around on our feet.

To quote sports scientist Michael Warburton, actually writing about the benefits of barefoot running, but making a point about shoe weight:

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The question was not: ‘Can I run 5k in my lovely Vibram Fivefingers?’ - I’ve covered well over 5k in them at a stretch, notably a four-and-a-half hour outing on the South Downs Way which consisted of about two-and-a-half hours of running, mainly the first couple of hours, and of a mix of barefoot (maybe an hour in total) and Fivefingers. Much of the trail is packed earth and tufty grass, but some of it is chalk gravel, quite tough on the soon-to-be-tougher bare soles.

No, the question was: ‘Can I run 5k as a race, hard, on the unforgiving road, in my Fivefingers?’ To be honest, I was more than a little apprehensive. And, as a residually shy introvert (aah, he wants attention by being shy and pretending not to want it) I was just as apprehensive of having large numbers of people staring at me from the ground upwards.

A quick summary of what Fivefingers are: a glove-like footcovering, individual toe slots, a millimetre or two of rubber underneath - they are designed to be as close to bare feet functionality as possible, with protection for the sole of the foot from nasty sharp things on the ground. They’re made by Vibram, a company that has specialised in moulded rubber soles for hiking boots for about 70 years.

And a quick summary of how my 5k went: it went really well, thank you for asking. I found myself actually taking physical pleasure in the sensation of running quickly and continuously in the barefoot stylee. There was no pain, no discomfort, no sadness, only happiness. You will be asking, I imagine: ‘But what of SUPPORT? What about CUSHIONING? What about impact guidance, what about articulated toe-offs, what about STABILITY, for crying out loud? Wasn’t it unsafe? Are people allowed to run fast without leading-brand running shoes on, simply in the interests of health and safety?

Well the answer to all those questions is simple: you don’t need all that stuff. You just don’t need it. Believe it or not, humans have evolved over millions of years to move as bipeds, just on their feet, and those feet actually quite like having a say in what the boss upstairs decides when it comes to locomotion. The toes like to flex and grip the ground; the arch likes to compress and recoil freely without hindrance as the runner moves through the stride gait; the cantilever of bones in the foot like to start off the impact-cushioning process that is then taken up by ankle, knee, hip and spine. In a nutshell, allowing natural biomechanical function is a plus, not a minus.

But what about afterwards? Wasn’t I crucified on the cross of my own fashion-victim hubris and superficial desire to be different by having shot knees, snapped ankle ligaments and raw steak for soles?

What interested me about the post-race aftermath was that my glutes were a bit sore. And that was about it. This was my first road race for about three years, and some muscular soreness afterwards is a given - but never have I had sore glutes. (Why? Send your answers on a commnent form below). Then there were two smallish blisters on the balls of my feet - again when I race, I sometimes get blisters, even lose toenails on the long races, so a couple of blisters are a small and expected price to pay for the first race in these shoes.

So given that my physical performance wasn’t really impaired, how did the Fivefingers perform under race conditions? I was wearing the Classic, which, as I have already noted elsewhere, don’t feel like they will stay on your feet if your turnover gets really fast, and as I saw the finishing funnel ahead of me and tried to unleash my trademark sprint, I was forced to leash it again for fear of them flying off and tripping me. Had I been wearing the Sprint model, which has a strap across the instep, I think I would have been able to finish the way I would have wanted.

A question I can’t answer is whether they allowed me to run faster than if I’d had racing flats on. My gut on that is that they didn’t, given that it was my first serious outing in them. I haven’t raced over 5k for three years - I’ve been trying to bring up a child, which impacts on training too - so pacing was an issue, and basic speed and general fitness were variables in the equation. All I can say is that it was great and I’d do it again like shot - if I was given another day off childcare this decade.

Happy running!

Paula Radcliffe has become well known for, amongst many other things, wearing compression socks. White ones, flesh-coloured ones, stripy multi-coloured ones like 6′7″ multimillionaire Peter Jones, him off Dragon’s Den. Leaving aside the question of questionable taste, the question is: do they work? Or even, if you’ve never come across the concept, what on earth are compression socks?

Compression socks are tight calf-length or knee-length socks. They are supposed to a) help what is called ‘veinous return’, ie helping the blood that has got down to the lower leg get back up again; and b) reduce fatigue in the lower legs muscles by ‘offering extra support’, or ‘eliminating unnecessary vibration’. They work by applying ‘graduated pressure’ - they are tighter at the ankle and a little less tight at the knee, so that the pressure helps the blood in its northerly climb back up the near-vertical and sometimes snowcapped slopes of the human body.

The benefit of improving circulation is the reason these sorts of socks are sometimes recommended to stop people getting deep vein thrombosis on long-haul flights. And, for people who are at risk, they seem to work. By the same token, even if you are a very healthy individual, and in no way at risk of thrombosis, compression socks would appear to reduce the swelling in the lower limbs that is typical after a long-haul flight. But can they help you run faster?

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The other day, as I was meditating on the ever-changing world of running shoes (pacing up and down my oak-panelled study in my crimson velvet smoking-jacket), I whipped out a notepad and swiftly scribbled down all the brands that I would regard as ‘new’. I had just been posting a link, I think, on the main site, about the clothing company Under Armour’s leap into the world of running shoes, and it occurred to me that there had been quite a bit of activity over the last few years.

Here are the names I scribbled, unedited and unresearched:

road - Ryka, Zoot, K-Swiss, UK Gear, Newton, Under Armour, Spira, Pearl Izumi.

off-road - Salomon, Inov-8, Merrell, Teva, Helly Hansen, North Face, Montrail. And a little research added: 5-10, Vasque, Lafuma and Oboz.

That makes 19 new kids on the road/trail. Clearly the manufacturers believe that there is a market - or markets - and clearly, that market has more opportunities for off-road than on-road.

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I’m not one for HD plasma screens the size of a barn door, with 250 cable and satellite channels. Home cinema is a contradiction in terms. Stay at home or go to the cinema. Consumer electronics are not really my thing, even when it comes to sport. I gave up having a bike computer in the interests of clarity of purpose. And after spending a decade as a heart-monitor adherent, I gave that up too, admittedly partly because I couldn’t afford a new one. Even a budget one.

Well microchip mania has got into my blood again and I’m here to tell you about the Suunto t3c with foot pod. It’s the all-black model, with a ‘negative’ display - light grey on black. And a metal clasp, like a posh watch, on a strap that wouldn’t look out of place on the wrist of a PVC fetishist, so shiny, slick black it is. Normally I am not moved by the looks of consumer goods, but this one was so sexy that I almost had an accident in my trousers. And normally when it comes to training accessories, my philosophy is ‘keep it simple’ - because, as the people around me rarely omit to remind me, I am a bit simple. But the Suunto t3 not only records data like average heart rate, and maximum reached, for individual segments of a workout and for the whole workout, it works out what Suunto call ‘training effect’ (TE) based on personal data you input - your star sign, how many siblings you have, whether the tide was out when you were born, that sort of thing. And the running pod is a speed-distance recorder, so you can not only review data like the intensity of your run and its component segments, but find out how far you ran, and at what speed.

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Fight, fight, fight! How can people who make money out of selling running shoes possibly capitalise on the concept of going barefoot? Surely there’s nothing to sell. If you wanted to make money you’d develop something like a ‘barefoot arena’ where people could go to run barefoot safely. But let us not underestimate the tenacity of the manufacturers and the pull of making money by creating your own market.

Last week we aired a few simple thoughts about being barefoot, which leads into today’s look at two pieces of footwear purported to recreate the barefoot experience.

I have had a pair of Nike Free 7.0 for ages, and then decided to go for a slightly more radical shoe, the 5.0. The numbering system refers to how ‘barefoot’ the shoe supposedly is: the lower the number, the ‘Free-er’ the shoes, so moving from a 7.0 to a 5.0 in theory should recreate more closely the barefoot experience. Despite allegedly being more of a cross-trainer, the 7.0 were pleasant to run in. Very flexible laterally and longitudinally, which I value, broad in the forefoot and low to the ground; contact with the ground is not overcushioned either, also a good point. So basically a really nice pair of running shoes in the true running shoe idiom. Nothing particularly ‘free’ about them, I thought, just like any decent racing flats, no more no less. I was intrigued by the prospect of the 5.0.

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To quote sports writer and osteopath Guy Ogden, ‘Most sports people see the foot as an area that requires protection.’ He goes on to point out, as many others discussing this subject do, that this perception is constantly reinforced by the manufacturers of sports footwear, with a trend towards ever more cushioning, support and stability devices.

Roughly 18 years after those words were written, I still see the default advice everywhere to those coming into the sport of runing as being: ‘Go to a running shop and get the best shoes for your gait, with the appropriate cushioning and stability. They will advise you in the shop.’ Will you really get good advice, or are market forces and billions of dollars of vested interests able to overrule basic common sense? (more…)