To Vibram or not to Vibram?

I admit, I've jumped on the minimalist bandwagon and been running (off and on) in Vibrams for the past 8 months or so. And the jury's still out on whether they've been a good investment or not.

I first decided to get a pair when a running buddy of mine made the switch to five-fingers and swore by them. "It feels so much more natural, so organic," she gushed, as she glided silently down the trail next to me. I'm no hippie, so the word organic made me cringe a bit and instinctively made me skeptical, but when I saw that she had completely abandoned her cushy New Balances and was running exclusively in her Vibrams (and running faster than me!), I began to think maybe there was something to it.

Then I finally dusted off the copy of "Born to Run" someone had given me for my birthday the previous year and became a convert to the barefoot running school of thought. The chapters on early humans outrunning their prey while barefoot brought out some primal instinct in me and I decided to rebel against Nike and Asics' cushioned heel marketing ploy and try some minimalist running of my own. I went to my nearest sports store and picked up the only pair of Vibrams they had available in my size. Which of course, were ridiculous-looking (seriously, what design genius thought it would be cool to make already-ridiculous-looking shoes with finger-like toes even more clownish by producing them in a bright blue color?) and pretty damn expensive when you consider that could achieve the same effect for free by just heading out your front door barefoot.

After an extremely painful first running experience in them, before I learned that you don't need to run on tiptoe in order to strike with your midfoot first and that you shouldn't attempt a 3-mile run the first time you wear them, I was skeptical again. Surely my calves shouldn't be sore for a WEEK after a 3 mile run, I thought to myself. However, cheapskate that I am, I was determined to get my money's worth out of those shoes, and so I kept at it, alternating Vibram usage with runs in my regular Asics and gradually building up to 4 or 5 miles.

And it's grown on me. I am fortunate enough to live in a beach town with a wonderful trail of hard-packed sand minutes from my front door and beautiful year-round running weather. It's the perfect place for wearing Vibrams: no rocks and no hard pavement, just miles of nice soft ground with an ocean view. When I put on my Vibrams, I feel different. I feel like a runner. Like it's just me and the earth and my body just wants to go. I don't know if I actually run much faster in Vibrams than in my running shoes, but I feel like I'm faster. I feel more cat-like, more ninja-like. I mentally transform from a jogger into a runner when I wear them.

However, the case of tendonitis in my right knee that has been hinting at causing problems for the past year has not improved since I started wearing Vibrams more often. In fact, my knee pain has gradually been increasing over the past few months. I don't wear my Vibrams on runs longer than 5 miles or so (the balls of my feet and my calves won't let me), if it's below 60 degress out (I'm a Southern California wimp), or if I'm going to be doing the bulk of my running on hard pavement. So I typically end up wearing Vibrams 1-2 days a week and my Asics for runs the other days of the week. I could potentially be negating any of the positive effects of minimalist running by alternating Vibram usage with cushy heel-strike inducing sneakers, but I also don't seem to be staving off tendonitis any better by wearing them. My per-mile pace hasn't dramatically improved, and I'm sure I still have the same awkward loping stride I always had - no magical transformation to gracefully striding runner here. Plus I still occasionally get sore calves or calluses on the balls of my feet after a good hard Vibram run, which reduces my running capacity for the next couple of days.

However, I do think wearing Vibrams a couple days a week is good for me psychologically - it gets me excited about running and makes me feel a bit more confident about my run. They're so much easier to pack when traveling than running shoes: all you have to do is throw lightweight Vibrams into your suitcase and you're done, with no bulky sneakers and multiple pairs of socks to worry about. And since I'm wearing them a couple times a week instead of sneakers, I don't put as much mileage on my sneakers as quickly. Which means that I don't wear out my sneakers as quickly and have to buy expensive new Asics as often - and this, as we know, is a cheapskate's dream.

So this raises the eternal question: to Vibram or not to Vibram?