Spider-Man Shoes

I think I am one step closer to becoming Spider-Man today. This afternoon, I went to the Three Rivers Running Company to buy new running shoes. You know it's a great running store when there are two treadmills in the store; it's like good bicycle stores having a bike trail to test the equipment. I had a slight idea of what I wanted coming into the experience. One of my good friends has been trying to convince to buy "barefoot"/toe shoes for about a month now. I was skeptical at first; and even made fun of the toe-shoes years ago.

Since the fit of the shoes are extremely important, I felt that buying it online would be a terrible idea. That is something that online shopping cannot replicate (at least for now); you can't actual feel/try the product. And for detail-oriented people (like me), it's difficult to shop for clothes online. For example, I bought a pair of jeans and I ended up not like the side stitching and worst of all, it had the terrible button-fly.

But after determining my size (since Vibram sizes are different than other sizing. Yet another sizing standard...), I give the pair of Vibram Bikila a test drive on the convenient treadmill. It was definitely an odd feeling running basically barefoot. While the employee was honest and said he didn't wear his pair very much, I decided to give them a longer testing period (especially a few minutes on a treadmill can't do shoes justice). And I was pleasantly surprised to hear the store has a 15-day return policy no matter the condition of the shoes! Amazing!

After getting home from a great lunch at Old Crown, I went for a run with the newly bought pair of shoes. I definitely couldn't run as much as I regularly would (you know, I'm usually the Energizer Bunny of running) because of the feeling of running barefoot. It was definitely more stress on the ankles and other joints since there is nothing to reduce the impact. So I ran about two miles with a couple of periods of walking (I know, I'm a wuss).

After a hour after running, I already feel sore... Maybe it's because I haven't had a decently long run for about a week. Then, I was looking at websites on Vibram shoes and I found this:

"Anyway, I was told at the store "Regardless of how far you usually run, don't run over 1 mile your first day, or else your calves will kill you." They are right. I ran exactly 1 measly mile today and my calves are killing me. There is something about the barefoot running motion that works the calves. Not sure it will make them bigger, but they are certainly getting some kind of workout"

I wish I read that before running about two miles... I am ready to be sore! I will certainly update my opinion on the shoes after a few runs.

Spider-Man, Spider-Man, does whatever a spider can!