faster with age

I always seem to come up with some odd injury this time of year. Must be the changing seasons that affect the body. I hope you feel better soon. Keep posting about your progress with the five finger shoes. I have often thought they might help me get off my heals.

Dave - I made the transition to a midfoot to forefoot strike about 2 years ago. It takes a while because the achilles and ankle stabilizers aren't use to the pressure. However, I think it has made a big diff in my efficiency. Now I'm trying to dump my orthotics and working into five fingers as well. Good luck.

The five fingers definitly get you off your heals. I really like the way it feels to run in them. When I try to imagine the best form I'd like to run with, that's exactly how I feel I'm running in them without even trying. I have heard about the achilles problems you can get from changing footstrike so I'm taking it slow.

Yes, and I've decided to rebel a bit and plan on running in the shoes I have for a long time. Tired of the endless money dump to Asics. I'm finding out that the "changing shoes every 400 miles" and promotion of a heel strike is just shoe industry garbage that has done more harm than good. Of course, running mags promote this crap because they know where their bread is buttered. I'm not going totally barefoot, but moving more in that direction. Time to buck modern running "wisdom" because I think we have a lot of things wrong here in the USA. Don't get me started on speed training vs. volume. Fired up today.

They almost make you feel guilty for running 600 miles in a pair of shoes. Shhh don't tell but I've been doing all of my shorter 4 and 5 mile PM runs in shoes that I retired a couple years back. I've quit keeping track but I'm sure they've got to have close to 1500 miles on them.

Have you checked out Sasha's blog lately...that guy knows how to wear out a pair of shoes. I think it really depends on the type of runner you are. My wife could probably get 2,000 miles out of her shoes because her foot strike is perfect and she wears them out almost perfectly even on the bottom. I, on the other had, tend to wear out the outside heal area of my shoe (down to the cushioning) in about 300 miles and the cushioning is pretty well shot by about 400. That's why I think the barefoot running would really help to correct my gait and get me off my heals. My 15-20 extra pounds of weight probably doesn't help matters either.:)