Patagonia Release Shoe Review

We interrupt this barefoot running series to bring you … a traditional shoe review!

Truthfully, talking about traditional footwear isn’t really a disruption; as I’ve mentioned in my training updates, only a small percentage of my overall mileage has been barefoot. Most days, the barefoot miles are tacked onto the end of a longer run in the trail shoes I’m reviewing here, or the road trainers I’ll review next time.

Like many of its competitors in the field, Patagonia is one of those companies with a long history of involvement in other outdoor sports, who have turned their sights to the booming trail and ultrarunning business in recent years. To date, the Release (and its Gore-Tex counterpart) is the only model in the company’s trail running footwear line.


Patagonia was founded by Yvon Chouinard, a southern Californian who spent his formative years participating in and contributing to the sport of rock climbing. As a young man he frequented some of the most famous climbs in Yosemite, Canada, and the Alps, and eventually started manufacturing climbing gear out of his parents’ garage in Burbank. Patagonia was launched in 1972, with an early emphasis on outdoor clothing and climbing gear. While their capilene garments have been longstanding favorites of many ultrarunners, the company is a relative newcomer to the world of footwear.

(Somewhat related tangent #1: to this day, mountain climbing remains the company’s passion – as evidenced by their spectacular seasonal catalogs, featuring descriptive essays and breathtaking photography of climbers on the most formidable peaks in the world. Even if you don’t like receiving catalogs in the mail, you should sign up for Patagonia’s catalog for a 4-times-per-year dose of mojo. Trust me, it’s that good.)

(Somewhat related tangent #2: On its website, Patagonia has one of the most thoroughly documented company histories I’ve ever seen. If you’d like a much longer read on the company’s origins, development, and philosophy, click here.)

Chouinard is a passionate environmentalist, and throughout its history Patagonia has taken a leadership role in protecting our natural resources. They are a major contributing partner towards numerous environmental causes, and are deeply committed to a whole series of global climate and ecosystem initiatives. This social responsibility carries over to the production side as well: any customer can go to this website and track the global impact of Patagonia products from design to delivery. The company has won several honors for its environmental practices, such as the “Eco Brand of the Year” in 2008.

So while it’s true that Patagonia has a bit of a reputation (“Patagucci”, “Pradagonia”, etc.) for high-priced gear, bear in mind that purchasing Patagonia products supports some very worthwhile global causes - and the overall quality of their gear is generally outstanding. Which brings us back to the Release.


Reflecting Patagonia’s southern California roots, the Release, according to its webpage, was built to traverse the Backbone Trail, a 67-mile traverse of the peaks and canyons of the Santa Monica Mountains. It’s marketed as something of a multi-purpose shoe, targeting light hikers and adventure travelers as well as ultrarunners. The terrain description of the Backbone Trail - lots of steep 500-1000’ climbs, with minimal flat terrain in between - sounds an awful lot like my normal stomping grounds in Carmel Valley, so I figured these shoes would be an ideal companion for long climbing days.

Thankfully, I haven’t been disappointed. I’ve found the Release to be a fairly durable and comfortable ride for all the trail conditions I’ve tested it on this summer.

As far as the specs go, there’s nothing really eye-catching to grab your attention, but Patagonia focused its attention in all the important areas. The upper is quite breathable and is treated with DWR (durable water repellent - the same stuff they use on water-resistant jackets) to help seal out water when you go splashing through puddles or streams. It has a Dynamic Fit Lacing system with loops that are separate from the instep, which custom-wraps the upper around the forefoot. There’s an Ortholite footbed to wick moisture and neutralize odor while adding to the cushioned feel.

On the underside, the Release uses a Vibram outsole (See? I told you nearly everybody uses Vibram) imbedded with rubberized spikes for improved grip and traction on sketchy terrain. (The tread pattern is supposedly different for men’s models and women’s, but this feature seems like a stretch; do men and women really need a different gripping pattern?) The midsole of triple-density EVA provides pronation control, and also demonstrates Patagonia’s eco-friendly approach to craftsmanship, as it uses recycled EVA from discarded running shoes. Stability is further enhanced by an arch bridge through the midfoot. Finally, there’s a thermoplastic polyurethane (TPU) shock plate to distribute impact pressure across the sole. The entire shoe weighs 14.5 oz.

Seems like I've written about Vibram before ...

After a short breaking-in period, the Release felt very comfortable through the upper, while solid and responsive enough underneath to perform well on my hilly, moderately choppy terrain. I’ve compared some other brands of running shoes to sports cars, and others to SUVs; using that same metaphor, I’d say that the Release is more like driving a Toyota Camry: there’s nothing especially flashy about it, but everything is well-built and works exactly as it’s supposed to, to the point where you don't even have to think about it. These shoes will keep your feet well-protected and give you a nice dependable ride for as many miles as you’d like to travel.

The Patagonia Release sells for $110 at Endless.com, with free shipping and free return shipping. The price is on the high end of the bell curve for this category, but offset somewhat by all the upsides of this shoe and the Patagonia company.

See other product reviews on sidebar at right. If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at info@runningandrambling.com

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The Barefoot Revolution

Will barefoot running ever become mainstream?

That question has been bouncing around with increasing frequency over the past several months. Between Christoher McDougall's Born to Run book (and subsequent Jon Stewart interview), growing acknowledgement of the barefoot community from both major running magazines (Running Times is linked here, and Runner's World hosts a barefoot runners forum online), and focused attention from major shoe manufacturers, it seems as if more and more runners are at least considering giving barefoot running (or its close cousin “minimalist” running, the proper term for those who use Vibram’s Five Fingers or similar products) a try.

Numerous newspaper and magazine writers have also contributed to the barefoot groundswell, and with my latest Monterey Herald column, I count myself among them. The article was a fairly big challenge for me: how to distill all of the information and enthusiasm I’ve written on this webpage for the past several weeks down into a single 600-word column? The result follows below – and by way of fair warning, much of the language below will sound very familiar if you’ve been following along here for the past month or two.

I’m the first to admit that a mention in the Monterey Herald doesn’t constitute an enormous leap in the popular conscious; we’re such a small media market that it often seems like I’m writing simply for the benefit of the birds whose cages my column will be lining in the following few days. That’s why I was excited to see the New York Times get in the act, with this outstanding piece published on Saturday. (And in a related story … I scooped the New York Times!) When “The Paper of Record” gets involved, you’ve got a full-fledged national trend on your hands.

Personally, I don’t believe that barefoot running will ever become mainstream; it requires too much persistence and patience - commodities in short supply among most Americans, it seems - and has a lot of potential for harm if entered recklessly or carelessly. And the convenience and fashion factors of wearing shoes are virtually impossible to overcome. However, if barefoot practitioners can establish a permanent seat at the running community’s table, I think they’ll consider that a significant victory.

Whether you prefer to wear shoes or not, there should be room enough on the playground for all of us.


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Running Life 8/27/09 “The Barefoot Revolution”

We’re on record several times claiming that running is the simplest sport in the world; all you need is a pair of shoes.

However, a steadily growing contingent of runners is determined to prove that notion incorrect. Not the part about the simplicity - the part about needing shoes.

Barefoot running is nothing new, of course – it dates back many millennia before the waffle sole launched Nike into the stratosphere. Some anthropologists believe our prehistoric ancestors were tremendous runners, hunting animals by chasing them to the point of exhaustion. (It makes sense if you do the math: hominids were on Earth 6 million years ago, but mankind’s first known weapons are only 500,000 years old. Unless all those cavemen were vegetarians, they must have had some means of catching and killing prey.)

Even in the modern era, barefoot runners have competed at world-class levels. Abebe Bikila won a gold medal and set a world record in the 1960 Olympic marathon. Zola Budd is notorious for her collision with Mary Decker at the 1984 Los Angeles Olympics, but she also won back to back world cross-country championships in the 1980s. A handful of elite ultrarunners often run barefoot on mountain trails to complement their high mileage training routines.


You may think that this is terrible for your feet – but the truth could be exactly the opposite. There’s currently a philosophical war among shoe manufacturers: on one side, the folks who think that foot asymmetries and irregularities should be corrected by various means of support and motion control. The other side believes that less is more: just allow the foot to work naturally, and the other irregularities don’t matter. Not only that, but overcorrecting the foot’s natural motion actually leads to higher injury rates.

Think of it this way: if you were engineering the perfect weight bearing structure, you’d create an arch. For perfect shock absorption, you’d allow that arch to flex slightly upon impact. For dynamic energy transfer, you’d surround it with several interlocking components that move in multiple directions. For durability, you’d make the building blocks out of the hardest material you can create.

Well, guess what you’ve just designed? The human foot!

From a biomechanical standpoint, there’s no reason why you need to wear running shoes – so why doesn’t everyone just run barefoot? The primary drawbacks are comfort and speed.

Running barefoot is certainly uncomfortable right off the bat; our feet aren’t used to the lack of artificial cushioning, and our skin needs time to build resiliency to irritants like gravel, sticks, and pointy rocks. In order to accommodate these, the runner is forced to slow down much more than he’s normally accustomed to.

Most of us aren’t patient enough to put up with it – but the drumbeat of barefoot runners is growing ever louder; so much, in fact, that the running industry has taken notice.

The Vibram complany makes a brilliant product called Five Fingers, which is basically a glove for your foot with a thin rubber coating underneath: they allow you to run barefoot without worrying about injuring yourself on ground hazards. Other high-profile shoe companies, including Nike, ECCO, and Clark now have shoe models that allow the natural biomechanics of running barefoot.

One important caveat to all this: to become a barefoot runner, you have to progress extremely slowly to avoid injury. We’ve been experimenting with barefoot running for a few months now; if you’re interested in finding out how to start, feel free to contact us.

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Apparel Sale; Vibram USA CEO Video

A couple of brief weekend notices to follow up on some earlier posts ...

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First is a reminder about the summer apparel sale going on at Wilderness Running Company.



Almost all of their shorts and tech shirts are on sale for at least 20% off, not including the additional 10% discount you get by using coupon code R&R10. So the least you will save is 30% - and perhaps more. C'mon, it's the weekend ... go shopping!

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Second, I didn't even know there was such a thing as "The Raw Food World", let alone that they have an online TV series. Obviously I don't get around the Internet nearly enough nowadays. Anyway, earlier this month they somehow grabbed an interview (it sounds like they might have snuck in) with Tony Post, CEO of Vibram USA, with a preview of upcoming FiveFingers models. The reporters aren’t exactly Charles Gibson and Diane Sawyer - for starters, they keep mispronouncing the company's name - but the video does a nice job of showing Post as a pretty decent guy who is very dedicated to his product line.

They also managed to get a sneak peek at two anxiously awaited FiveFingers models: the Trek for trail running, scheduled for release this fall, and the Bikila for road running, target date February 2010. So if you're interested in getting a glimpse of those, or just want to look at the (much more casual looking than I would have guessed) inside of a CEO's office, watch the interview here:


Pretty cool stuff. I have to say, though ... by the looks of those two reporters, the interview doesn't exactly inspire me to take up raw food.

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Vibram FiveFingers KSO Review

(Admin note: this is the second of a two-part review of Vibram FiveFingers footwear. If for some reason you missed my very glowing, but admittedly long-winded introduction to the product line, check it out here.)

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Among the four versions of FiveFingers currently offered by Vibram, the KSO has become the model of choice among runners seeking the biomechanical, musculoskeletal, and psychological (yes, really) benefits of barefoot running without fear of the various hazards that keep most of us grounded in traditional shoes.


One key to the success of the FiveFingers (often referred to as “VFFs”, or sometimes “Fives”) line – in addition to everything I mentioned in the previous post – is that Vibram does a remarkable job of welcoming customer feedback and incorporating it into updated versions of their product. When early adopters began running in the FiveFingers, they reported that the upper didn’t always feel secure; that led to the strap feature found on the Sprint. When trail runners reported that dirt sometimes slipped into the shoe, Vibram added a thin mesh layer underneath the strap which became the KSO.

(And when KSO users reported that the KSO wasn’t warm enough for extremely cold conditions, Vibram created the Flow – but that doesn’t really pertain to this review. I’ll try to stay focused on just one model from this point on, I promise.)

VFFs are also called "gorilla feet" by users ... for obvious reasons

From a spec standpoint, here’s what you get with the KSO: the upper combines a thin, abrasion-resistant stretch nylon and breathable mesh upper that wraps your forefoot to "Keep Stuff Out." A hook and loop closure sits comfortably above the mesh and helps secure the fit. Underneath, a non-marking 3.5mm performance rubber Vibram outsole is razor-siped for traction – more on that in a bit. The outsole material actually extends around the front of the foot, which is a very cool design feature for improved scuff protection to the tips of your toes. There is a 2mm EVA midsole to provide just a touch of comfort without diminishing the barefoot feel. The entire shoe weighs 5.7oz, which barely seems like anything at all when you’re on the run.

VFFs don't Keep all Stuff Out; your feet will still get dirty through the mesh

The main caveat for first-time users to beware of with FiveFingers is in the sizing. Vibram uses European sizing, but since this is a form-fitting garment, you can’t make a straight conversion from your US shoe size to pick the VFF equivalent. You actually need to measure your foot, and match your foot length with the size chart on Vibram’s website. If you purchase FiveFingers from a store, the salesperson should have a specific Vibram foot ruler to determine your proper size.

My primary aim was to wear the KSOs on trails as much as possible, for a couple of reasons:

1) Although I’m improving my pain tolerance and increasing my duration of barefoot running time on asphalt roads, I still find running trails barefoot to be quite painful. I’m not nearly up to dealing with jagged rocks and knotted roots and pesky thorns quite yet – and whenever I do venture that way, it’s at an absolute snail’s pace.

2) I’m pretty sure I’ve mentioned this once or twice before … but I love trail running. That’s my thing. If being a barefoot runner means I can’t enjoy the trails, I’m having no part of it. Also, given my background in ultras, I’m curious as to whether the VFFs might be a viable option for running super-long distances over the rugged terrain I’m accustomed to seeking out someday.

(And before someone points it out: yes, I’m aware that the super-guru of the barefoot running community just ran the Leadville 100 in VFFs. But he’s Barefoot Ted, and I’m Idiot Donald. There’s a difference.)

So that’s exactly what I started doing. I wore the KSOs on all of my normal trail routes: over big climbs, narrow single track, loose rocks, steep canyons, and brush-covered hillsides. With a few exceptions, the FiveFingers handled all of these conditions quite well.

High above the Salinas Valley; you can barely tell that there's anything on my feet

It only takes a few strides to realize that you have to change your running form while wearing the VFFs; without any cushioning, your heels will get sore in a hurry if you insist on using the same heel striking gait that you do while wearing shoes. Coincidentally, heel pain is one of the most common complaints from beginners wearing FiveFingers.

(For this reason, and several others, many barefoot experts recommend that you don’t try VFFs until you’ve practiced pure barefoot running for a while; having a completely naked foot forces you to use proper form immediately, while VFFs allow you to “cheat” a bit, which could lead to injury.)

Although the outsole provides protection from the trail, you’re still able to feel every bump and contour of the ground underneath your feet. You can tell the size and shape of pebbles you step on, note the relative softness of various types of mud, and feel the change in texture from dirt to leaves to wood chips or anything else you encounter. You can even feel temperature changes from shady areas to exposed sections of trail. Perhaps this new sensory input becomes diminished over a long period of time (it’s a normal accommodation mechanism of your central nervous system, like the way you don’t notice a clock ticking in the background after a while) but I kind of hope that it doesn’t: it’s a very cool awareness that makes you feel more connected to the Earth somehow.

The VFFs are blurry, but the view is great; that dark sliver of land way off in the distance is the Monterey Peninsula stretching into the bay (click to enlarge)

The altered biomechanics and lack of cushioning will definitely slow you down a bit, but not nearly to the degree that running barefoot does. Theoretically, since your feet are lighter than when you’re wearing traditional shoes, you should be able to run faster than usual, but this is definitely a long-term adaptation. After several weeks of using VFFs, I’m able to climb steep hills almost as fast as I can in shoes; on level ground, I’m probably 30-60 seconds per mile slower than normal. It’s on the downhills that I’m still quite slow, attributable to two factors.

Wearing normal footwear, it’s on the down slopes that people place the most impact through their heels – therefore, it’s these sections where the lack of cushioning is most noticeable with the FiveFingers. It requires some major adjustments (and constant reminders) to shift your weight forward and use a midfoot strike on long downhill stretches of trail. I’m normally someone who likes to go “bombs away” down steep hills, so this is an especially challenging change for me to make.

The other limiter on my downhill speed is the traction - or lack thereof - of the outsole. For 90% of my running, the grip is fine, but I’ve noticed that on steep descents - especially if there are loose rocks or gravel to contend with - I experience a lot of slipping from the VFF. Since my standard trail shoes are La Sportivas, whose sticky rubber and angled lugs set the gold standard for traction, the difference is even more noticeable when I wear FiveFingers. It’s probably equivalent to wearing a road running shoe on technical trails: most of the time you can get away with it, but in some situations, you might find yourself in trouble.

Going down this hill was pretty sketchy

(Remember how I said that Vibram applies customer feedback so effectively? The traction issue is supposedly going to be addressed with the upcoming Trek model, designed specifically for trail running with a more grooved outsole and more durable upper. Needless to say, I’ll be VERY interested to check that one out someday.)

The only other drawback worth mentioning is kind of an odd one: many people report that the VFFs stink a lot. Since you don’t wear socks with the VFFs, and since most users don’t rotate pairs like people do with traditional running shoes, the funk potential is pretty high. FiveFingers are built with an antimicrobial footbed, and they are machine washable (but not dryer safe; they need to be air-dried) - but these are people’s feet we’re talking about, so I imagine that the situation could get kind of nasty. I haven’t experienced this phenomenon with my VFF yet, but perhaps I just haven’t used them enough.

I need to work on this pose, or come up with a new one. Is it normal to be unable to raise one foot higher than the other knee?

Honestly though, if a little bit of stink is enough to deter you away from FiveFingers, I feel badly for you. This really is a wonderful product to own, with large benefits for both traditional footwear users and the dedicated barefoot (or “minimalist”) crowd. You need to start slowly, and you need to build up your use of FiveFingers gradually to let your legs and feet adapt to the different demands placed upon them – but once you get to that point, they could provide you with some of the most uniquely enjoyable experiences you’ll ever experience in running.

The Vibram FiveFingers KSO retails for $85 from TravelCountry.com. If you have any interest at all in the barefoot movement, you owe it to yourself to try a pair of Vibrams; it could potentially change everything you know and feel about running.



See other product reviews on sidebar at right. If you have a product you’d like reviewed, contact me at info@runningandrambling.com.

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Vibram FiveFingers Review

(Admin note: I originally intended to write a brief introductory lead-in to my review of the Vibram FiveFingers I’ve been wearing, but the introduction soon took on a life of its own. I tend to ramble when I get excited, and I haven’t been this fired up about a product review in a very long time.

Consequently, I’m making this a two-episode affair: an overview of the company and the product concept today, and a specific review of the model I’m testing in the next post. It was either that, or make you sift through my amateur business lessons, history tidbits, and dime store philosophy while trying to find specific details about the product. Believe me, I did you a favor. With that, let’s get things started … )

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“Let me be now, let me because -
I want to be free now, free to see, yeah well –
I want to walk away, let me feel my feet –
Let me be free … “
- Xavier Rudd, “Let Me Be” (video after post)


It’s only fitting that a song by one of the most distinctive, uniquely entertaining musicians of the decade should introduce one of the most distinctive, uniquely enjoyable products I’ve had the pleasure to review.

Every so often, a product comes along that is so innovative, it doesn’t just distinguish itself from the rest of the field – it creates an entirely new category all its own. The Vibram FiveFingers is one such product, and without a doubt the single most prominent factor in the ongoing barefoot running revolution.



Vibram didn’t exactly take the running world by storm, however; it’s been more than two full years since the FiveFingers was named on Time Magazine’s list of top inventions of 2007. Rather, it has been at the forefront of a steadily building groundswell from runners who want to experience natural running, but prefer an ounce of caution with their abundant sense of adventure.

The funny part is, Vibram didn’t set out to revolutionize the running industry. In fact, it’s a textbook example of what Harvard Business School professor Clayton Christensen calls the theory of disruptive innovation. He describes how an emerging product can have values that are not initially recognized by the mainstream market, because the market is accustomed to different performance attributes (for example, super-cushiony or overly supportive athletic shoes). However, when small segments of the marketplace begin utilizing the product for needs not initially recognized - neither by the manufacturer nor by mainstream consumers – those same features that were once thought substandard enable the product to overlap and eventually overtake the mainstream market.

(Sorry … can you tell I’ve been reading some business articles lately? I won’t throw any more macroeconomics at you, I promise.)

In this case, Vibram developed a product that was mainly designed as a deck shoe to improve traction for yacht sailing. The fortunate accident was when its unique functionality was hijacked by numerous other athletic communities for their own previously unconsidered purposes. Hikers, climbers, kayakers, yoga and Pilates enthusiasts, martial artists, traceurs (practitioners of parkour - see video below) – they’ve all seized the FiveFingers as an essential part of their activity.


(To their immense credit, the Vibram company welcomes and encourages this kind of user innovation; on their website and in their brochures, they invite customers to contact them with new uses for their footwear. They then go one step further and sponsor many of these offshoot activities - such as this parkour festival – further solidifying their standing as a disruptive innovator. See? Economics can be fun!)

All of which brings us to the running community.


For all the recent buzz about running barefoot, it’s not exactly breaking news; coaches, scientists, and runners of all abilities have long known about the benefits of natural running. The trouble has always been the impractical and potentially dangerous aspect of actually removing your shoes in modern society. Our ancestors might have been born to run barefoot, but they probably didn’t have to worry about broken beer bottles, stray shards of metal, rugged chip and seal asphalt, or countless other hazards that might ultimately require antibiotics and a tetanus shot.

Into that breach steps the FiveFingers, embraced by the running community as the perfect combination of freedom and security. Running in FiveFingers (or VFFs, as most users refer to them) basically provides you all of the biomechanical and musculoskeletal benefits of running barefoot, with none of the discomfort or concern about sharp objects puncturing your soles.

From a design standpoint, the FiveFingers is very minimalistic: it’s little more than a thin mesh upper attached to a rubber 3.5-mm outsole contoured to the anatomy of your foot. It’s also a great illustration of a company playing to its strength.

Although the FiveFingers is Vibram’s first venture into footwear, they have been perfecting the production of outsoles for more than 70 years – and chances are that you’ve used their products several times already. Company founder Vitale Bramani (whose first and last names, mashed together, give you “Vibram” – get it?) started making soles for mountaineering boots in the 1930s, after several of his friends perished in a mountaineering disaster blamed in part on substandard footwear. Over the following decades, his company set the standard for high-performance outsoles, and expanded to all varieties of footwear. Today, Vibram products are used by literally hundreds of shoe manufacturers; name a company, and they probably use Vibram outsoles.

(Incidentally, Vibram has an interesting racing heritage as well: the inventive process that led to Bramani’s development of vulcanized rubber was financially supported by his friend Leopoldo Pirelli – better known as the founder of Pirelli racing tires. So think of that Vibram outsole on yur foot as your own little piece of a Formula 1 racer. Thus concludes your free history lesson for the day.)

So you’ve got your outsole – but obviously, that’s not the most noticable aspect of the FiveFingers. Rather, it’s the separate toe compartments that give this footwear its distinctive look and contribute to a uniquely natural feeling while wearing them.

The net effect of the thin outsole and independent toe compartments is complete freedom of movement while wearing FiveFingers. It enables you to sense and respond to the ground underneath you in a way that no conventional footwear is capable of. There’s a holistic feeling to them, like you’re actively interacting with the world around you instead of merely passing through it. And they’re just plain fun to wear, even if you’re just walking around the block.


For runners, of course, they offer a complete paradigm shift away from traditional (and flawed, according to many) running mechanics. It takes some getting used to – just about everybody recommends that you build up your time and distance in FiveFingers gradually, alternating with shod running – but once your running form begins to adapt, and you get accustomed to the feeling of the Earth beneath your toes, it’s hard to go back to normal footwear again.

Ultimately, the FiveFingers represents an intersection of two separate categories of runners. The first group is barefoot purists who never wear conventional running shoes, but will use FiveFingers on occasion for trail ultras or other especially daunting conditions like icy roads or extremely sharp, rocky terrain. The other, much larger group is comprised of traditional shoe-wearers who want to experience the feeling of barefoot running from time to time, or who occasionally want to give their legs and feet an extra shot of dexterity and strengthening during their training regimen. For a simple product to bring two disparate groups together like that, it must be pretty remarkable.

Currently, Vibram offers four models of FiveFingers footwear …

1. Classic: the simplest version, like a ballet slipper on top. These retail for $75 on the Vibram website.

2. Sprint: adds a forefoot strap across the top of the upper for a more secure fit. Retails for $80.

3. KSO (short for “Keep Stuff Out”): adds a thin mesh covering for the top of the foot, with a strap adjustment like the Sprint. Retails for $85.

4. Flow: like the KSO, except the upper is made of neoprene for increased warmth and/or water resistance. Retails for $90.

One note about the pricing: it varies a bit from multiple online vendors, but usually not by more than about 10%. At first glance, it’s hard to understand paying a similar price as you would for a pair of regular shoes – but the life span of the FiveFingers is typically much longer than regular running shoes, and therefore is a much better value.

Think of it this way: shoe life is usually dictated by the breakdown of the midsole, and the amount of support it provides. Since there’s no midsole to the FiveFingers, standard guidelines don’t apply. A single pair will last you as long as the outsole holds up, which has been demonstrated to be 18 months or more by several high-volume users. Consider it a well-spent investment on your spirit of adventure.


Over the next several months, Vibram will release two new models targeted specifically at runners: the Trek for trail running (in Fall 2009), and the Bikila for road running (spring 2010). There will be some minor outsole and upper differences to distinguish each of these models, and they should prove to be very interesting additions to the product line. This summer, I’ve been reviewing the KSO model, which will be the topic of its own post very soon.

(*updated: the KSO review is here.)

In the meantime, I’ll continue to enjoy my field testing while running on the trail, feeling my feet beneath me, while Vibram’s FiveFingers let me be free.

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Xavier Rudd, "Let Me Be" (click to play):



See other product reviews on sidebar at right. If you have a product you'd like reviewed, contact me at info@runningandrambling.com.

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Barefoot Files: Training Update #2

I think the best thing I can report at this point is that I haven’t hurt myself yet.

Spend any length of time in a barefoot runners’ online forum (yes, they have such things) or talking to anyone taking up barefoot running, and you hear about a lot of injuries. In most cases, the maladies aren’t necessarily crippling - but it’s somewhat telling that a number of discussion threads have titles like “Heel pain”, “Advice for aching shins?”, “Sore spot on my foot”, or “Help! Blisters!”

It highlights a point I’ve mentioned before about barefoot running but bears emphasizing again: everybody starts as a beginner. Even if you can run 100 miles (well … mostly run) in shoes, you have to begin from square one or risk an overuse injury. It’s like being a brand new runner all over again, with bothersome aches and troubling muscle soreness straining against the irresistible urge to progress your time and mileage more quickly than you should (leading, of course, to a higher chance of injury). In fact, take any one of those discussion threads mentioned above, and they’d be equally at home in the novice runners’ forum a few cyber-doors down on the Runner’s World website.

So I count myself fortunate that I haven’t had any major physical ailments to send my training over a cliff – but that’s not to say I haven’t skirted close to the edge from time to time. With that, I’ll cut to the details. (And if you need a refresher on where we left off, my first update is here.)

Week 4: 4 barefoot runs, 2 Vibram Five Fingers (VFF) runs

Barefoot:

• 5 min on dirt,
• 10 min on asphalt
• 10 min on asphalt
• 25 min on asphalt

Vibram Five Fingers (VFF):

• 20 min on trail
• 45 min on trail

With one exception, all of my barefoot runs were done at the end or middle of a longer run with shoes. The dirt running was on the top of Carmel Valley near the fire tower that I wrote about here. (Remember this picture?) The 10-minute asphalt runs were done after returning to my car from a 45-60 minute trail run.

The exception was the 25-minute asphalt run, where I got impatient and wanted to see if I could string a couple of consecutive miles together. I did it, but at the cost of a couple of small blisters on each on my big toes that kept me back in shoes the next day.

After 25-minute road run

There’s a theory among barefooters that blisters on your feet are a new runner’s early warning system against developing more severe problems like tendonitis or bone bruising; in that case, consider me warned.

You’ll notice I’m also including my runs in Vibram Five Fingers with these Barefoot Files reports – but since I’m going to do a full review on the VFF later this week, I’m purposely skipping over the details of those runs in this post. Check back in a couple of days for all things Five Fingers.

Week 5: 5 barefoot runs, 2 VFF runs

Barefoot:

• 10 min asphalt
• 10 min asphalt
• 6 min dirt
• 20 min asphalt
• 6 min asphalt

VFF:

• 55 min trail
  
• 65 min trail
  

A very similar week to the one which preceded it as far as mileage or time is concerned, but I started to develop the first signs that I might be pushing things a bit during this week.

After the first 10-minute asphalt run, I had mild pain in my right heel, which resolved in time for me to run on asphalt again 2 days later and create a new pain at the base of my pinky toes (metatarsal heads, for anatomy geeks) on both sides. That pain settled down in a couple more days, so that I could punish my heels some more on the 20-minute run. The 6-minute asphalt run was supposed to be longer, but I cut it short because the pain in both these areas (pinky toes and heels) was recurring much sooner and more intensely than I wanted to deal with.

In between all this, I attempted to run in the dirt parking lot of the trailhead after a 1-hour shoe run; it was a very uncomfortable 6 minutes. Trails and dirt are clearly going to be the final frontier as far as working my way into a comfort zone is concerned – for the time being, I’ve resigned myself to sticking with the VFF when I want to hit the trails without shoes.

Additionally, along with the training numbers here, I’m trying to spend as much time barefoot as possible throughout the rest of the day – or when I can’t be barefoot, I try to use “natural” footwear as much as possible. I’m wearing Vivo Barefoot shoes to work, which I’ll review here sometime in September. It’s getting to the point where traditional footwear – anything with an elevated heel or cushioned midsole – feels awkward. Considering where I want this overall experiment to go, I think that’s a good thing. The only down side is that I now have several pair of shoes that I’m wondering what to do with.

Otherwise, this progression is about what I was anticipating: incremental increases in time - since I’m running so slowly, I’m not even bothering to measure distance yet – on my feet, in something of a “two steps forward, one step back” manner as I maneuver through the minefields in this brave new world of barefoot running.

Happy feet so far! ...

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i-gotU GPS Tracker Review

Let’s say that you’d like to create some maps and review GPS data from your workouts, but don’t feel like investing in a wrist-mounted or hand-held GPS unit. Or maybe you have a wrist GPS but it seems like you need a math degree to use all the features, or you struggle with the software programs to download your trips to your computer.

If that’s the case, you’d really benefit from something simpler; if that’s the case, you’d love the i-gotU GPS tracker.

i-gotU’s GT 120 GPS tracker, manufactured by Taiwanese company Mobile Action, is an ingenious device that not only tracks your trip, but lets you add geotagged photos (more on that in a second), display your journey in 3D on Google Earth, and upload it to a webpage to share with others. And at roughly $70, it's a very affordable and user-friendly way to create maps of all your adventures. I’ve been using it for running, hiking and biking over the past several weeks, and I have to say it’s a pretty cool little gadget.

At first glance, it doesn’t seem like much – just a tiny 20-gram box about the size of a 9V battery. There’s a single on/off button, and an outlet for a USB cable. That’s basically it; this is probably the most uncomplicated GPS device you’ll ever see. You press the on button, tuck the device into a pocket, and turn it off when your trip is finished.

The purchase pack also comes with a USB cable and mini CD that loads a software program called @trip onto your computer, and that’s where things get fun.

When you come home from your trip, you connect the i-gotU device to the computer, and trip information is downloaded in a matter of seconds. Speed, distance, and elevation data is plotted onto a Google Earth map, like on this screen grab of my regular Tuesday morning 12-miler:

(click to enlarge)

On the computer, a route tracer (a little car or bike icon) will then trace out your course, even speeding up to reflect increased mph, or slowing to reflect decreases.

You can also upload “geotagged” pictures to your trip, so that photos you take along the way are added to the file at the correct location and time. As the icon tracer approaches each photo spot, the photo pops up on the screen. On a recent bike ride with my son, we took a photo at the top of a long climb, which shows up on the screen like this:

(click to enlarge)

If you click the photo as the tracer is there, an enlarged version shows on the screen. The GT120 is compatible with every digital camera and camera phone on the market today – all you have to do is make sure your camera’s internal time stamp is accurate.

Finally, you can upload the whole file to a website to share with anybody you’d like. Like a Picasa album, your files can be private or public, or you can embed them into your blog. When a visitor goes to the file’s webpage, he can zoom and shift the screen like a Google Earth map, view the geotagged pictures, and adjust the data readings like the graphs in the lower right corner. As an example, I’ve created a file from the Tuesday morning run shown above:

Tuesday morning “Three Bears” run (Follow the link, click on "map view" or "3D view", and wait for the icon to start rolling.)

Pretty cool stuff, huh?

Its small size belies the technology packed into the GT120. There’s a built-in GPS patch antenna, and a SiRF Star III low power chipset which allows a super long battery life – up to sixty (that's right: 60; six-oh) hours on a single charge. The whole device is water resistant, so you don’t have to worry about getting caught in the rain or sweating on it excessively.

All of the applications I’ve tried are extremely user-friendly, and I’ve had a lot of fun using this tracker over the past several weeks. There are only a few drawbacks worth mentioning:

* There’s a moderate delay between turning the device on and when it locks onto a satellite. For example, the run map I included above started and finished at the same spot, but the GPS track didn’t pick up for a good half-mile or more. If you give yourself a 3 or 4 minute cushion, you should be fine.

* Since there’s no display, you can’t access data until you get home and plug the device into your computer. On the plus side, this prevents the dreaded “run around the parking lot a couple of times so I can round up to the next tenth-mile” syndrome when you’re staring at the numbers in real time.

* The synchronization of times between GPS device and your personal camera is tricky. For example, in this same screen grab from our bike ride, notice that the photo was taken at the top of the climb, but the tracer location on the profile map at lower right shows the geotag as about a quarter-mile down the other side.

(enlarge, then look at profile line - should be at top of hill)

The GT120 gets its time stamp from the satellites, but since there’s no display on it, you just have to estimate what time to put in your camera. You’ll probably be off by a couple of minutes on your first guess. There's an adjustment button on the @trip screen to dial in the precision of the camera with the GPS tracker, so this glitch is fairly easy to fix.

* In narrow canyons or under heavy tree cover, the signal doesn’t track real precisely, but I’d say it has the same degree of error as a wrist-mounted GPS in similar circumstances.

GPS devices don’t come any simpler than this. The i-gotU GT120 is a very convenient, easily portable, ridiculously easy to use GPS tracker, and a more affordable option than most standard GPS units. It is available from Amazon.com for $69.95, and similarly priced on other websites.

See other product reviews on sidebar at right. If you have a product you'd like reviewed, contact me at info@runningandrambling.com

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