Shoe Review and Off to the Race

I want to like these shoes, I really do. I am totally behind the way the Star Shoes Run Amocs are made, and, as I wrote in my initial post, these are quality shoes with the minimalist in mind.

The Run Amocs have a nice lightweight feel when tied on. The leather is very supple. Sure, my family thinks they make me look like a 17th century merchant or like I am walking around outside in my slippers. But I like the look. A bit funny with shorts on, sure, but in long pants, someone would have to be looking close to see these are not just a low-profile casual shoe.

But so far I have not had good luck with these for running. I tried them first on a 2-3 mile run on the bike path, and really liked the free and loose feel, compared to VFFs. But there was also something not quite right. It often felt like the Amocs were slipping forward a bit as I ran; I could feel the heel seam creeping under the back of my foot. Not a deal killer, since I don't heel strike anymore, but a bit irritating.

So I took them out for a longer run, 4 miles. Not a good day. Half of it was not the Amocs' fault. Having a bit of tendonitis flare-up. But it just seemed like my foot wasn't landing right. Had to all but limp home.

Third try was a six mile run in town. All flat. All asphalt. Some tweaky tendonitis at startup, but it was gone in a mile, and things were sort of ok. But, again, it just did not feel like my foot was landing correctly. There seems to be something about this large flat sole, compared to the glove-like all foot feel of the VFFs, that makes my feet slap when landing on the midfoot, rather than the more ginger and springy landing in VFFs. To me it seems this because the uppers of the Amocs grip my feet so lightly, yet there is this stiff, flat Vibram sole that flops about freely. Kind of a disconnect.

But the topper was that, even with socks on, even slathering my feet with Glide before takeoff, I got a blister on the bottom of my forefoot caused by that loose sole of the shoe flopping around. The last mile was excruciating...

So I think this means that the Amocs are just going to be walking around mocs, and they will suit well for that purpose, especially as a post-race sort of shoe when I want to cover or protect my feet, yet still be able to feel somewhat barefoot inside. There is so much nice footroom in these...

Meanwhile, tomorrow is 5k race in Barre, off-road, past the granite quarries. Considering whether to go in VFFs or just fall back to shoes, given the beating my ankles took in that sixer.

p.s. An off-topic note about a fascination nutrition-related link sent to me by my son. Upshot: breakfast is not all it's cracked up to be. Not if your goal is burning fat, that is.

A Bear of a Run

You don't know how much you value running until you can't do it.

It's been almost exactly a year since my last race, coping with chronic injury, and this morning I went out and ran the unbelievably brutal 32nd Annual Bear Swamp Run. Why brutal, you ask? Well, let me share the run's cross-section, courtesy of my Garmin:

The organizers (Central Vermont Runners) announced at the start of the race that there was a 450 foot vertical gain on the run over the first 2.3 miles. But Garmin tells a slightly different tale: we started at 1125 feet and topped out at 1645. Not to quibble, but that's a gain of 520 feet, or about 10% more than advertised. Just saying...

No, really, it was fun. One of those runs so typical in Vermont, where you are enveloped in trees and the hills just keep coming: you think you've topped out, then you round a forested bend and another crampon-worthy monster rises before you in the mist.

Bear Swamp was a great race to get back into things again (critical omen: I sighted a moose en route to the race; I've lived in Vermont 20 years, and that's the first time I've seen a moose here): five bucks for 5.7 miles, drizzling rain, monster hills, Subaru-swallowing puddles, and just 51 runners. Of course, for $5 there were no shirts, which may be why there were only 51 runners. Or maybe it was the rain and the hills (did I mention the course was hilly?). But there were awards of maple syrup and gift certificates from sponsor Onion River Sports, and best of all it was the kind of race where almost everyone stayed until the last runner had crossed the line, until all the awards had been given out (including extras to congratulate all four of the 70+ runners, at least two of whom beat me!).

I imagine this is what races used to be like before commercialization, which has been great for the sport, but probably has led to less hilly, shorter runs (not necessarily a bad thing). And of course before great stuff like ice cream and beer at the finish line. And shirts.

And it is all about the shirt.

Your Brain on Exercise

“If ever exercise enthusiasts wanted a rationale for what they’re doing, this should be it...”

According to a July 7 NYT article, Researchers have found an explicit link between exercise and brain health. Through experiments on mice at Northwestern University, scientists have found that even moderate voluntary exercise suppresses bone-morphogenetic protein (BMP) activity. And this is a good thing, because when BMP is active it tends to make stem cells in the brain less active, lessening neurogenesis:

the more inactive your stem cells become... the less neurogenesis you undergo. Your brain grows slower, less nimble, older.

The effect of exercise were found to be almost immediate and profound:

The mice given access to running wheels had about 50 percent less BMP-related brain activity within a week.

The trick to all of this, of course, is that it is a huge Catch-22. If your brain is lulled into a stupor by your inactivity, is it capable of the sort of logical, rational processes required to understand that exercise might do your brain good?

Run Amocs - an End to Toe Jams?

As readers of this blog know, I love my VFFs. They are unparalleled for floor workouts at abs class, better than bare feet even for how well they grip the floor. And they are great for short runs as I learn to run barefoot.

But I have not been liking them on hills. On downhills, as I land on my midfoot, the VFF soles get forced backward on the foot, leading the individualized toe sockets to jam the webbing of my toes. Now this might not be as much of a problem with the KSO model of the VFFs, since they strap across the foot and around the ankles. I would love to hear back from anyone on that. But it is a problem with my classics...

A second problem I have with the classics is that little rocks like to jump inside them from time to time. And these are not easy footwear to slip on and off on the roadside, to extract a pebble... Again the KSOs likely don't have this problem, but that's not what I have...

So about a week ago I decided to look around. I know there are the Nike Frees and the Terra Planas, but I was looking for something that really gave my toes some play, that were more like a mocassin than a shoe, I guess inspired by Chris McDougall's or Barefoot Ted's huarache. And I found the Star Shoe Run Amocs. They were "just" $80, so I decided to give them a whirl.

The Amocs arrived today (two days after a nice automated email note from the "elves" at Star Shoes, informing me they had shipped by Priority Mail; I love top notch customer service). They fit rather looser than I expected (my wife says they look a bit like bags for my feet, but then she is much more conventional in her footware considerations and can't seem to grasp that $80 running shoes and wear out after 6 months of use), and I worry that my toenails will wear through the roof of the upper b/c the leather seems so thin and light and supple...

Overall, the seams and construction seem very strong and the soles nice and thin - about the same thickness as a quarter. I opted for the 2mm thick, to hopefully approximate the sensitivity of Vibrams. Speaking of which, the soles are made by Vibram, so the fact that they feel lightweight and very thin may be irrelevant. Will take them on a walking tour tonight for the 4th celebrations in town, and get them out on the road Sunday or Monday.