Rob tells us word for word his expererience and also drops in a handy a handy tip, that he found vital.

I hope this is helpful. I wish I had done this 35 +Years ago

My name is Rob im 48 years old and live in Worcestershire.

In my youth I was a Triathlete. In my early 40’s I read a book some of you might be familiar with “Born to Run” Following this I thought could just go for a long run with next to nothing on my feet , this of course gave me plantar fasciitis and took me out of action for near on 6 weeks. This however did not put me off, I eventually bought a pair of FiveFingers as a gift from my wife at my request. However I did not wear them much and if I did it was walking in. On reflection I was avoiding the prospect of injury. It is not till the end of 2022 following rereading of “Born to Run” that I started to make a more concerted move to running in my FiveFingers and accompanied by some massage sessions.

I had big doughts that after running the same way for almost 35 years in poorly designed running shoes that my Achilles and calfs could cope with the change in shoes and technique. I started with small runs and taking two pairs of shoes with me however the big breakthrough came because of two main key factors stretching every day and warming up properly.

We have dogs, so on my morning walks I do some basic calf exercises a silly walks (when no ones looking) I then skip skip to increase my hartrate and further warm up my calf's, then once warm, I stretch. I now strech before bed and my warm-ups take less time. I have slowly built up my distance and recently did 27 miles in minimalist shoes. I  own Vivio's too, but my preferred running shoes are FiveFingers. The feeling you get when your feet touch the ground is. I would say pleasure. I still land slightly heavy but have started to do small distances barefoot to improve this. My slow but rewarding transition to FiveFingers has been worth it. In total its taken me 4-6 months to transition, but probably could have done it quicker by understanding warming up and stretching and recently watched Malachy McHugh: How stretching actually changes your muscles.

I have attached the link below which I hope you all find helpful.