02/12/2011 lazy day

Today was a lazy day.  Just hung around and didn't do anything.  No big deal though.  I got to get myself charged back up for a good week of training. Myself and my buddy were talking about the difference between the traditional hiking boot and the vibram five fingers.  Here is the website for the Vibram five finger.
http://www.vibramfivefingers.com/index.htm





These are the ones that I am going to get to run the ToughMudder Race I am doing in May, but don't worry about that I am going to chronicle my training for that too. (http://www.toughmudder.com/) 
Now, what is the big deal about these versus regular hiking boots.  Well to be honest I don't know.  I don't have a pair yet, so my response about support, the sole and basically support is going to be biased.  All my friends who have these love them.  One of my buddies (Dave) ran the WarriorDash in these.  (http://www.warriordash.com/)  He said it was awesome in them.  Again my biggest thing is the lack of ankle support, but my friend Eric said is it really going to make that big of difference.  His thing is, if you are going to roll your ankle you are going to roll it.  That is true, however, the severity of the sprain could be lessoned if you have some ankle support.  Also, with these because your foot is not pretty much flat, (there is a lack of an arch in these, which is one reason why I have heard they are so good for you), you have to basically wear them everyday before you actually plan to use them in a race or on a trail to get your feet and legs used to them.  Now that's not a big deal, you should do that anyway to break in your new boots and reduce the risk of blisters, stress fractures, and things like that.  Well, like I said my opinions on this are biased because I like regular hiking boots, but I am willing to cut some weight by buying a pair of these funny little moccassins.  I will come back to this when I get a pair of these and let you know how they worked out for me.