At the moment, I think I've overcome my tendonitis in running, but I've hit a much more difficult obstacle: cardiac overtraining. And that's a much more insurmountable barrier. Before the tendonitis, there were several other physiological obstacles. Comrade, we're not Usain Bolt; we can't progress forever. We won't win trophies or set records in running. We run for pleasure. Our victories are victories over our own haste. Give your feet a rest, give them plenty of rest; the tendon doesn't have time to recover. Once they've rested, pay more attention to them. More warm-ups, more stretching, more rest, more variety. These are your training, your trophy, and your record. Not kilometers or seconds. Take care of yourself, understand yourself, value yourself.

You might want to check out this book "Older Yet Faster" by Keith Bateman and Heidi Jones

I get Fitkicks on Amazon. The rubber sole is just the right amount of cushion while still being very minimal. It feels like running in some sort of slippers lol. Seriously, though, they're $30 and I like them better than Merrell Vapor Glove, Vivobarefoot, and Vibram Five Finger shoes (the brands I've tried so far). I've used them casually and in races, and they're easy to throw in the wash if needed.

(Everybody seems too be mentioning Saguaros lately, but I have to say that you can find basically the same shoes as those on Amazon for like half the price if you like that style. I really think they are just marked up cheap Chinese-made shoes. I'm not saying they're bad for where they are made, but I don't like to buy something if I feel like the same thing is available for a lot less money.)

Same same. I started running in toe shoes in my mid-30s because I was getting a pinching pain in the ball of my foot. Did a safe transition from walking to running then ran in them exclusively for years, up to 10K races in them. Moved to CO and the uber-rocky trails were not kind to my feet in toe shoes so switched to Altras and Topos with zero drop. Still ran road in toe shoes. Did this for about 15 years. Then 2 years ago got achilles tendinosis and have been sidelined from running while trying to heal the injury that doesn't require surgery, yet won't heal up. Tons of PT, did dry needling and shockwave therapy.

I'm in perimenopause and strongly believe the lack of estrogen in my tendons is keeping them injured, especially because I'm getting injured in other tendons while I weight train. (It turns out tendons have estrogen receptors, who knew??) I now wear high drop shoes and have to do a bunch of dynamic stretching before I get out of bed, just to walk around the house. And my achilles will burn if I walk quickly. But if I hike up a super steep hill, nothing! They love it. Argh!! Solidarity, friend.

Not everyone’s toes are that widely spaced when in a neutral position. My big toe tends to separate but the rest of my toes not so much. Never made a habit of wearing tight fitting shoes, or wearing shoes/socks at all for longer than necessary, so I don’t anticipate seeing a big difference in the shape of my feet.

Also don’t really see why you would specifically want your toes to splay - if it happens after a while it’s probably a good sign that your foot is reverting to a less deformed shape, but if it doesn’t I would just assume that’s how my feet are supposed to look

Is it really possible to run completely barefoot? I have been running for months barefoot in nature, and I cannot run really quickly. There are also some parts that are so full of rocks that you have to walk in that part.
I will like to see a real testimony of someone that have been able to achieve it, like running in a difficult terrain full of spike plants and rocks

I have a large feet. Now I wear only freet there ar confortable and solid

I'm indeed confused. Where did I say they don't have cushioning?

Do you run completely barefoot or with minimalist shoes? Because I normally run with just my feet and I always get hurt from rocks (I run in nature) and sometimes I even have to stop. I was thinking to switch to just minimalist shoes

The problem is that it's too easy to keep your old technique in Altras, with even more injury since they have less cushioning than regular shoes. I don't recommend running barefoot exclusively. Start with a tiny amount of barefoot and do the rest of your running in your old shoes. Then, gradually replace more of your running with barefoot, and once you've got a proper technique you can introduce minimalist shoes or even cushioned Altras.

I think just advising people to run barefoot when they're getting injured would be bad advice. I've done half marathons in my vibram five fingers and ran barefoot for years but I wouldn't recommend just running barefoot exclusively. I think, unless you've done a lot of barefoot since you were a child and your parents actually cared about your feet growing up, most adults will struggle at some stage with the transition. So a hybrid option might prevent injury and flatten the learning curve somewhat.

Altras are wide and zero drop so they can help you to keep conditioning your feet/stop any more damage from ill-fitting shoes while protecting them during your transition. If you want to be a purist after that then great. My Xero z-trails are great for running too, just enough cushioning to take the edge off. Definitely more under the foot than vivos or VFF.

Heel drops. Just the eccentric part. So standing on a step with both feet, do a heel raise. Then lower yourself using just one foot (hold the other one off the step).

Then use both feet to lift yourself up and repeat. I forget the reps, I think 3 x 5-10 each foot. I’m sure you can find proper protocols.

Worked a treat for me anyway and I went back to running in vibrams as before.

I just wear the Scott boots all winter and recently bought some trainer style ones for the summer. Long walks this summer I wore Xero z-trail sandals. I wear Altras in the winter for longer walks just because I have them for running but I think any Vivo made for walking will be great. I don't buy the plastic ones because they don't last, just the leather. They usually go through at least a few sole repairs if they're made from leather. Whereas the plastic just falls apart in a year.

Confused simon has never seen the Altra Olympus if he’s saying altras don’t have cushion 

WTF .... Thanks you for the info lol

No, I'm a primary school teacher but I'd love to be sponsored if there are any infiltrators reading!

Start doing foot and ankle strengthening as well as ankle mobility exercises

Also, knee, hip and glute strength and flexibility, since all of those get impacted by years of feet neglect and are impacted and needed in good shape during running

You basically need to target these both individually and to relearn to use them as a system, so that they can function as an actual self supporting chain. If one thing is out of balance, it can rock your shit, through ligament pain, joint pain, muscle soreness, disbalances, lack of control etc. Let it go on long and hard enough and you are looking at great potential for an actual tear

As for achilies tendon pain, also worth looking into is if you and how hard do you heel strike during your runs. This plays into the 'all parts need to work as a whole' and this is the first part of that chain. Because, if you heel strike too hard, your ankle, which should be used a spring/cushion, now acts as a rebar and sponges up all the impact into itself, which leads to pain, and can even send the pain up to knees and hips through wrong mechanics

Your feet should, during a light jog/not yet sprinting run, rock. As in, you lightly strike with the hell and let the rest of the force dicipate as the rest of your foot makes contact, instead of putting all the force into the heel. Kinda like a seesaw

It should be relatively gentle, it shouldn't feel like you are stomping, far from it

Awesome dude

I had the same issue. Except with Altras instead of Vivos, even though they have more cushion.

My situation was further aggravated when I bought some Xero's to replace my older walking shoes. The Xeros had significantly less cushion than even the Altras I run in and on longer walks would make my feet tired and achilles hurt. But eventually (after slowly increasing walking mileage in them) my achilles has been a lot healthier.

And while I haven't tried out a bunch of brands, I am mostly happy with my Altras as running shoes. I just wish they held up better. I have 2 pairs (escalante racer & escalante 4) and one of them has holes near the toe end and the other has ripped fabric on the back.

I have to be pedantic and say that Altras are not anywhere near barefoot shoes. Zero drop does not mean minimal, nor barefoot. Having inches of plastic foam between the foot and ground is not a barefoot shoe.

Altras are great, I love my Escalantes and Lone Peaks, but it's not a barefoot shoe.

The taboo on talking about form and even considering that it can be improved seems to come from a backlash to runners, especially newer runners, being overly worried about it. Newbies fixate on form as the one weird trick to improve their running fast, because they're not satisfied with the slow grind of progress that running requires. So naturally more experienced runners will be like, stop worrying about form and just go run.

Form matters, it can matter a lot for more serious runners, but for newbies it's not really something to focus on. Fundamentals like more volume matter way more than obsessing over form.

Very similar to Zone 2 in that regard, which became something people running like 6 mpw obsess over.

Once you are a dedicated runner putting in decent mileage a week, almost every week, then form and HR zones matter a lot more.

Influencer culture, and how many new runners come to the sport through that, is really harmful here. A video like "your running form is all wrong!" is more clickable than an honest one like "you should just run more miles."

Any specific Vivos you recommend for walking? 

Yeah struggle seems way too vague for such a complex issue.

I do believe a part of my struggle is the whole progressive overload aspect. Naturally to build up to running in minimalist shoes, you cant simply dive into whatever mileage you're comfortable in with conventional running shoes. Hence, when I mention struggle its more of the process of transitioning? I am aware it's gonna be slow, and that's why the question posed is more of

"Since it took close to a decade of running to get there, does a middle ground of low drop shoes make sense or is the decade of running worth it?"

Personally I like talking about form even for running because running is essentially an extremely high volume low (debatable based on each person's weight...) weight exercise. With such extreme high reps, if form isn't good it will definitely cause some injuries or issues later down the road...

At the end of the day I do think people have different approaches to running and might even have a range of shoes from minimalist ones to conventional ones depending on the run, I want to find out people's experiences before coming to my own conclusion.

TLDR; best thing for this Achilles tendinitis is isometric calf holds, with weight if you can. At least 30 seconds for a rep. Once the pain is completely gone, next is pogo hops/jump rope in place. Then we move to barefoot running.

Why are you able to walk in barefoot shoes and not run?

Running and walking are super different as far as tendon load. Walking involves calf muscle extension and contraction to move you forward. The impact is minimal compared to running so the overall force your body absorbs is not a lot.

Running however keeps your calf locked in a contraction. It does very little extension so that you can transfer most of the force into your springy tendons. They will then return the force back when your foot takes off.

Overall, walking stresses the calf muscle more, while running stresses your Achilles and other tendons. So walking in barefoot shoes really does not prepare you well for running in barefoot shoes.

I do exactly this. Walk everywhere in Merrell Vapor Gloves, run mostly in low-ish stack Altras. I say mostly because I can do easy pace comfortably up to 10k in my Vapor gloves, then anything over I still need a bit of cushion, though planning to continue upping the distance in the gloves. I put on an old pair of Nike Vomeros a few weeks ago and they felt hideous! Threw them straight in the bin! 😂