Guinea Pig

Some students at Gonzaga are doing a study to determine what lower leg muscles are activating while running in Vibrams. Of course, when I got wind of that I had to volunteer to be a test subject. They shaved spots on my right lower leg, attached leads and electrodes, and then I ran on a treadmill with Vibrams, barefoot, and shoes. They showed me the results and it turned out I was consistently using the same muscles in all three cases. They were surprised by that but I found it encouraging. For me it meant that all this effort to relearn how to run has worked. They showed me the results of a couple of other subjects who landed on their heels in shoes and on their forefoot in Vibrams. The patterns were strikingly different.

Wired up and ready to run--blech!--in shoes.
I always look best from a distance. Or going away.
Funny moment of the day. They made me clean my feet before I could get on the treadmill barefoot.