Shoe review Shoe review

Friday 10/12/07- So on Monday I ordered some Bite running sandals.

Ever since Tahoe my feet have been swollen. In addition I may or may not have caused stress fractures in the toes of my left foot. When I was young (13) I jumped out of a 3 story window and shattered all the bones in my left foot. Well I may be experiencing little problems with those bones now brought on by the ultra.

Review of Bite sandals
Ok so on to the review-Well I wore my injinji socks with the sandals and headed out for the U of A. They worked pretty damn good at first. I noticed right away that my legs and shins had to work a little extra. My feet and toes feel great! After ten minutes I had to readjust the straps.
Comfortable, but can feel new leg muscles being used, akin to running barefoot in the sand for awhile. The sandal allows your toes to spread and the push off they give you is pretty rad even when I was just taking shuffle steps. These things want to be ran in.

So I ran for 30 minutes total.
I began having problems with my left foot(the bad foot). My left foot is smaller, I found myself unable to torque my left sandal strap down tight enough. Apparently my left foot supinates a little as well which causes it to slide forward and sideways in the sandal. I think I just need to break these in all the way.

Ok overall -Too soon to make a decision.
Thus far I think they will become excellent trainers if I alternate them in once or twice a week to help strengthen my feet also they are really a blast to run in but I really have to let my self relax. Things seemed fine as long as I ran slow 9 or 10 minute miles. When I really started to get into to things and crank out 7 minute miles the left sandal would shift a little. I think this will just require me getting used to it. They really like to run and fast. Its weird how much pop these sandals have.

A couple warnings- unlike shoes there is No roll control so your feet kind of do what they want.
At first I thought I was aggrivating my shin splints then relised that I was using different muscles in order to stabilize my feet and body in the sandals. Good form is a priorty with these.

I CANNOT recomend these to anyone, they are very quirky.
I don't know if I could run trails in these but will soon find out.
I wish my left foot/sandal was like my right. The only problems I have with these sandals stem from my preexisting bad left foot.

The bright side- I can tell they are making my feet strong.
They give my toes a break :)
They are a nice change.
I'm sure I will get used to them. My bones in my toes feel so much better.

Ok so total- 30 minute run at the U of A
and then 45 minutes bouldering @ the climbing gym
and then another 30 minutes running after the gym.
SETS 5 pull
25 push otb
50 crunch otb