Some observations on running in the 4mm whatevers.

1) I'm not special!

I've been running for forty years, a lot for thirty years.  I know how to run.  So Stephen's advice about ease into it?  Yeah, I'll do that.  Right.  Jumped right into my regular 4.5 mi daily run and after four or five days my toes hurt so much that all I could think about during a run was them.  I was like a brand new runner, ready to give up because the pain was too much to tolerate.  BREAK IN SLOWLY!  Better to take a few weeks to get back to full distance than to be in agony for a month.

2) Watch where you run!

I run early, dark for much of the year, and have always run on the gravelly/muddy shoulder wherever I can.  Third morning out, I found a new chunk of concrete put in that depression that grows under a mailbox on the road.  Not too bad in regular running shoes.  Almost disastrous in huaraches.  That hurt for five or six weeks.  Stick to what you can see, or the road proper or sidewalks when you can't see.  You'll still step on pebbles and sticks, but won't likely hit anything big and unforgiving.

3) Listen to your body!

I'm suffering from strains in both calves.  So many years of letting the shoes take the weight has made my achilles/calf muscle system unreliable.  Finally I've learned to feel the strain coming and to shorten my stride and slow down rather than push through.  It means I have to listen all the time, because it is so easy to unconciously push when I don't actively govern myself.  I'm hoping yesterday's 13-minutes-slower than my best in-shoe time (which isn't fast to begin with) over a bit more than four miles, will be a nadir.  Today was a minute faster.  Maybe in a couple of weeks I'll be able to rely on my lower legs without monitoring so closely, and work back to Ridgemont High.

4) Have fun.

When I first started to run seriously, my goal was to break 40.  Every run was exciting because each ventured into new territory.  I was learning and testing what I was capable of.  I envy you few just starting out with running.  You have so many new and exciting times ahead.  After twenty-five years of racing, that excitement kind of fades.  I know I have no PRs in my future.  The huaraches have given that fun back.   I'm not exactly sure why, but rather than convincing myself that I really should run this morning (every morning) I have to say, "wait, your legs hurt from strains, maybe you should stay in this morning."  I usually don't listen.  It's a great feeling.  The few runs I've done with my least controlling shoes have felt awkward and unnatural.  I'm not going back.

This is long because this is what I've been doing during my last half-dozen runs.