Runners - help needed with lightweight shoes

[lph]

Ok, ok, so I read Born to Run and loved it, like a million other people

And I grabbed my garish purple and pink Nike Free 3's, bought as lightweight travel and work shoes, and started running with them, with visions of lightly clad Tarahumara dancing through my head. I do a semi-run commute which is about 70% trail and 30% road, and I'm now at the point where I can comfortably run about 4,5 miles every other day, or 6,5 miles with 2 days off. I cycle the other days.

I'm also at the point where the niggling little things are getting annoying, like the small blisters I get between the same two toes every time, and I can feel that the shoes are getting a bit sloppy. No trouble with knees or anything apart from a little general stiffness that quickly passes.

I'd like to try some other shoes. I really enjoy the lightweight feeling of minimalist shoes, and the contact I have with the ground. What would you recommend? I'd like to try the VFFs, but they look really weird and are fairly expensive here. Are they worth it? Any others you like? I have fairly wide feet and high arches.

[OakLeaf]

Well, my answer to everything these days seems to be Lems. I don't run minimal, but lots of "natural" runners wear Lems Primal, and I just adore mine for daily wear. Blisters between your toes suggests your shoes are too narrow for you in the toe box - Lems are nice and foot shaped, and unlike most brands, I only have to go up one size in length to accommodate my #9 herring boxes (wait, those were her shoes, not her feet, but you get the idea). Toe socks would help too. My toes are too long for VFFs, and honestly it seems to me that the sole of the Primals is more flexible than the VFFs anyway.

I've got a pair of size 41 VFFs, not sure which model but it's one of the earlier ones in the sort of "Mary Jane" style, a bit stained but not worn much, yours if you want to try them.

[lph]

Thank you for the offer, Oak! I'm pretty sure they wouldn't fit, though, I'm a short and wide size 39. I'll have to find a store and go try some on, though. I have short toes.

Those Lems look amazingly comfortable. I've always gravitated towards comfortably broad and flat shoes for everyday use, but never purposely bought "foot-shaped" shoes before. My toes could do with some stretching out sideways, many years of climbing have scrunched them more together than they should be and the blisters start mainly because my smallest toe is already squinched up onto the next one.

Ooh, shoe shopping.

[skhill]

Love the VFFs, but if I'm too cold them in the kind of winters we get in Kentucky, they'd probably not be usable most of the year in Norway!

[Becky]

I never ran in them, but really liked the footshape and no-drop fit of some Altras that I tried on.

[OakLeaf]

Altra doesn't have any ground feel though. It's a pretty thick inflexible sole, it just doesn't have an elevated heel. But also, more protection from the elements.

They are nice and foot shaped and I loved the zero drop. But they were way too narrow for me.