Very interesting stuff about posture and pronation - Knot strikes again. I'm going to have to do a little studying on myself there. I have a feeling my heel pain in shoes is some kind of mis-alignment that I'm arguing with and need to un-learn before I am forced to un-learn it with help.

My big toe callous under my right big toe actually hurts when I run on it for significant distance, in shoes and to a much lesser extent in the VFFs, and I'm trying to figure out why - the left one feels fine. Feels like I do have a bit of tough skin formed between my big toe and second toe (have had blisters there, too), and my right big toe callous is MUCH tougher than my left. I've considered seeing a podiatrist or someone that can tell me where the pain in my foot is referring to how I'm running, something in my posture, or something I can/should actually correct ON my feet (soften my over-hardened callous?), or maybe a combination.

I wear my VFFs to work too - I work at a software company (I also bring my dog to work ). I also wore them to a conference this week representing my company, but software/network security/IT people are kind of a different breed to begin with.

I started running in VFFs fairly "aggressively" I'd say, but I do have a relatively strong base and a fairly consistent volume of running under my belt through the last 9-12 months. If my base mileage was 3 miles in one shot or 10-15 miles a week total spread across many days, I would have started out much lighter. As it is, you really have to listen to your body, and don't forget to stretch!