Front view

Left side of left shoe

Left side of right shoe

Like the current, updated Evo, the Evo II is a well constructed shoe.  The II variant adds some additional liner material inside of the TPU cage to make it better suited to colder weather.  I was able to wear it with and without the insole and with and without socks.  Without the insole, the liner material was comfortable on my bare feet.

Top view with insoles

Insole removed

I had first tried the original Evo about a year ago.  While the construction was excellent, they caused bloody toe blisters on my big and second toes.  Even the use of tape and extra sock layers was an insufficient deterrent.  I have not tried the updated Evo.  With the Evo II, that issue has been corrected  for me.  However, there is another issue that did occur.  It is the achilles rubbing that can lead to blisters.  Some people had experienced this issue on the original Evo also.  After some experimentation, I was able to determine a set of conditions that led to this issue in my usage.

In the majority of normal running usage, the Evo II worked well for me with no issues that I noticed.  But, unfortunately for me, I do not yet have the aerobic capacity for my workouts to consist of 100% running.  There is still some walking involved, especially during warm ups and cool downs.  That is where the achilles rubbing can cause problems for me.  Even then, it can be controlled if I maintain an awareness of and control how I am walking.

Achilles collar height, bend at achilles during plantar flexion, distance between marks

This picture illustrates the issue.  I put a strip of Hypafix tape along my achilles to provide a surface to mark on.  In the left image, I placed a mark at the top of the achilles collar.  In the center image, I plantar flexed a moderate amount and put a mark where the bend above the heel begins closer to where the achilles attaches.  In the right image, the tape shows the approximately half an inch difference between the bend location and the top of the achilles collar.  The left image was also taken with the insole in.  If the insole was removed, the difference would be greater by that amount.

When there is some plantar flexion, the achilles bend just above my heel is well below the top of the achilles collar on the Evo II.  Normal running with a landing under my COG does not bend my achilles against the achilles collar of the shoe.  Fortunately, that is how I usually land when running.  Landing when over-striding with some plantar flexion could cause the achilles to bend against the achilles collar leading to the rubbing and the blisters.  This is where it bit me.  When I walk, I often over-stride with my foot landing slightly in front of my COG.  Just before landing or on lift-off, I have some plantar flexion.  When this happens, my achilles bends above the heel and levers my achilles against the achilles collar of the shoe.  This levering action also lifts the heel slightly within the shoe.  The landing of the foot then presses the heel back into the shoe.  This action causes rubbing in both the up and down directions.  A mile and half of this is sufficient to cause blisters on my achilles.  The use of tape may help with this, but it would not eliminate the pressure of the levering action, which may be sufficient to loosen and move the tape as the original Evo did with the tape on my toes. Besides, we should not have to protect ourselves from our footwear.  They are supposed to protect us.

This does not have to be all bad, though.  It could be used as a training aid to encourage landing more under COG even when walking.  If I become aware of it and am able to do this, the rubbing and blisters would be eliminated.  Unfortunately, this means a slower walking pace for me if I walk without the over-striding I normally do.  Of course, if I am in a hurry, it could be worse.  The more over-striding that is done, the worse the achilles rubbing will be.  This is a trade off I have yet to decide if I can live with.  Some lowering of the achilles collar might make this a non-issue for me.

Given this caveat and a possible ability to work around this issue, I find the Evo II to be an otherwise excellent shoe.  Compared with some of the other minimalist running shoes coming onto the market, the price is still high, though there are occasional coupon codes to reduce that price if you look for them.

I like the idea of the EVO and EVO II, though as much as I would like to try it, I am reluctant.  If they work, they would be worth buying with a discount code.  But, at $160 retail, an unsuccessful test can be quite expensive.  After the original EVO created and then tore off blisters on my toes, I am quite gun shy about spending that kind of money again just to see if the problems I experienced have been fixed.  I hope they have, but will let others pay to test them first.  If the consensus is good, I might try them again.

The first item needed is the jig itself. There is a similar jig used on a tablesaw for cutting a taper. Coincidentally, it is called a taper jig. It is hinged at one end, can be locked at a fixed angle, and allows for cutting a tapered wedge from one side of a piece of wood while the other side of the jig is pushed along against the fence, which sets the distance from the blade. I surmised something similar could be used to cut the tapered wedge from a shoe using a much smaller version of the taper jig reversed and pushed along the fence of a bandsaw. The bandsaw has a much thinner blade than a tablesaw, which should allow the front of the wedge to meet at a point instead of step as with a thicker tablesaw blade.

This is the resulting jig. These pictures show the jig reversed from later operation.

It is of simple construction and consists of two pieces of 2×4 lumber twelve inches in length, a small hinge, a small wooden catch at the end of one 2×4 opposite the hinge, two cam clamps, and a cleared out piece of punched steel. The cam clamps and steel can be reversed to allow the jig to work either with the hinge toward the blade or away from the blade. In my test, I used it with the hinge toward the blade.

This is the hinge end of the jig. The slight gap from the hinge also allows for a slight negative angle if ever needed.

This is the business end of the jig showing the backer board stop, both cam clamps, and the steel strap to connect the sides. The 2×4 makes the jig tall enough that the steel strap will clear the fence on the bandsaw.

To cut a wedge from pair of shoes, some consistency is needed from one shoe to the other. This jig was to provide that consistency. It was stable and locked well into the set position. But, more was needed. The sides of shoes are not ideal for pushing along the table of the bandsaw. They are not exactly flat and even. To counter this, I used some double stick tape to adhere the sole of the shoe to a small rectangular board. The edge of the board would ride along the jig and bandsaw table.

This is the materials for that setup, shoes, consistently sized backer boards, and double stick tape.

This is one of the soles with tape attached at the front end of the where the backer board will go. I marked this position on both soles so it would be consistent.

This is both shoes with backer boards attached. The shadow demonstrates the height the side of the shoe will be above the table when cutting.

At this point, I am ready to cut the wedge. I reversed the jig from the above pictures, put one of the shoes against the jig, and began cutting.

Here is an action shot to show how it operates. I started with the cut near the upper first. This will let the material for the second cut be near the backer board and thus more stable.

I made the cuts on both shoes. It seemed to go okay. I had to press the toe a little to get the front edge of the cut along the sole.
At first glance, I have a nicely cut wedge in the sole. But, all is not as it seems.

The bottom tells the other side of the story. Unlike the top, it had cut well into the upper of shoe. Obviously, something had gone awry.

With a little bit more checking, I found the culprit. The shoe sole is quite rounded.

The rounded shoe sole is something I had not noticed and thus did not account for. The rocking of the rounded sole against the backer board, even with the double stick tape, led to inconsistency between one side of the sole and the other when cutting. This is part of the problem with trying to fit a new task into a short amount of time. I rushed it and did not pay enough attention.

Given what I now know the problem to have been, it probably could have been avoided. Taking my time and paying more attention would have helped a great deal. Two rows of tape on the sole would have helped. Using some barge cement and clamping the sole flat while it dried would have worked even better. A layer of paper glued between the sole and the backer board would have allowed for fairly easy removal. Now that I know to do it, I would have also aligned the the blade with sole edge nearer the table. With the side of the shoe lifted from the table by the backer board, there was sufficient room to see that side of the shoe. I could have also looked from the back side of the blade. That would have made it abundantly clear what was happening. Next time, I’ll know what else to pay attention to.

Then, I grew up, got a regular job, got married, and stopped walking. Time was more precious. Instead of walking from one end of the mall to the other, we drove. My level of exercise decreased and then disappeared altogether. I was eating better, too. You can guess the result. I quickly gained weight. My highest weight was last spring, before the switch. I weighed 237 pounds.

I have also had back problems for a long time. A chiropractor visit, sometime around 1990, resulted in a diagnosis of mild scoliosis. That was the first of what would turn out to be regular visits to many chiropractors over the years since. The now sedentary lifestyle, long hours at a desk as a software developer hardly moving from my chair, the extra weight cantilevered over my belt, and the entire lack of exercise, all resulted in a deteriorating back. My visits to the chiropractor occurred at least once every six months, usually every couple of months and, sometimes, several times a week. The low point began the summer of 2007. I needed to use a cane to get around.

The cane was insurance. I didn’t always need it. I just needed it often enough that I couldn’t leave it behind. I had developed a hyper-mobile lumbar disc. At any time, it could move out of place and lock, pinching a nerve. This usually occurred when transitioning between sitting and standing or when standing too long. Any movement that moved the vertebrae in the wrong direction could trigger it. When that happened, my knees would give and I would fall or, more usually, catch myself on something. The cane gave me the confidence to move around and was useful for climbing back up when I fell. Physical therapy helped some, but did not eliminate the condition. I even saw a couple of orthopedic surgeons, but I was too young for surgery. I was stuck with the cane for life or, as it turned out, until I switched.

That switch is what has allowed everything since. I came across an article on the internet. I don’t remember specifically which one, though it may have been one by Dr. Rossi. It might have been this one. The article has an image, a diagram, that I have seen several times. The diagram compares human figures in profile, wearing shoes with heels and without heels. The lines through the human figures illustrate the effect wearing shoes with heels has on posture, how the skeletal structure needs to compensate for the heels throwing the feet, legs, and back out of alignment. When heels are not worn, this compensation is not needed. The metaphorical lightbulb was shining brightly. I needed to find some flat shoes. The New York Magazine article, You Walk Wrong, provide more information. From that point on, my normal shoes would not have heels. I had switched.

What I had found was Vibram FiveFingers. I bought a pair of black KSOs at Hanig’s in late spring of 2009. I loved them. Either barefoot or combined with some Injinji or Feelmax toe socks, I wore them for everything, for business casual work and for even dressier occasions. Using a Sharpie marker, I blacked out the yellow logo for a dress mode VFF. A couple of weeks later, I bought some blue camo Classics for my casual pair. The benefits of wearing a minimal shoe were immediate. Without the raised heel throwing off my posture, my back was beginning to realign. I no longer needed a cane.

I did have a brief setback, though. Shortly after the switch, I attended a three day convention. Though I was not using a cane at that time, those three days were spent sitting in hard plastic stadium seats. It was enough to trigger an episode with my back that took several visits to the chiropractor to resolve. Since then, I have not needed another visit to the chiropractor. If I stay working bent over for a long time, like working on a bike or at the bottom of a cedar closet I was lining, then my back will still weaken. But, as my core muscled have strengthened and continue to strengthen, it now recovers quickly without external manipulation. I also learned to lay on my side, relax, and tilt my pelvis forward and backward. When I put my finger on it, it’s weird to feel that vertebrae pop in and out of place. It is no longer a debilitating issue.

Once the surrounding back muscles got used to the new position, I could move freely and did. I was very appreciative of my regained ability and did not want to waste it. That’s when I started the Couch to 5K running program and started dreaming of running longer distances. The C25K journey was begun here on June 10, 2009 and finally summarized here on September 10, 2009. I had successfully completed the Couch to 5K running plan. I was now a runner.

But, was I really a runner yet? There were some aspects of my C25K performance that troubled me. Though I was going through a running motion, I was quite slow. But, for all of my slowness, my heart rate was quite high. I was using a heart rate monitor to keep an eye on it. The highest recorded was 191 bpm. My normal HR at the end of a workout was in the 160-170 bpm range. The prior year, I had had a stress test done as a check up. My max HR in that test was only 145 bpm. With the C25K workouts, I was regularly exceeding the max HR recorded by a cardiologist. True. I wasn’t exercising at the time of that test and was now. Still, it was quite worrisome. The announcements of deaths occurring during marathons did nothing to improve my outlook. It was a risk I could not continue taking. Something had to change.

So, not long after completing the C25K, I started over. I discovered the Low HR Training group at RunningAhead. That led me to Dr. Phil Maffetone and the Maffetone Method of training. Stu Mittleman’s Slow Burn book is similar. The theory is that, by doing aerobic base building that does not exceed a calculated heart rate number, you can get faster while maintaining the same heart rate. Once that aerobic base is built, anaerobic training can be added to increase speed. But, that meant a big change for me. I needed to completely rebuild my aerobic system. My starting over needed to be from scratch.

The formula is 180-age plus or minus for various levels of health and fitness or lack thereof. Calculations put my maximum aerobic function (MAF) HR at 135 bpm. In pure numeric terms, it doesn’t seem that much lower than it had been. In practice, it was vastly different. I could only walk. Any amount of running caused my HR to exceed my MAF number. My C25K graduation run was at a 15:12 pace. My first MAF workout on September 23, 2009 was at a 23:22 pace. This was painful, painfully slow. It would take forever to get any kind of speed. It almost has.

For the past five months, I have been gradually building my aerobic base. It has been slow, both in pace and in progress. The vast majority of that work has been at a walking pace and not running. I was supposed to have already become a runner, but I wasn’t any more. I was a walker again, like I had been long ago as a teenager. I don’t quite have that distance yet. Though I did do fifteen miles this week, it was over three days. This is still much more than the 1.08 miles of my first MAF workout. My weekly and monthly averages are increasing. My RunningAhead Training Log has been very helpful for tracking this data. Seeing the changes I am making in the numbers is encouraging.

Compared with my high weight, I am now down thirty-two pounds to 205. I have much more to lose; my goal is to reach 150 pounds. If my calculations are correct, that is nearly two hundred thousand fat calories away from where I am now. I also dream of running a race, not just a marathon, but an ultra marathon, at least a 50k. When I started this journey of movement, I dreamed of doing this. I wanted to go from zero to 50k within two years.

Though I have had to retrace some steps along the way, these goals still seem possible. I really think I can make it. You see, I am on the verge of running again. My walking pace has been gradually improving, getting faster. Even with my now normal warm up and cool down included, it is currently at a 16:37 pace. This is not quite as fast as my C25K pace, which did not have warm up and cool down, but it is much closer than when I started this phase of the journey. I have also started adding brief running segments to my walking. It still raises my HR above my MAF number and I have to slow down to let it drop. Once it drops, I try again. Hopefully, soon, I will be able to keep running with a low HR. Then I can start running more quickly, building speed, and I will have once again become a runner.