Minimalist shoes --> 'Normal' running shoes and foot pain

"I thought it was interesting to see how our bodies adapt over time to new equipment."

It is interesting. It's also interesting that it's a tough sell for consumers to adopt this mindset with bike saddles.

With saddles, people often adopt an ethos of "keep switching saddles to get the 'right' one".

With running shoes, people seem more receptive to the idea of "you have to spend time to get acclimated to minimalist running."

The running industry has done a better job selling minimalist running than the bike industry has of selling a similar mindset with saddles. But then again, there is more money to be made selling one customer a number of saddles within two years. If people practiced good saddle comfort habits, we'd sell a lot less saddles. We don't want that.

So, take time getting used to minimalist shoes. Eventually everyone will acclimate.

But keep switching saddles until you find the magic one...  

@Tom:  Well stated, I fell into the switching saddles trap but ran out of funds to keep switching.  My saddle discomfort was as much an issue with fitness and lack of time in the saddle as it was the saddle itself.  I tried 2 loaners and purchased another before finally running across a new/used saddle that was pulled from a bike build.  Having said that, I am still curious to try a Cobb saddle.  I don't know that I need to switch but they certainly are popular among triathletes.

BTW:  I love my Kinvara's and find my old go to Asics are spending less and less time on my feet.  I am curious to try a pair of the PowerGrid Cortana from Saucony.  It was explained to me they offer the same 4MM drop you get in the Kinvara's but a more durable soal and a little more cushioning which may be of some benefit on long runs.  I am just starting to rebuild mileage though so no need for them yet.  Perhaps in a couple of months.

Surprised you had that much pain. How far did you run? Shoes with 350 miles are getting near the end, plus the Guide is a fairly supportive stability shoe, while the Kinvara is a lightweight neutral shoe. What made you change from a stability shoe? Did you not need that support? Did you try the Mirage, which is essentially a stability version of the Kinvara? Since you've been wearing the Kinvara, have your stride and footstrike changed at all?

I switch back and forth between minimalist shoes and my regular neutral cushioned shoes with no problems at all. But since they're all essentially neutral there aren't the same issues as there might be when switching between dissimilar types of support.

I was quite surprised myself, and also quite worried. It was only a five mile run at a pace about one minute slower than my easy run pace, so I was pretty perplexed. In December of last year I developed an achilles injury that had me with no running for 2+ months - I didn't want something like that to occur. From the reading that I did on peroneal tendons, one of the culprits is changing shoes, especially ones that have different drops from heel to toe.

I'm about 350 miles into one of my pairs of Kinvaras (out of three in circulation) and there is some wear, but I know I can easily get some more runs out of them. I'm hoping for 50-100 more miles of use before they're hung up. I'm a midfoot striker, which helps even out the wear (I think).