Barefoot style running in the winter and for the cheap

So ever since I read the book Born to Run I have been dying to try my hand at barefoot running or at least running without normal running shoes.

Well now there are all these shoes coming out that are being marketed as barefoot running shoes like the Vibram 5 Fingers, Nike Free and I think Timothy Ferriss mentions something called Terra Bosa in his book The 4-hour body.

The problem with all of these shoes are well there expensive and I don't really have that much money at least not enough to justify quite yet purchasing shoes that look like a pair of socks.

My alternative so far (as of yesterday) is to wear those beach shoes you can buy at Rite Aid for $10 in the summer. The soles are flat and thin and are actually surprisingly warm when worn with a thin pair of socks inside them.

I'm not sure if I am reaping all the benefits from running this way as opposed to running in those other shoes or going barefoot, but until then I will probably continue to run this way and since it is winter I will keep my socks on underneath the shoes.

Overall, I have to say that running this way yesterday was quite a bit different then running in normal running shoes or even in Converse Chuck Taylor's (which was my previous solution to running barefoot).

I have to say that when I ran this way the muscles in the middle of my feet got pretty tired and my ankles actually felt like they were getting worked out. I'm guessing that as far my ankles are concerned is that running this way is forcing them to stabilize body and work at keeping its balance more when running this way.