It seems awful to post about anything, given the horrifying tsunami events. The thing that amazes me is that the water seems so shallow and slow when it breaks onto the beach, and then just builds and builds until it's knocking down hospitals and derailing trains. The footage is heartbreaking.

And yet, I post, about inconsequential shallow things. Sorry.

I have taken delivery of a pair of Vibram Five Fingers. They are barefoot running shoes, which look like foot-gloves (there's a 'finger' for each of your toes). The idea is that by wearing big padded normal running shoes, you insulate your feet from feedback, and they get flabby and useless. They can't do their job of telling the body what it needs to know to maintain good posture and avoid problems in the road ahead. And they can't use all their muscles properly. Hence, barefoot running is better. But who wants to tread in dog poo / on broken glass / on boiling hot tarmac in the summer? Which is why someone cleverly invented these very interesting shoes.

I will let you know how I get on with them. I ran 100 yards in them today, which was enough, and was astounded at how bouncy my knees went - I think the body's natural suspension gets called into play when you don't have artificial padding. But the interesting thing is how I found out about them. There's a book that Rob lent me, called Born to Run, which is a hugely engaging tale of one runner's quest to find a way to run without knackering his knees and back. The upshot is that the book is one long advert, in a completely accidental way, for these shoes. I suspect that more than half of people who read the book buy the shoes.

Thinks. What a great book - that not only delivers a cracking story but has an eighty quid upsell. I wonder if we could do that? Buy this zombie book, and see sales of cricket bats soar, that sort of thing. Interesting, anyway.