[asoneth]

Gaining miles slowly is excellent advice, probably the most important advice for new runners. It's a mistake I certainly made more than once both barefoot and not, though thankfully it never resulted in anything as severe as shin splints or metatarsal fractures.

These days I'm generally pretty good about listening carefully to my body and respecting my limits -- I'll stop the run or ride if something starts to feel off. It's an approach that's served reasonably well for more than a decade. Though I can afford to take things slowly because my long-term goal isn't to to set speed records but to keep running well into old(er) age.