Good write-up again, dude! I have a pretty similar history with running shoes and training for running. It was probably 2011 when I started running "seriously" for the first time. I had a pair of traditional runners, and a pair of Vibram 5-Fingers (or whatever they're called.. I call them finger-shoes). Doing some short distance runs in the Vibrams forced me to learn how to run on the fore of my foot, because it felt like I would break my heels if I continued to land on the back of my foot and roll through.

My running started to rapidly improve once my cardio was no longer and issue. I never really changed after switching up to a fore-foot strike, and 3-Marathons, 5-Halfies, and a small handful of 10km races down, I haven't looked back.

That being said -- other than shorter runs (<5km distance), I currently only use my Asics. A few years back, I tried training for a marathon in some zero-drop, minimal, New Balance shoes, and the joint stresses blew my hip out, and I had to take the better part of 4 months off of running entirely.

I still don't know if it was the style of shoe, or a combination of many factors, but I'm still running on the forefoot in my Asics, and doing fine.