Dude, take your shoes off and live a little!

-Barefoot Ted

The Barefoot Revolution: Part 3

These last two weeks, up through today, Sunday October 4, 2009, have finally given me a taste of what it will be like to run for hours on end without shoes.  Imagine being able to leave you house, wearing only a pair of shorts and a shirt, needing no shoes, and being able to run through the rain, through rivers, on trails, and on road without any thought to what shoes I need for today, or what socks would be good for wet weather.  This fantasy is now becoming my reality.

Two weeks ago I was running a steady 40-45 minutes barefoot, all on concrete and asphalt.  I was able to finish all of these runs no problem, but after a few of them, namely certain runs that would not be on the baby soft concrete of my sister neighborhood, but on the older and rougher asphalt of the jogging trails, would leave my feet feeling a little tender by minute 40.

That Saturday, September 26th, I hiked for 6 hours with my huaraches, then completed my last 40 minute run of the week barefoot.  After 6 hours of walking my feet were plenty sore, but I finished.

This past week however, was a different story.  Not only was it the start of the month of October, but it was also the start of what I feel is my own future with this barefoot running.  To start, I upped my times each day to 50-55 minutes of barefoot, but this week, my feet felt completely different.

I would like to note at this point that my idea to go completely barefoot has been the best idea and best path, I feel, for people who want to go with more minimalist footwear.  I say this because up until this week, I was able to run barefoot for my set time with no blisters, but it was slow going.  With nothing protecting you from the ground but your own skin, your stride and bio-mechanics will get in check really quick.  I tried to speed up several times during my initial building phase, thinking I could pick up the pace a little, but each time I did either my calves and Achilles would start to tighten up, or the soles of my feet would not land right and would scrape the ground at toe-off.  This would of course cause me to slow back down to where running was comfortable again.

This past Tuesday, I had one of the best runs ever though.  I started off slow as usual, but decided to go for a run on the asphalt walking paths in my area, they are more scenic, but also rougher.  I was able to keep the same pace no problem.  My feet felt like there was a layer of leather protecting them!  I clocked myself for a stretch of road that I knew to be a mile, and at my normal lazy pace I completed it in about 10 minutes flat…not too bad for no shoes.  I passed into a neighborhood that was all smooth concrete, and tried the same distance, but this time I would go as fast as I could.  I clocked it off at about 6:45 for that mile!

The next day I went down to Purdue Campus and ran on all sorts of surfaces new and old, rocks, pebbles, stairs, even treading lightly over some small pieces of glass, all without problem.

Today, Sunday, I did another hike, this one 7 hours, with an additional 1hr 40mins of barefoot running in the middle.

After 2 full months I would like to report that my feet are changing for the better.  The soles are thickening, but not callusing, it is more like a soft layer of leather.  They remain quite smooth, but the cushioning of my feet themselves is now growing to disperse some of the shock and pressure of running barefoot.  My only regret so far is not starting this sooner because it is starting to get cold and I will soon have to put something on my feet to handle all the snow that will surely come this winter.

At this point my advice to anyone would be to listen to your body 100%.  If you get tired and your stride starts to break down, take a break or call it quits for the day.  If you get sore or stiff while you are building up, do the same, stop completely and call it a day, or take a break.  So far I have run only as far as my body will let me each day.  Some days the 40-50 minutes of running is not enough, so I will either go for a long hike barefoot or in my huaraches, or I will go for another run in the evening of about an hour with my shoes on.

I will leave you with a cool tip I have heard to do, and did myself with much satisfaction.  If you must run in shoes for some reason, and you don’t want to spend money buying a pair of racing flats or something with minimal cushioning, this is what you do.  Take your pair of trainers you are using now.  Look at them from the side.  You will notice that the heel foam and cushioning is about 2x as thick as the forefoot.  Well in order to run more easily on the forefoot, take a strong serrated knife or a small saw, and cut a wedge out of the heel so that the heel foam is the same height as the forefoot.  The wedge should run from the back of the shoe, towards the middle where the foam becomes a consistent thickness, tapering down as you go.  This will leave you with no tread on the heel, but if you are running with proper technique, you should be landing on your forefoot anyway, so the heel tread is useless.

Let me know if you have any questions and Ill guide you through it.  Take care and Happy Running!!

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This entry was posted on Sunday, October 4th, 2009 by Blake at 5:13 pm and is filed under Barefoot Running. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.