I've been lazy. It happens to most runners, but I was hoping to push through it. The end of the school year took its revenge, though, and I lost most of the tough skin I'd earned. I started running mostly in shoes, albeit shoes with little structure that allowed my feet to move freely.
The two main challenges of barefoot running, I've decided, are calf strength and foot skin toughness. In talking with a few friends, I've concluded that the skin toughness is the part that takes longer to develop, and is the easiest to mess up.
With shoes on, I've tried to stick to the basics of barefoot running: land softly, don't land on your heels, and don't stick your leg out too far in front of you. By doing that, I've managed to continue building my calves up, and they're ready for more. I ran the Boulder Bolder 10k (http://bolderboulder.onlineraceresults.com/individual.php?bib=FJ613) on Monday, and I kept my form throughout the race. My time was nothing spectacular, but I was running it more for pleasure than speed.
My feet are the part that has suffered from wearing shoes. They felt pretty leathery back at the time of my last post, but I've only really run barefoot a few times since, and they reverted back to baby skin. I ran just a few miles yesterday and have raw feet today. Luckily, I listened to my feet early enough, so I didn't get any blisters or blood.
According to one of the new gurus of barefoot running (Sandler, I think), a person should take it a hundred yards at a time, building up slowly, over months, to be able to run barefoot fully. I think it depends on the person. I increased by a mile at a time when I started, and I did okay, for the most part. Now I'm going to try to run barefoot one day, shoes the next, alternating for awhile and giving my feet a chance to rest.
The feet the last part of the equation, but also the most important if I want to call myself a true barefoot runner.
