Rebuilding

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.

An Experiment: Is Barefoot Running All It's Cracked Up to Be?

My girlfriend, Lisa, and I have just started barefoot running after reading a book about the sport. As two people in fairly good shape, we had a bit of a head start, but it is taking some time to adapt. I hope to give updates every week or so on our progress so others can decide if they want to try it out.

So far:

Last Sunday, we started out on a normal run, but about a mile and a half from the end, we decided that we wanted to try out barefoot running. We are reading the book Born to Run, and they make it sound very appealing, and healthy, in the book.

We took off our shoes, and it was great. We were running on a path near our house that is concrete, not asphalt, so the friction isn't as bad. We didn't have any problems. The main thing we figured out pretty quickly is that your stride changes significantly as soon as the shoes come off. You start to cushion yourself not with extreme amounts of shoe padding, but by landing softly on the outside edge or the ball of your foot instead of your heel.

Our total run that day was about an hour.

Three days later, we tried it again. This time we were ready to really commit, and ditched our shoes at the very beginning of the run. We only totaled a little under three miles, but we found out another benefit of barefoot running, you get the most amazing calf workout imaginable. By the end, both of us had completely toasted our calves.

I also found out that what looks like a clean path can hold hidden dangers. When I got home, I found a small piece of glass in the sole of my foot. It was no big deal after I removed it, but it made us start thinking about how to protect our feet from friction and sharp objects without abandoning the barefoot principle.

On Youtube that night, we found a video that shows you how to make very thin sandals that don't change how your feet hit the ground, but afford a little protection from road hazards. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fF6aGK5AhpA They also sell kits to make your own, but we plan to get an old bike tire to accomplish our goal.

Today, we ran again. This time we made it about four miles on the same path. The longer distance increased the toll of friction on our soles, and both of us are ready to have a pair of sandals to protect ourselves. Lisa also found another small glass shard in her foot. Interestingly, neither of us are much phased by that fact, we just want to take a little more precaution.

As summer comes near and it will be light out later, we'll probably start to look for paths that will be a little more foot friendly and fun to run on.

How do we feel?

Both of us are loving our new hobby. The evidence is out there that it can be much better for your feet and joints, and so far we agree. I usually have arch pain that nags at me, but that has disappeared over the last week.

Not only does it seem better for us, it also feels pretty badass to be running with the minimal amount of gear possible.