Another underwhelming blog….

Bare Feet! Bare Feet! Bare Feet!

I kinda rolled my eyes when Liz first showed me a picture of the Vibram 5 Fingers she wanted to buy.  This was back in October.  I knew nothing of barefoot running at the time, and my only thought was that she wanted some crazy looking shoes.  Before her pair arrived, she started showing me some articles on the benefits of barefoot, or minimal shoe running.  By the time her shoes arrived, I thought of them as a running shoe rather than a fashion statement.  My curiosity was piqued.  After I had a chance to see them and touch them, I knew I'd end up with a pair sooner or later.  Thanks to Liz's generous planning, I had them sooner as an early Christmas present.  I believe we got them the weekend after thanksgiving.

So w/ my vibrams on my feet, I was ready to get back into running.  I knew I was going to have to take it easy and give my feet and calves a chance to accommodate to a type of activity I'd protected them from for most of my life.  I started with short runs to the end of the street and back, and would wake up with sore calves and feet the next morning.  But it was a good sore, not at all like an injury.  It was the kind of soreness you get from using muscles more than they're used to.  I gradually progressed to longer and longer runs, until one day I decided I could make the .7 mile lap around our whole neighborhood.  The next morning, I was less sore than my first run to the end of the street and back.  That was probably just before Christmas.  Since then I've been confidently adding distance to my runs, and have gone as much as 4 miles in a single run.  Typically I go between 2 or 3 miles per run.

During that break in process, I'd been doing some reading and watching some videos on true barefoot running.  I remember one guy saying that it would take a runner about 3 months to build up the skin on his feet adequately to run barefoot regularly.  I thought, meh... why would I need to do that?  Running in my Vibrams is just as good from a cardiovascular standpoint.  Why is it even necessary to run fully bare footed?  Some claim that the extra feedback you get through your feet gives a little more benefit as far as your body having enough information to know how to safely run, but it didn't seem like it was a necessity.  At the time, I didn't think I'd have an interest in true  barefoot running.

I took a break (as well as got sick for a little while) just after Christmas, and then resumed my running.  One day, after my run, on an impulse, I decided to take off my Vibrams for my cooldown walk.  While they were off, I decided to try just a short distance of barefoot running.  I ran about 1/2 way down the street, on the sidewalk.   The sensation was not at all what I expected.  Being January, the sidewalk was nice and cool.  The balls of my feet didn't strike the pavement as hard as I expected.  It really was not much different at all from running in my Vibs, except that I could actually feel the cool pavement.  So I started thinking, why not just try it a few more times?  So I started making a habit of finishing my runs barefoot.  Soon half a street became half a block.  Then a whole block.  Wednesday, I ran the .7 miles around our neighborhood fully barefoot.

During this process, the only negative aspect of the experience is that my skin would start to tingle or sting slightly after a certain distance of running.  I'm a very tender footed guy who sits behind a desk all day, and never goes barefoot, even in the house.  So each time I'd feel that stinging sensation, I was sure that I was starting to wear holes in the bottoms of my feet.  So I'd walk the rest of the way home and check things out.  Each time, I'd look at my skin and never saw any abrasions or blisters.  I'd feel the stinging for maybe another 20 or 30 minutes, and then everything went back to normal.

After about 7 or 8 experiences like this, I gained the confidence to know that the stinging didn't mean I was doing any real damage, so today I decided to do a complete run fully barefoot from start to finish.  Liz and Margaret joined me.  We went to Rose Rudman and ran on their paved trail.  I ran a total distance of 2.2 miles.  I didn't spot it, but Liz said that at least 3 or 4 people stared at my feet as I ran by.  Towards the end of the run, I was certainly feeling it.  Nothing too uncomfortable, but I could tell that my skin was enduring some use.  But I tripled my previous barefoot distance, so I expected that it'd be a little worse than normal.  It wasn't too bad, though.  At no point would I say that I was in pain.  I'm typing this about 3 hours after my run, and I can still feel some mild stinging.  Normally this goes away w/in 30 minutes of a run.  Assuming it feels normal by tomorrow morning, I think I'm ready to start running barefoot as close to 100% of the time as I can get from now on.  I'd really like to run the Race for the Cure 5k this May barefoot if they'll let me.  I think by then my skin should be plenty tough to run on the brick streets of Tyler.  At the very least, I'm running it in my Vibrams.

So if you're interested in barefoot running and haven't yet tried going fully barefoot, give it a shot.  You may find that you enjoy it.