Barefoot Walking

Well, thanks to my good friend Tony (damn him) I've been out walking around barefoot for 5 days now. I suppose it was only a matter of time before I tried something unusual again (the last one was polyphasic sleeping, which is MUCH more crazy).

I have to say so far that I'm a big fan. I got a few blisters on day 2 that are finally healed. The reason for the blisters was bad form, and I felt it happening. I like the instant feedback but I wasn't able to correct my form before it was too late.

As most barefoot sites I've found suggest, the real advantage to ditching ANY kind of shoe (including the "barefoot" shoes) is the nerve endings in your feet can quickly tell you when you're landing wrong. You learn much faster on rough terrain than on soft terrain, but too much rough terrain at first can be hard on your sensitive feet.

I started out at the Matthaei Botanical Garden trails (click the Visitors Guide link for trail maps) which offer a nice variety of surfaces.

Unlike walking in shoes, I think the most fun I've had barefoot is walking on rainy/muddy days. The cool wet ground on your feet is great, and the lack of tread on your feet forces you to learn to balance properly or you can slip a bit.

Today I looked up some videos on walking form (yeah, day 5... Probably should have looked earlier, but amazingly what I've discovered is I'm already walking very similarly to the suggestions because anything else HURTS). Not sure how to embed a video yet, so I'll just link. Here's one I liked:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BThS2TnjXhU

And here's one about running (though not specific to barefoot running, this is essentially the technique a lot of barefoot runners use):

http://www.viddler.com/explore/echifitness/videos/1/

And another on running:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=7jrnj-7YKZE&feature=fvw

I'm nowhere near running yet myself. But I can actually see doing it now. I plan to give my body and my feet a few weeks minimum to get used to this.

There are some great tips at one of the oldest barefoot sites out there, including this great advice on how to wash the stuff off your feet:

http://therunningbarefoot.com/?p=1900

It works wonders :)

Lastly (since this is already dragging on) I wanted to mention another worry that people seem to have... Calloused rough ugly feet. Let me just say that my feet look better since I started walking barefoot than they have in years. I've been a habitual sandal wearer for the last 10+ years, and I found my feet were often dry and I had thick callouses on my heels. Since walking around without anything on my feet, they look much more healthy and most of the callouses have already been rubbed off just by walking. Of course you can't tell when my feet are dirty, which they often are, but if I want my feet to look presentable, they look much better than before!

Till next time, let your feet go naked folks!