Barefoot Runner

It's a glorious day in the south of the UK today. It's dry and sunny with a slight cool breeze blowing. I'd planned on going for a long run later today once the roads had warmed up a bit, but when I saw how gorgeous it was outside, I couldn't hold myself back and headed out a little earlier than planned.

What a fantastic run. I'd originally planned on only running about 8km, but before I knew it I'd already clocked up 6km and was about 4km from home. I could probably have carried on further, but given 8km was my...

I've finally managed to get my hands on The Lieberman "letter": Foot strike patterns and collision forces in habitually barefoot versus shod runners reported in January's edition of Nature and I've read through it, the accompanying Harvard site and a lot of the reviews other people have made, and here are my observations.

First and foremost, I believe this paper has been over-hyped and misinterpreted (possibly deliberately as it makes "good news") in a big way. I think the main reason for this is it's the first major research paper in years that actually involves comparisons between barefoot and shod runners. There have been other recent studies that have documented the merits of different foot strikes (fore/mid/heel), but none have made the comparison between barefoot and shod runners. There's also the added attention barefoot running is currently enjoying thanks to Christopher McDougall's book: Born to Run (my review).

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Just a quick note to say, no, I've not been sleeping under a rock (sleep, what's that?). Yes, I've heard about the Lieberman Paper and seen/heard the BBC news article and all the other summaries and opinions cropping up all over the net since it was released earlier this week, I've just not had the chance to actually sit down and read it, or more specifically the Harvard site setup for it, yet.

The thing is my wife and I have just had our first baby and sadly she's got a heart condition, so I've spent most of my free time...

I've just popped out for a short run and thought I'd document it for everyone to share.

First, the planned route:

It's recently occurred to me that there is another benefit to barefoot/minimalist running and that's the wildlife encounters that I now get to experience.

I live in the UK, so I'm not going to be encountering any "cool" wildlife like lions, tigers, bears and wild dogs, but rather the more timid animals like squirrels, foxes, deer and birds. Whilst timid, these guys shouldn't be snubbed as they tend to hear you long before you see them and they're long gone by the time you get within smelling distance.

Well folks, it's sad to say that I won't be doing anymore barefoot running this year. Winter has finally set in and it's blarrrrry cold outside. Whilst we in the UK don't get the extreme cold and snow some other countries get, we do get a lot of rain which doesn't play well with the freezing cold on bare feet.

Now I must say, I'm not wussing out here, it's all for my own good. Very cold numb feet just don't feel the ground anywhere near as well as warmer feet do. As a result form is likely to go to...

I'm a subscriber to Barefoot Ted's huaraches Google Group, and the other day one of the members started a thread about funny comments and retorts which I thought I'd share in summary:

OrionFyre:

I got stopped by a cop who pulled up along side me to see if I was OK.
"why do you ask?" I say.
"Because you're not wearing shoes..." he replies
I look down at my feet with a look of surprise. "Oh shit! they must have fallen off."
I stand upright and look back the way I had came covering my eyes from the suns glare. In the corner of my eye I see the cop turn around in the car and look back.
"dammit." I mumble aloud
"I knew I should have tied them tighter."

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In my quest to go completely barefoot, or as near as possible in as many environments as possible, I've had my eye on replacing all my chunky shoes with more minimalist shoes. I've had my eyes on a couple of brands, including the VivoBarefoot range from Terra Plana, but haven't really seen any in person to get an idea of what they're like. I also wasn't too keen on blindly shelling out for a pair of shoes I'd seen on the internet, have them imported from the US only to find they're hideous in person.

Well, luck was on my side as I was approached by a kind lady on behalf of Terra Plana and given the opportunity try a pair of shoes from their VivoBarefoot range. After much umming and ahhing - "Do I go for the casual looking Aquas for everyday use, or the more formal looking Dharmas for work use?" - I opted for the Aquas, in white (other colours are available), and placed my order.

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