Friday, July 23, 2010

Barefoot Running

So, in an effort to work out some on my day off, I decided to take a little jog around the apartment complex. I also decided that I would do it barefoot, for the sake of experimentation after reading quite a few articles about the benefits of it.

Skip ahead twenty minutes.

I am now back on my couch with my feet on wet washcloths remembering the summers of skipping across the parking lot to the pool because pavement reaches a sultry 125 degrees when left out in the Florida sun. This experience once again revived my desire to get a pair of the Vibram's Five Finger shoes. Call me a wimp, sure, but unfortunately my school required us to wear shoes so we were unable to develop our own leather soles on our feet.

I guess for now I'll just stick with the shoes, or maybe find a nice patch of grass to go barefoot on for a while. I can probably deal with the allergies better than the blistering heat.

1 comment:

Roger Z said...

Hey Zach keep up the good work! I have only barefooted a few times but encourage everyone to do so. Maybe I should try it again this weekend. What I do to simulate barefoot running is I've stripped the support out of some sneakers and run around that way. It provides the protection from the city streets and takes away most of the bias in sneakers to push you toward a heal strike when running.

My neighbor has been barefoot running a lot and says he has noticed how his stance has changed. And even though I still use shoes, I almost never strike below midfoot anymore (and only strike there when I'm tired). Be prepared for sore calves though!