I think I can see your point. You need to get a sensory experience to enjoy running. I couldn't agree more with that. I wouldn't limit this to the feedback you get from the ground. I try always to run in circuits I can enjoy, I wouldn'trunning regularly on a treadmill, a stadium track, a urban park, I quickly get bored of them, or even on a street circuit (I can't see why urban marathons are so popular, I guess to have something to do with many different people doing the same thing together).
I'm not a barefoot runner at all. I transitioned to minimalist shoes a year ago (VFFs) and just tried running barefoot on a hard surface once, a short run, about a mile. It went fast from feeling nothing wrong while my skin of my soles could cope with it, some hardly noticeable nuisance, to go on up to the point I felt pain by just standing on my feet to walk. Obviously my skin wasn't yet strengthened to cope with the friction of the ground (and I didn't push off). Should I have chosen a more forgivable surface to begin with (at first sight it seemed to me to be concrete but turned to be some sort of grayish agglomerate, asphalt for the layman), I wouldn't suffer such damage. THat surface obviously was too abrasive for my feet. I can see myself getting progressively used to running barefoot on such surfaces. I have a skin that is thinner than normal in other parts of the body, so I'll probably require longer than other people, but I guess I can eventually get used to it.
The question is, is it worthy the "price"? My running gait was very similar to the regular barefoot runner even before I transitioned to minimalist shoes. During the last 10 years I've "irrationally" choosing lighter and lighter running shoes that were advertised as only "suitable" for short distance training and races to run in them 2 hours a session. When I 1st started to run "regularly" 20 years ago my almost absent allowance and thoughtlessness made me ran in rather "inadequate" fitness and tennis shoes that had been worn up by their previous owners, these shoes often featured flat soles (gym shoes, I've never been an expert in such kind of sports) and no absorption whatsoever at that point of usage, they often even wouldn't be my size, I had t put several air of socks to make them fit. I ended up running longer and longer distances around the exurb and nearby hills (4 to 6 hours a day). That can explain why my transition to minimalist shoes wasn't that hard compared to others. I can't even remember heel striking even though I acknowledge that the shoe drop of my more recent shoes complicated a good fore foot strike. The only serious hazard I had during my transition was a tendinitis of my Achilles tendons as a result of overstitching them one day of foolishness trying to find my 5K PM after less than 2 months of transition. It seems my tendons were shorter as a result of always wearing shoes with heel drop.
The point is that I could find some little improvement running barefoot Vs. minimalist shoes. The reaction time after every strike was shorter with sharper rebounds of my feet. Actually that feeling is not so different from running fast on the shore of a beach. Now the drawbacks: I wouldn't mind to invest some extra time and dedication to get used to barefoot running. I would have to find less abrasive surfaces to progressively strength my skin. I wouldn't leap on a bucket full of rocks for the same reason I would't run on a treadmill, it's just too boring. My concern comes once I've got adapted. To maintain a thick skin in my soles I will need to run regularly on hard surfaces. Well, this is a major problem because the circuits I run have some inevitable sectors inappropriate for barefoot running. I also often run at night, when it would be more difficult to prevent the dangers and nuisances in my way (pointy rocks, thorns on the sides of earth tracks, small pieces of glass, little bits of the circuitry from electric appliances, the remaining of dog feces and urine on the pavement, rubbish leaks, and so on). I live in a careless, dirty country and all my local circuits have such kind of delicaciesin some extent. Even the scarce leisure eat tracks are left in a semi-abandoned state and the soft earth becomes accompanied by many loose pointy stones often even larger than a walnut (you can imagine the feel you get after a bad step on a rock like that). Additionally, I usually like to run fast, as fast as I can keep running, including downhill descends. Based on your personal experience on many surfaces you have to slow down while running barefoot to keep the pain at a tolerable level. I fully respect your personal choice of running style but it wouldn't work for me. I can cope with a transient painful feeling, but I'm not willing to run with the brakes on half the distance as it seems I wouldbeinevitablyforced running barefoot.
A possible alternative maintenance activity to keep your skin strong would be walking barefoot everyday, but at this point walking barefoot on the streets to actually go to some place is socially unacceptable. For sure you are going to need to wash your feet after every single walk in any case. In most collective places (office buildings, schools, malls, hospitals, factories, stores, etc.) the sanitary facilities are quite inadequate for that purpose (based on my personal experience the same can be said in relation to sweat washing issues). In our current inactive, unsanitary society loos are exclusively designed to poo, pee and wash your hands, not even to brush your teeth, forget anything else unless you are trying to be scolded.
Well, if the main benefit of running (really) barefoot is to find a neat feedback from the ground, I have to say that running minimalist can also give you such feeling as long as the skin of your soles hasn't been hardened by running barefoot. I can understand why at this point you need to run completely barefoot to get some feedback. I don't actually need to go that "naked" to get a similar feeling. I can feel the softness of the earth under my feet or pain after stepping on some pointy rock even with minimalist thin soles. I can't see the point to be exposed to evenstronger pains. On the other hand, if such painful feeling becomes too repetitive (if I step on a pointy rock every hundred meters), that feeling starts to be incompatible with a joyful running.
I'm not a barefoot runner at all. I transitioned to minimalist shoes a year ago (VFFs) and just tried running barefoot on a hard surface once, a short run, about a mile. It went fast from feeling nothing wrong while my skin of my soles could cope with it, some hardly noticeable nuisance, to go on up to the point I felt pain by just standing on my feet to walk. Obviously my skin wasn't yet strengthened to cope with the friction of the ground (and I didn't push off). Should I have chosen a more forgivable surface to begin with (at first sight it seemed to me to be concrete but turned to be some sort of grayish agglomerate, asphalt for the layman), I wouldn't suffer such damage. THat surface obviously was too abrasive for my feet. I can see myself getting progressively used to running barefoot on such surfaces. I have a skin that is thinner than normal in other parts of the body, so I'll probably require longer than other people, but I guess I can eventually get used to it.
The question is, is it worthy the "price"? My running gait was very similar to the regular barefoot runner even before I transitioned to minimalist shoes. During the last 10 years I've "irrationally" choosing lighter and lighter running shoes that were advertised as only "suitable" for short distance training and races to run in them 2 hours a session. When I 1st started to run "regularly" 20 years ago my almost absent allowance and thoughtlessness made me ran in rather "inadequate" fitness and tennis shoes that had been worn up by their previous owners, these shoes often featured flat soles (gym shoes, I've never been an expert in such kind of sports) and no absorption whatsoever at that point of usage, they often even wouldn't be my size, I had t put several air of socks to make them fit. I ended up running longer and longer distances around the exurb and nearby hills (4 to 6 hours a day). That can explain why my transition to minimalist shoes wasn't that hard compared to others. I can't even remember heel striking even though I acknowledge that the shoe drop of my more recent shoes complicated a good fore foot strike. The only serious hazard I had during my transition was a tendinitis of my Achilles tendons as a result of overstitching them one day of foolishness trying to find my 5K PM after less than 2 months of transition. It seems my tendons were shorter as a result of always wearing shoes with heel drop.
The point is that I could find some little improvement running barefoot Vs. minimalist shoes. The reaction time after every strike was shorter with sharper rebounds of my feet. Actually that feeling is not so different from running fast on the shore of a beach. Now the drawbacks: I wouldn't mind to invest some extra time and dedication to get used to barefoot running. I would have to find less abrasive surfaces to progressively strength my skin. I wouldn't leap on a bucket full of rocks for the same reason I would't run on a treadmill, it's just too boring. My concern comes once I've got adapted. To maintain a thick skin in my soles I will need to run regularly on hard surfaces. Well, this is a major problem because the circuits I run have some inevitable sectors inappropriate for barefoot running. I also often run at night, when it would be more difficult to prevent the dangers and nuisances in my way (pointy rocks, thorns on the sides of earth tracks, small pieces of glass, little bits of the circuitry from electric appliances, the remaining of dog feces and urine on the pavement, rubbish leaks, and so on). I live in a careless, dirty country and all my local circuits have such kind of delicaciesin some extent. Even the scarce leisure eat tracks are left in a semi-abandoned state and the soft earth becomes accompanied by many loose pointy stones often even larger than a walnut (you can imagine the feel you get after a bad step on a rock like that). Additionally, I usually like to run fast, as fast as I can keep running, including downhill descends. Based on your personal experience on many surfaces you have to slow down while running barefoot to keep the pain at a tolerable level. I fully respect your personal choice of running style but it wouldn't work for me. I can cope with a transient painful feeling, but I'm not willing to run with the brakes on half the distance as it seems I wouldbeinevitablyforced running barefoot.
A possible alternative maintenance activity to keep your skin strong would be walking barefoot everyday, but at this point walking barefoot on the streets to actually go to some place is socially unacceptable. For sure you are going to need to wash your feet after every single walk in any case. In most collective places (office buildings, schools, malls, hospitals, factories, stores, etc.) the sanitary facilities are quite inadequate for that purpose (based on my personal experience the same can be said in relation to sweat washing issues). In our current inactive, unsanitary society loos are exclusively designed to poo, pee and wash your hands, not even to brush your teeth, forget anything else unless you are trying to be scolded.
Well, if the main benefit of running (really) barefoot is to find a neat feedback from the ground, I have to say that running minimalist can also give you such feeling as long as the skin of your soles hasn't been hardened by running barefoot. I can understand why at this point you need to run completely barefoot to get some feedback. I don't actually need to go that "naked" to get a similar feeling. I can feel the softness of the earth under my feet or pain after stepping on some pointy rock even with minimalist thin soles. I can't see the point to be exposed to evenstronger pains. On the other hand, if such painful feeling becomes too repetitive (if I step on a pointy rock every hundred meters), that feeling starts to be incompatible with a joyful running.
