Matt said:Another factor to consider is your form. The better your form, the less important foot toughness becomes.Doing speed work, especially sprinting is good for foot toughness.
My experience was that my feet were their "toughest" about 3 or 4 months into barefoot running. That was back in 2007.stomper said:I'm not sure your feet really get "tougher," in some ways they get softer. While I haven't done a marathon, here is my experience in getting ready for longer races......
startingupagain said:For those who've run longer distances: How much speed did you give up by going barefoot (as opposed to say, VFF's)?
I suspect it's more about your form changing after 3 days off, rather than the toughness of your feet. There were stretches this Spring where I was running just once a week, and the actual condition of my soles wasn't an issue.jackie hayes said:But today (after 3 non-bf days), I went out expecting to do the same distance, and I could feel the blisters forming after only 1 mile or so. So, I walked the rest, but now I'm wondering how much time I should leave in between runs. Can your feet 'lose' the conditioning if you wait too long between runs? Any advice is appreciated -- my feet felt great to start the day, so it was frustrating to see things fall apart so fast while running.
sloutre said:Megabarefoot,
I used to carry some very thin sandals (just a piece of leather with straps in fact) for the chip seal sections of my runs. It was not worth to pain of running them barefoot. That was about 6 month ago, when I was 6 month into barefoot running.
Now those sections are not a problem at all. I don't carry emergency footwear anymore. I'm not fast but I can run almost anywhere. The advice that helped me a lot was to start lifting the foot before it touches the ground.
It makes me shorten my stride, increase my cadence and raises my heart rate, so I go even slower but it is not painful on my feet at all.
A pair of old sock would work well at taking the edge off for the challenging sections until your form gets where it needs to be to tackle the surface barefoot.