Helloooooooooo

Hello everyone, glad I found this sight!

Here's my barefoot story ;-)

I live in Irvine Ca but grew up in Ohio.

6'2" 261 lbs (now 250) and 43 years aged.

I was a good ole country boy growing up, lots of time in the woods skipping school, barefoot a lot.

Was a fairly competitive high school runner, went to the TAC Junior Olympics National Championships etc...was a middle distance runner.

Looking back I had REALLY bad running form though, hard heel striking, and big time over striding, was taught by rural coach to increase stride length back then....I ran sub two minute 800's and 16 minute 5 K's, best mile time was a 4:19 a year after high school...(my body matured late).

20+ years and some rough knee injuries and a heel that was surgically re-attached after a car accident, plus 80 lbs over weight, and I could not run a half mile without excruciating pain in the knees. If I pushed through the pain, could hardly walk for a week.

But I wanted that freedom of running again from my youth...

So I started studying how to run without knee pain, and both pose running and barefoot running made a light go off.

I did a few drills to practice pose running and 'falling', took off my shoes, and ran a mile with no significant pain...great day!

Now hooked, and able to run, guess what, I over did it, ran on hot pavement for two miles, and got blister so big and bad that my feet bleed for days and was hobbled for a week.

Best thing that coulda happened though, cause I learned I was still over striding.

I bought a pair of minimalist shoes to protect against blisters, and started adding miles, seeing what I could do.

My second week back from the blister fiasco, (third week of running after 15 years of being a couch potatoe) I ran a half marathon 13.1 mile run without stopping or walking, was rough, and slow 2 hours 40 minutes, but I Did It....was mind over matter.

8 days later I did it again...mind over matter for those last two miles :)

Some foot pain started to develop, so I took off the vivobarefoot for a truly barefoot run, and sure enough, I was running differently from even the minimalist sandals.

So I started transitioning to completely barefoot, but more sensibly.

I also found the wonder of trail running at the same time.

Basically there is a five mile out and back trail run with a small 1500 foot mountain climb at the outbound end...so I'd run the trail minimalist to the mountain, and go up and then back down minimalist...then run the remaining two miles of trail back barefoot.

After a few runs, I would go to and from the mountain barefoot, but go up and down the mountain minimalist...the little mountain has some very steep grades on the trail, so is a bit rougher on the skin.

Yesterday I did the whole run, up and down the mountain too, completely barefoot.

I'm about a month into this experience, so am still a newb, but I have to say, running minimalist for me is not the same as barefoot running...even with the minimalist sandals I run differently than I do completely barefoot.

And heck, If I can make it up and down the steep grades of that mountain, with its gravel and sharp rock sections, what do I really need shoes for at all, cept maybe on long runs on very hot asphalt.



This whole experience has been wonderful...like my life is waking up again lol



I'm slow old and fat (for now) but almost everyday I am surprising myself with an "I Did It!"...And thats a great ride.
 
And heck, If I can make it up and down the steep grades of that mountain, with its gravel and sharp rock sections, what do I really need shoes for at all, cept maybe on long runs on very hot asphalt..

Welcome and congrats !
Bare feet can be strengthened to handle pretty much any kind of technical terrain so as you are concluding you don't need shoes at all.
All it takes is time and perseverance.
You are doing great, keep it up ! :happy:
 
Welcome, Steve!
 
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Thanks for the kind words and welcome!

Its been a lot of fun so far...I'm having to force myself to take a rest day today, its funny, 3 months ago I had to talk myself into getting some excersize, now I have to talk myself out of it lol



Hmmm....If I do some jump roping to strengthen the feet and calves is that still a 'day off'?
 
Welcome, Steve! You have a very similar story to lots of us, though I wish we could have caught you before the two big "seemed like a good idea at the time" stories. Take your time, continue to exercise wisdom as well as your legs and heart, and you'll be running more distance at a faster pace before you know it. Glad to have you with us!
 
The blisters sound terrible :eek: beware of hot asphalt!
I agree with Phil, very similar story in that I used to run back in high school then took a good decade+ off from most all things exercise related and became a couch potato. You got me beat on each end though, way faster in high school (I never did track but my fastest 5k was in the upper 17's, and never officially broke a 5 min mile), and also you took a lot more time off (I got back into it in my early 30's after about a 50# weight gain).
Glad to have you onboard... and please take it a bit easier, the feet definitely need some time to strengthen. Took me probably half a year to work up to 5k, little under a year to do my first half, and even then I pushed my limits a bit too hard from time to time. But we each progress at different rates so take that with a grain of salt. If your doing 5 mile mountain trail after only a month that's great progress! Just be careful not to overdo it again. ;)
 
The blisters sound terrible :eek: beware of hot asphalt!
I agree with Phil, very similar story in that I used to run back in high school then took a good decade+ off from most all things exercise related and became a couch potato. You got me beat on each end though, way faster in high school (I never did track but my fastest 5k was in the upper 17's, and never officially broke a 5 min mile), and also you took a lot more time off (I got back into it in my early 30's after about a 50# weight gain).
Glad to have you onboard... and please take it a bit easier, the feet definitely need some time to strengthen. Took me probably half a year to work up to 5k, little under a year to do my first half, and even then I pushed my limits a bit too hard from time to time. But we each progress at different rates so take that with a grain of salt. If your doing 5 mile mountain trail after only a month that's great progress! Just be careful not to overdo it again. ;)


Yeah, its a work in progress, I ran a couple miles on concrete yesterday, after no doing so for around ten days, and noticed some form errors that I did not notice on the trail.

Namely the left foot ball area was rubbing in a weird and uncomfortable way, took a a good hour to figure out what I was doing wrong. I have been landing too far up on my toes, meaning that I land on the front of the ball and the big toe at the same instant, and then as the weight really transfers onto the foot the big toe was doing most of the loading, and creating a pivot point causing the ball area to slip backward on the ground a tiny bit, which was rubbing the skin off a bit at a time and creating discomfort.

I adjusted by lifting the toe and landing further back on the ball and it fixed it, but I never woulda noticed it unless I had gone back to concrete. The trail I run is actually pretty barefoot friendly cepts a few technical sections, and some rough gravelly area on the steep part of the mountain. For the most part its running on hard pack with a very fine sand that in places almost feels like running on talcum powder lol

There is the occasional rock that gets ya, but the foot seem to 'roll' around those when landed on to the point where it only causes mild discomfort, that actually feels good in a weird sorta way.

Overall, I think running on the trails versus the road has helped my feet to develop faster, because the uneven surface strengthens with more variety, and the lack of monotonous repetition seems less injury prone.

I can run further barefoot on the trail than I can on the flat concrete by far, the repetition of the exact same movement on flat concrete seems harder on my feet than the uneven trail even with the trail's rocks and stuff.

Seems like the limiting factor of run length on the hilly trails is my overall strength and conditioning, not the feet, the feet feel great after a 5.1 mile run on the trail...I'll probably try to do a 10.2 mile run their tomorrow.

But on the road, I can only manage about 3 miles so far, before I have to put the sandals back on.

The bare foot on concrete helps me identify problems with my form though...cause it hurts lol

Best thing I've learned so far, is that pain is good, cause its telling me something I need to know about HOW I'm running.

And bare feet on concrete, while less enjoyable for me than the trail, is a big truth teller lol
 
Hot asphalt sucks. I burned my feet twice in the GA summer while transitioning, each time thinking I was going early enough in the day to avoid the sun heating the asphalt too hot for soles. If it's that hot now, I wear VFFs if I can't run early in the AM BF (which I'd certainly prefer).


Yeah, I triple wammied myself...I ran too far too early, was pushing off the whole way creating friction, and the cement was hot...it was really bad, like walking with a red hot coal attached to my feet for a week afterward, and the first few days I could hardly sleep cause they hurt at rest. Then, after they sorta heals enough to not hurt at rest, the skin got too dry amd brittle and cracked, so they started bleeding...and the cracks didn't want to heal.

I finally made a study and learned that the latest wound care research say to keep the wound moist, and anti-septic without using chemical anti-septics that can inhibit healing function.

So I got some really big rubber blister protection patches that stick to the feet really well, and covered the area with organic honey (to keep it moist and honey is anti-septic) and covered the whole thing with the rubber blister protection patches.... Two days later and I was all fixed up and ready to go again.
 
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Getting back into the running as well.. gotta admit newbie here as well. Been bare foot for a while but they have gone soft.. went running last night and blistered my feet on the hot asphalt. Feels better today though! Don't feel bad, you aren't the only one!

Don't peel the skin off after the blister pops and the skin gets dry, I made that mistake :)

Might seem counter intuitive, but moisture is your friend with blisters.


Best wishes on your return to running, I wish Ida found barefoot running years ago!
 
Overall, I think running on the trails versus the road has helped my feet to develop faster, because the uneven surface strengthens with more variety, and the lack of monotonous repetition seems less injury prone.
So true. +1

I can run further barefoot on the trail than I can on the flat concrete by far, the repetition of the exact same movement on flat concrete seems harder on my feet than the uneven trail even with the trail's rocks and stuff.
Seems like the limiting factor of run length on the hilly trails is my overall strength and conditioning, not the feet, the feet feel great after a 5.1 mile run on the trail.
Exactly the same here!

I have done a couple of half marathons barefoot both on trail and pavement and my feet always felt more beaten up after the pavement ones.
Trail, gravel and rocks are just more natural to run barefoot on than a flat hard pavement.
 
Feet were made for trails. I too love barefoot running on trails. I hate running on streets, even in shoes
 
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Ug the Caveman had much less broken Tarmac to deal with Sid :)
 
Ug the Caveman had much less broken Tarmac to deal with Sid :)
Have you seen Human Planet? Man had much more to deal with than rough terrain, and dealt with it admirably.

There are several members here who deal with those surfaces regularly.

(Not me, though. It took me four years to be able to run on concrete comfortably. My whole neighborhood is paved with them! I got tired of driving 20min to the local trail for every run! :D )
 
I can say that with proper form and conditioning, concrete actually feels like velvet to my feet!
(It is, however, a very technically demanding and unforgiving surface to run barefoot.)

I think the body can adapt to just about anything that the mind can adapt to....but trails are more fun ;-)