Most of you probably already have seen this, but just in case: the April '13 issue of Outside Magazine has an article by Andrew Tilin entitled "You Don't Know How To Run." The article isn't available online yet, so you'll have to either wait a month, go to the library, or fork over a few shekels.
One guess what this article on barefoot running is almost entirely about? Shoes.
I don't want to start a battle (because, as the article points out, as a barefoot runner, I'm already engaged in a "war" with the shod universe, unbeknownst to me), but I'm going to lay down a marker here. It's been six months or so for me since I started running barefoot, and in that time, I've run with several types of minimalist shoes, as well as completely barefoot. And so, I think I possess the minimum required qualifications to make the following assertion: minimalist-shoe running is NOT barefoot running, and vice versa. Note that I am not claiming that one is necessarily superior to the other, but that they are different things by definition. I definitely have my preference between the two, but that is a preference, not a edict.
People can run however the hell they want to run, as far as I'm concerned. But I'd really like to be clear on the words people use to describe what they do. If you're wearing anything on your feet besides nail polish, you're running in shoes. Yes, they may be zero-drop, or minimalist, or sandals, or whatever else you want to call them. But you still aren't barefoot until the skin of your sole is meeting the surface of the street or trail.
Man, I'm prepared to take some sh!t for this post, so bring it on. I've just really had it up to my eyeballs with industries or individuals who seems to want to co-opt a very simple word that in any other context except running has an utterly clear meaning, I think just to keep the cash spigot wide open.
One guess what this article on barefoot running is almost entirely about? Shoes.
I don't want to start a battle (because, as the article points out, as a barefoot runner, I'm already engaged in a "war" with the shod universe, unbeknownst to me), but I'm going to lay down a marker here. It's been six months or so for me since I started running barefoot, and in that time, I've run with several types of minimalist shoes, as well as completely barefoot. And so, I think I possess the minimum required qualifications to make the following assertion: minimalist-shoe running is NOT barefoot running, and vice versa. Note that I am not claiming that one is necessarily superior to the other, but that they are different things by definition. I definitely have my preference between the two, but that is a preference, not a edict.
People can run however the hell they want to run, as far as I'm concerned. But I'd really like to be clear on the words people use to describe what they do. If you're wearing anything on your feet besides nail polish, you're running in shoes. Yes, they may be zero-drop, or minimalist, or sandals, or whatever else you want to call them. But you still aren't barefoot until the skin of your sole is meeting the surface of the street or trail.
Man, I'm prepared to take some sh!t for this post, so bring it on. I've just really had it up to my eyeballs with industries or individuals who seems to want to co-opt a very simple word that in any other context except running has an utterly clear meaning, I think just to keep the cash spigot wide open.