Tuesday, July 31, 2007

Running Barefoot

This summer I've started going barefoot as much as I can. I'm required to wear shoes at work, but once I get home, off they come. There are several blogs I read about the topic of walking and running barefoot that inspired me starting with Torjus's. Next I read "Learning to Walk" at The Anthropik Network. Finally my brother pointed me to http://www.runningbarefoot.org/ which finally gave me the urge to give barefoot running a try.

Yesterday I ran barefoot. I ran my usual course through the park. It was a hot day so I took of my shirt as well. It felt very natural until I got cat-calls from a couple girls. "Hey sexy!" "I love a man who runs barefoot!". I asked them to join me but they didn't. Anyway, the run was more exciting since the course I ran was suddenly brand new. Instead of thinking this is the part by the playground, it was this is the part over rocks and sticks. As usual when I got to the forested part, I concentrated on running without making a sound. It was way easier when I was barefoot. As I left the forest the path was covered with broken glass so I had to watch my footwork.

I felt light weight and more agile. I felt like my legs weren't as tired as usual. I was still out of breath but my legs weren't as tired. The only negative was the blood blister on my second toe. It took up pretty much the whole bottom of the toe. I guess I still have some work to do on my technique.