After much reading, I started my barefoot running journey today. I have done a few walks barefoot and ran about 100 yards or so a few weeks ago barefoot, with no ill effects.
Barefoot running appealed to me for a few reasons, partly because I am cheap and hated the thought of spending so much money on shoes. The main reason I even considered barefoot running was because my wife convinced me to read Christopher McDougall's Born To Run. I was hooked on the book quickly. I prefer to be barefoot whenever I can anyways, so running barefoot didn't seem out of the question for me if others were doing it.
I read a few other books since then as well.
Barefoot Running by Michael Sandler & Jessica Lee
Barefoot Running Step By Step by Barefoot Ken Bob Saxton & Roy M. Wallack
Ok enough about the books, maybe someday i will scratch out my opinions on them.
I started out with my Invisible Shoes in hand. Walking barefoot on the sidewalk is no big deal, I do it often. I tried a few of the things I read about, concentrating on not heal striking. I ran in place for a bit, since it is pretty much impossible to land on your heels and helps to lift your feet rather than pushing off. The feet felt fine, didn't hurt like you would expect. I then leaned forward a bit and started my forward momentum. I tried keeping my feet under my hips, but I don't think I succeeded, need to work on that. I only ran for about 50 yards, then walked a bit to see how my feet felt. No pain or discomfort, so I started off again. I read a 180+ step per minute cadence and tried to see what that felt like. The best I could count was about 140 steps per minute and that seemed way fast for me. I tried leaning forward from the waist up but I need to work on that still some too. Your supposed to lift your feet rather than pushing off so as not to scrape your toes, I tried this and it felt better but a little awkward. With the high cadence steps I found I was gassed pretty quick, so I slowed down. I walked a bit more to catch my breath, then started off again. I just ran and observed this time and found that I need to get my feet under me more and figure out how to lift my feet and continue my forward motion and not bounce so damn much.
I made it to my destination, gravel. I stepped gingerly onto the gravel and didn't have any trouble so I walked around on it a bit, still not too uncomfortable. I even ran in place with minimal discomfort, so I started moving and was doing good, watching in front of me so as to avoid any hazards until I looked down at my feet to and didn't see the rock. My right leg quickly protected my foot by bending at the knee so I figured that was enough gravel and headed to the asphalt. The asphalt was a little rougher than the sidewalk but in no way uncomfortable. I then walked for a bit heading back home to again see how the feet felt, still good. I kicked up my heels and ran again after a couple minutes I started feeling the rock mark in my right foot, so I stopped and slipped on my Invisible Shoes. I walked a few steps then started running, there is a huge difference in barefoot versus minimalist shoes. I didn't feel the rock mark and noticed that I was landing further back on my foot and it sounded like I was slapping the ground. I completely understand now why BKB says to learn to run barefoot before using minimalist shoes, if I had only used the shoes I would have missed a few of the signs that told me I need to improve on things. I am glad I had the shoes with me, and will likely not go running without them in my hand just in case.
Now I will take a couple days off to see how the feet and calves feel.
Day one was a success and I am looking forward to my next barefoot outing. My feet gave me lots of feedback, now I just have to figure out how to fix the few issues I noticed.
