Recently several people have asked me more about the barefoot running and I figured I’d take a few minutes to share more about it in case anyone is thinking about making the switch.

1. Are you really running barefoot? No. We’re running with five finger shoes. These shoes provide enough protection that small rocks, glass, and small tree branches don’t hurt. Yes, having parts of the shoe between your toes is a bit weird. But other than making it a little hard to get the shoes on the first couple of times, they feel just fine.
2. Do your feet hurt? No. Well, not really. You need to build up slowly with running barefoot. Your arches will get tired quickly and the balls of your feet will be sore the first few times because you’re running with little to no padding so the feeling is much like a bruised sensation. For me, this feeling took about a month to go away. It took me a month to go from zero to 3 miles each run. The first couple of weeks I was doing quarter and half mile runs and that’s it. But now I’m up to 5 miles and I could probably go further if I just had the time. (We’ve been busy).
3. What about knees, hips, ankles? I’ve had a history of knee and hip problems. But since switching to barefoot running, I’ve had no problems at all. My calves are tired because the motion of barefoot running, when you’re landing on your mid-foot rather than you heel is a lot harder on your calves. But your calves are designed to take it. So other than taking some time to build up calf strength, I’ve had no problems whatsoever.
4. Do your feet get cold? A little. Particularly when running on wet ground or on wet leaves, some water does seep into the shoes. And when it is cold outside, the first quarter of a mile is kind of cold on the toes. However, once you’re running, you don’t really notice it anymore unless you run through a puddle.
5. So why do you do it? Really, go read the book Born to Run. There’s a lot of technical information about how and why, but basically, when you land on your heel, your leg is extended in front of you and that actually hyperextends your knee (which is bad). When you land on your mid-foot (the fleshy padded part), you actually land with your foot almost directly underneath your body, Your leg is still kind of bent and this is how the knee was designed to work.
6. What about speed? Your stride is very different barefooting than with shoes. You’re basically just lifting your feet and using momentum to propel yourself forward. So stride length doesn’t really factor into the picture. It took me a while to figure out how to go faster. I was stuck about a minute per mile slower than I was with shoes. But I finally figured it out today and I was back to my old speed. Basically, you need to maintain a straight back and sort of angle your body forward to increase momentum.

Some other information.

So I’m a pronator. What that means is that when I land on my foot (my left particularly), the ankle and foot sort of bend inward a bit. This can cause all sort of problems, including knee problems. This is why I’ve had knee issues. So I’ve been investing in expensive shoes that are supposed to try to prevent pronation. Unfortunately, they can’t fix the entire problem no matter how expensive the shoes so you still end up with knee issues. The theory behind barefoot running is that the pronation is actually fixable when your body learns that it has only itself to rely on (and not those expensive shoes). I haven’t had my stride analyzed since I started barefooting, but I do know that I have no idea where my knee brace is and I DON’T CARE. I haven’t needed it since I started this. Not only that, but no more shin splints, no more hip pain, and I can run multiple days in a row. We ran 4 miles this morning and I actually ran partway back from the grocery store this afternoon. I NEVER could have done that in running shoes.

I want to try this. How do I get started?

If you’re seriously interested in barefooting, there are a couple of things I suggest. First, get the book Born to Run. Read it. Then if you’re in Seattle, do a lesson with Barefoot Ted. He’s local to Seattle and you can do an intro lesson with him and bring up to 4 friends. He’ll give you exercises to get started and help you figure out your stride. We did this and it was very helpful. We’ll go back in a month or two for a refresher lesson to make sure we’re still doing everything correctly.