My feet suck... WOOHOO!!!

[Scherzo]

I'd never even heard of "barefoot running" until a few weeks ago, when it appeared in my bathroom reading subscription. When I saw that article, with all its helpful tips about how to stretch your feet and how to work up to harder surfaces, I laughed and showed all my friends the pictures of the crazy barefoot people. I said things like "crazy hipsters" and "nonsense."

And then, like a totally sensible and not-crazy-at-all person, I decided to learn parkour. Thus began my first six week challenge. But when I asked how to start training, I got a pretty good surprise when my fellow assassins all said, "barefoot, of course."

Things came to a head when I was shopping and was suddenly confronted with a sale on Vibrams. It was the only time I'd ever considered splurging on shoes in my whole entire life. I realized that probably meant something, and I bought those suckers.

I've been adapting to them for the past couple days. I've learned two things:

1, my feet suck. I have ridiculously weak ankles. I sprained my left foot last year and I thought it had healed, but actually, it's nearly useless. I've walked for hours every day of my life, and never gotten tired before-- and suddenly, I can't go an hour without noticing every muscle in my legs.

2, I love barefooting. It doesn't matter if I'm walking, jogging, running, flat out sprinting, or just standing there. I'm just in love with it. All my old haunts are suddenly new experiences.

I tried lots of other 'mobility' sports in the past. Biking was never for me. Neither was skating, rollerblading, kick scootering, or running. Before I met Vibrams, I resigned myself to walking every day for hours, just to get some exercise. I finally have something new! It's set back my parkour training a bit because I want to work on safe barefoot running before I learn about safe barefoot jumping, but it's completely worth it. Just being barefoot is a sport I can get into.

My Vibrams have already become my only shoe-- no more sneakers or sandals. All I need now is a small bag for carrying my water, my minimalist shoes, my little bodyweight workout gloves and maybe a pair of Injinji socks for cold Canadian days.

In the meantime, I'm going to go soak my feet. Eeek!

[silverpeacock]

I'm barefoot a lot of the time, but I'm with you, for a long time I giggled about barefoot running. Then I did some reading (both here and in other places) and decided that I had to try it myself.

I started yesterday, and it isn't my feet or ankles, but my calfs that kill.

Barefoot is really awesome (or it will be when it stops hurting). I had to run in my normal running shoes today, but still worth every painful step.

In the summer I wear flip flops, and at home/in my studio (don't tell my instructors) I am barefoot, though the studio part will change soon... too much metal and saw blades on the floor to risk it.