- Michael Sandler running barefoot in Boulder, Colorado at the start of an April 2009 snowstorm.
When you run barefoot in the cold, your muscles are forced to do the work to support your feet that shoes or over-supportive boots used to do. Before, when you ran in the cold, your body shunted blood AWAY from your feet and to warmer parts of the body because the feet didn’t need the bloodflow. But when you’re barefoot, your feet NEED the bloodflow to stay warm…so, instead of shunting blood AWAY from your feet, the body pumps more of the hot stuff TO your feet.
AKA, your feet stay warm in the cold. Yes, warm enough to run in the snow. And while I love running in the snow in my shorts (my legs get beat red and my feet sweat for hours, keeping a good layer or two on the legs helps the feet stay even warmer. Just watch your stride, it can be thrown way off by the clothes.
I was recently asked a question by Todd Strakaso on our Facebook fanpage about warming up and running in the cold: does warming up on the treadmill just get your muscles warmed up for the snow run? how would this affect your stride/ run otherwise?
They’re great questions, and below’s my response:
Running on the snow/cold has two inherent risks the treadmill mitigates. First, warming up on the treadmill warms up the muscles and losens up the feel to help you maintain a proper stride in the cold. Without this, you could easily tweak something by putting your full weight, or using your full stride onto a cold, inflexible foot. Without warmth, the feet aren’t pliable, and whether it’s ligament, muscle, tendon, or even bone (the attachment) SOMETHING is gonna give.
Second, the warm-up helps bring greater blood-flow to your muscles, warming them up (to protect against the cold) but more importantly, getting the blood pumping to keep them warm once you go outside.
Even without snow, I’d recommend warming up slowly in the cold (at a walk) or a few minutes indoors in advance. Better yet, if it’s try, head up a steep hill…and even consider doing this shod for a few minutes before peeling the things off.
It’s all about warming up the feet.
Hope this helps. Have fun in the cold!!!
I’ve always had trouble with cold feet, and was deeply skeptical of anyone’s ability to run in such cold circumstances. This winter I am looking forward to finding out what I’m capable of running while barefoot.
Thanks for the advice! Giving my feet a warm-up session before cold runs sounds like it may be exactly the advice I have been hunting for.
Good article . Will definitely copy it to my blog.Thanks.