Beginner bare feet learning how to strike the ground lightly.
1. Raw Food = Great! Raw Feet = Not so Great!
Don’t run until your feet are raw. Bring your shoes (I call them hand weights) and put them on, or return home once your feet get sensitive.
2. Never go until you blister.
3. Resting. It’s not being lazy. It’s being smart.
Between workouts, give a day of rest for your pads to develop. If they feel a little hot and sensitive after a workout that’s a GOOD thing, you did well!
4. Just Say “No” to Pencil Erasers.
Stay off of the wet-stuff when building pads…it’s too easy to turn them into pencil erasers when you hit coarse terrain. Then you rub off all of your hard work.
5. Hot, Cold & Everything in Between.
A little heat is good for pad development, as is a little cold. It means coarse surfaces can be good over time, as well as truly rocky ones. Just start slow. If you’re wearing off your pads, you’ll never build them back stronger. Pad growth should be slow and incremental, building layer on top of layer.
I’ll Catch YOU Barefoot!
~Coach Michael Sandler
What exactly is meant by “Stay off of the wet-stuff”?
Do I understand correctly that you shoudn’t run on wet surface?
I’ve been running bare for about 1 month now, and I’m progresssing, but the last 2 times didn’t go well. I think I wasn’t relaxed enough, but also had some strain from landing that I hadn’t had for a while. Those last 2 times were on a wet road.
I live and run in the Pacific Northwest, near Portland, Oregon. I occasionally run in rainy, wet weather!
I don’t understand the cautions about running in the wet I read about. Rain washes sidewalks and streets, clearing them of sand, glass and rock bits, making them easier to run. The same wet that might make things stick to your feet also washes those things off. I get a big kick out of aiming for those deeper water puddles that other runners swerve to avoid, and slapping my feet in them to create the biggest splashes I can! Puddles are fun again!!
For beginner barefoot runners, I agree with the advice to not run yourself to blisters or damage. Not only the surface skin needs to get stronger (but not thicker) to be able to run barefoot, but the deeper skin layers as well as the tendons and other inner structures all need to adjust. It takes 6 to 8 weeks for a broken bone to heal, and it takes longer than that for braces to move teeth. Don’t assume that your feet will adjust much more quickly — repetitive persistence and gradual increasing distances is the key.
I suggest for newbys that they just jumprope barefoot on cement and asphalt for starters.
Good website!
Ryan
Vancouver, Washington
(the OTHER Vancouver!, the OTHER Washington!)
Hi Vincent and Ryan,
Thanks for your comments and questions. I too, LOVE puddle jumping, AND snow-jumping for that matter. A little bit of water isn’t a bad thing, and even a run in the rain might not be so bad. But what you want to avoid is soaking your pads and THEN running on abrasive dry surfaces…
For instance, when I was up to 10 miles a day my pads felt invulnerable. But then I went swimming one day, and soaked in the hot-tub for an hour afterwards…then I rode my bike hope, THOUGHT my feet were dry, and went out for a run. OUCH!!! Within 1/2 a mile my feet were RAW and BLEEDING.
The same thing’s happened running on snow-melt…particularly with sand…the snow melt, and likely the rock-salt, soaked my feet, made the skin soft, and then allowed my feet to be rubbed raw (not to mention susceptible to sharp objects at these points).
Unless you have incredibly strong pads, I’d recommend a short dance in the rain, or puddle jumping, but no extended periods of soaking the feet (inside, outside, or wherever) and then running on abrasive surfaces, at LEAST until your feet are dry.
This is also something to watch out for if you head out in shoes, or even Vibrams, and the strip off your shoes. If your feet have gotten sweaty, your pads may be soft and susceptible to sharp objects or wearing down exceptionally quickly.
Thanks for the responses, and enjoy those puddles…I agree, they’re fun!!!
Vincent, a last thought…if you’re changing your stride on the wet surface, then watch out…wet, dry, or otherwise, we adapt to specificity…meaning, whatever specific movement or stride we become used to is what we’re strong at, and what we’re not used to can be a challenge. This is a great reason to run on all different kinds of surfaces (remembering the above response though) and at a variety of speeds…this helps your feet strengthen and adapt to many different circumstances…if not, when you go out and your stride changes, you could get an acute overuse injury (or at the very least mild-soreness) quite quickly.
Hope this helps…and you’ve rested and are feeling great again.
Ok, thanks for the answers. It’s completely clear to me now
My longest run so far has been about 3 miles, on a dry road. On wet, it’s about 1.5 miles. Today, I did 1.5 miles on snow! And that felt great. I could have ran longer, but I wanted to run all the way back without having to walk in the snow, because of the cold.
By the way, I never did any running at all before I started barefoot running. I did go barefoot in and round the house for 1.5 year, summer and winter.
Vincent