By Jenn Fields, fields@coloradodaily.com

Michael Sander, of Boulder, and his fiancee, Jessica Lee, along with their dog, Pumpkin, run around the lake outside of South Boulder Recreation Center in Boulder, Friday, Feb. 19, 2010. (KASIA BROUSSALIAN)

 

Runner Scott McLean has had sore feet lately from doing something unusual — wearing shoes.

“When I’m running barefoot, my feet tend to stay warmer, but walking to class, I wear shoes,” said McLean, a University of Colorado senior.

For some runners who prefer to go barefoot, even snow, ice and cold aren’t enough to make them slip into shoes.

“I love it,” said Michael Sandler. “We went out to Mount Sanitas a day or two ago on snow and ice and mud, and it was a hoot.”

Sandler co-founded Boulder’s 200-plus member Barefoot Running Club with his fiancée, Jessica Lee. The two have written a book, “Barefoot Running,” which will be published this spring.

“You can feel the sensation of cold, but you adapt,” Sandler said. “When you adapt, there’s no pain associated with the cold. Because your body has adapted, 20 or 30 degrees, snow and ice, unless it gets really cold, doesn’t feel any worse than a cold tile floor.”

This is Sandler’s third winter running barefoot, and “three years in, this is still a running experiment,” he said as he warmed up on a treadmill before heading outside, into the snow.

In any season, running barefoot is a very gradual transition, Sandler said: “It’s something you get into 100 or 200 yards at a time.”

Whether going completely barefoot or wearing Vibram FiveFinger shoes (minimalist running shoes with separate toes), Sandler says runners must always consider the terrain, temperature, humidity and other factors to determine whether it’s safe. He said he knows a runner who went too far the first time and got frostbite.

Michael Sander, of Boulder, warms up on a treadmill at the South Boulder Recreation Center before going running barefoot in the snow on Friday, Feb. 19, 2010. ( KASIA BROUSSALIAN)

 

He also advises barefoot runners to carry shoes and follow the two-question rule: “The second time you think, ‘I’m cold, should I head home?,’ throw on the shoes and head home — don’t even think about it.”

McLean said when he first tried running in snow, he cut back to adjust. He’s running through this winter either barefoot or in FiveFingers, depending on conditions.

“My feet get cold, but it’s not uncomfortable,” McLean said. “You still feel the cold, it just stops mattering so much. The rest of the day, your feet feel hot.”

Invisible shoes

Barefoot runners say they warm up inside, on a treadmill or run stairs, then go outside for short periods of time, never going far that they can’t loop back to re-warm. They run on warm, sun-drenched pavement or run wearing FiveFingers, neoprene socks or Steven Sashen’s new Invisible Shoes.

Sashen started running barefoot in September, so it wasn’t long before he had to deal with cold. He thought huaraches — sandals the Tarahumara Indians sometimes run in, made famous recently by “Born to Run,” Christopher McDougall’s book about the Tarahumaras and barefoot running — could be helpful and found some online, but the choices seemed complicated and expensive.

“I thought, there’s got to be a way to do it on your own, hopefully less expensively,” Sashen said. “I found some materials, made some for myself, my wife, a few pals from the running gang.”

Sashen has since sold hundreds of Invisible Shoes — a thin, 4mm Vibram sole with a simple cord to keep it on your foot — to runners around the world. He offers two options: do-it-yourself kits — cut the rubber and tie the knots yourself — for either $19.95 or $24.95; or custom sandals for $49.95.

Be careful

Dr. Tom Shonka, practicing in Boulder for 25 years and the attending podiatrist at the Boulder Center for Sports Medicine, said if you’re going to try running barefoot, go slowly and be very careful with the cold.

“The adaptation is more the foot adapting to the mechanical loads, which are incurred by not having the structured cushioning of the shoe,” he said. “It’s more your musculoskeletal system might adapt to the differing stresses” than your vascular system adapting.

Since the circulation in your feet is significantly altered by cold, he said, it would be risky for people with circulation issues to even try it.

“If there’s any existing compromise of the neurovascular system, it’s not going to adapt,” he said.

But for people who are healthy and fit, and have good mechanics, sensation and circulation in their feet, Shonka said, “Under those circumstances, my attitude would be, I don’t know why you’d want to, but go ahead and try it” in small doses in a controlled way.

Read more: Boldly barefoot: Boulder runners hit the snow sans shoes – Boulder Daily Camera http://www.dailycamera.com/news/ci_14458238#ixzz0gUSF19cR

So, it’s the dead of Winter. The air temperature has finally climbed into the 40’s, but the ground’s still as cold as ice.  Plus, it looks like snow is in the forecast this week. “Wait, I’m not ready for barefoot running in snow!” you exclaim.  The fact of the matter is we can’t always go barefoot when we want to, especially as beginners.  And, that’s when you start eyeing that trusty treadmill.

Can you run barefoot on a treadmill? The answer is, “Yes,” and it’s not a bad idea if it’s the only way you can get barefoot running. But, please, please, please proceed with caution and consider the issues below before you get started.

Issue #1: The Treadmill Belt Comes at You

There are several mechanical challenges going on with a treadmill. Because it’s coming toward you, rather than you toward it, your mechanics often change from propulsion to deceleration. In other words, we find it hard to spring off of our toes, but instead often have force driving through our toes.

Solution:

You can help avoid this by decreasing speed, while increasing incline, naturally putting you up on your forefoot. Over the course of a run, you can gradually begin to decrease the incline and increase the pace. This way, you should still be able to spring off of your toes.

Issue #2: Running on a Treadmill is Running in a Tight Space

Personally, I find it difficult to keep up on my toes properly when it looks like I’ll land on the plastic in front of me.

Solution:

To overcome this, back up a good foot from where you’d normally run on the treadmill, to give your mind the space you need to stride correctly (chances are, it’s one of perception, NOT of reality, but your toes may think you don’t have enough room to come down correctly when you’re so close to the machine.) Trick here, make sure you can reach the control panel or safety rails and more importantly, make sure you’re not so far back you may wind up running off the machine.

Issue #3: Treadmills Lack Relief

There’s no relief on a treadmill. The surface, not the angle, is always perfectly flat. This means your feet don’t have natural relief in the terrain that lets one muscle group work a little more, and another rest a bit. In other words, when you’re on a dirt trail, or even all but the flattest of bike paths, your feet are constantly making small adjustments for the terrain, and these adjustments help prevent overuse fatigue by resting different muscles with each stride.

On a treadmill, there is no relief, so it’s quite common to develop an overuse injury running the SAME distance you were comfortable running outside. Why? Because step after step after step are IDENTICAL. The lack of relief can get you.

Solution:

So if you’re starting out on a treadmill, and since there are no ‘all-terrain’ treadmills in existence (at least not to my knowledge), vary the speed and incline as much as possible. For myself, I like changing the angle a little bit each minute. For instance, warm up for 3-5 minutes with the machine flat, then throw it up to a 7% to 10% grade, then with each minute, decrease the grade by 1% as you increase speed slightly. Another variation would be to have an interval setting where it changes the speed every minute – fast, then slow, then fast again.

Any change is good when you’re on a treadmill. Even if you’re focused on long, steady speed, steady on a treadmill can be dangerous until you’re ready.

Issue #4: Treadmill Belts Get Toasty

Additionally, those belts are coarser than you think. When you’re running on a treadmill and sense something burning, LOOK DOWN. Chances are, it’s your pads (the thickened skin and fat deposits on the bottom of your foot).

Solution:

I’d recommend starting with 3-5 minutes your first day, and then adding a minute or two each day afterwards. If your pads are cooked, it’s likely you cooked everything beneath as well (muscles, tendons, ligaments).

Remember, even on a treadmill, stand tall, land on your forefoot, engage your core and take short natural steps. One of the keys to barefoot running and staying healthy isn’t stride length, but leg speed. Shorter, lighter strides always win when it comes to a lifetime of healthy, injury free running.

For several years now I’ve been running barefoot through the snow, becoming somewhat of a ’snow runner’ when conditions are good. I’ve always wondered when the day would come it’d be captured on film. Two days ago we were working on a barefoot running video with Ray Keller when inclement weather began rolling in. We asked if Ray’d be up for shooting in the snow, and he was.

So yesterday Ray, Jessica, and I headed out in the snow to have some fun. It was a fantastic day, with over 18 inches of snow on the ground and falling! Thank you Ray Keller for filming in such difficult conditions, and Pearl Izumi for the gear. Enjoy this little clip, and enjoy Mother Nature!!!

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.