Done a couple so far - the ground's warming up nicely so I don't finish with numb feet
Done a couple so far - the ground's warming up nicely so I don't finish with numb feet
Hi
I have done about 3 miles too, feet are a bit soft after a winter in shoes!
Iandarkpeak, just do it!
James
I've been doing bits of barefoot right through the winter (except when it was icy). It's not much fun in the cold, but it seems to be good for my achilles tendons and after four years of tendonitis that's worth a bit of discomfort.
I've recently started running in Luna sandals, which I made myself from the DIY kits that Barefoot Ted sells on his website. I've been running in little else for the last couple of weeks, and I really like them. They feel like running barefoot, but stop me having to worry about sharp stones and bits of glass. And the best thing is that my achilles tendons seem to like them just as much as going barefoot, which hasn't been the case with any other minimalist shoes that I've tried.
May have a go at making a pair myself
They're very easy to make. I'm no-one's idea of a craftsman, and mine turned out ok. I bought a set of leather punches for a fiver off ebay to make the holes, and the rest was pretty straightforward. I used scissors to cut the soles out, but next time I'll probably try a knife as I think the lines will be a bit cleaner - doesn't really matter for running, but they don't look quite as neat cut with scissors.
I'd definitely recommend lacing them with the slip-on method (BFT has posted videos of how to do it on YouTube). It means that if you come to some nice ground where you want to run barefoot for a while, it's no problem to just slip the sandals off and back on again when you need to.
I used my sandals (just a cheap general purpose pair) yesterday for the first time this year (last summer I did a lot of training in them because my feet got too hot in socks and shoes), and took them off for the final 1.5 miles. Today I wore shoes, but took them off when I was on easy grass and ran about 3 miles. I've just finished Born to Run and now realise how my running style changes without shoes.
Mandovark, I was intrigued by your DIY sandals, so I found Barefoot Ted's site, and will definitely order a pair.
I've fancied running in sandals in the summer and tried the home made ones can't stand all the string around my feet. I spotted (and preordered) the Terra Plana Achillies running sandals here. Given the usual high price of Terra Plana shoes these don't seem too expensive.
I haven't seen those before - they look pretty good, definitely more space-age than the Lunas. I kind of like the laces on my home-made sandals: I guess I just like the old-school look.
For anyone thinking of ordering Lunas, I discovered that if you order more than one kit at the same time Ted only charges one lot of shipping, so if you're likely to want more than one you can save yourself a bit of money by ordering everything at once. My guess is that the same would apply to custom sandals, but I haven't tried that.