Thought you'd met Skelton in the flesh till i saw the avatar, could be twins!Originally Posted by IanDarkpeak
Thought you'd met Skelton in the flesh till i saw the avatar, could be twins!
Hills and Guinness!
Came across this in Maya Angelou's book "I know why the caged bird sings" - she lived in the Deep South in the 30's and is describing the differences between blacks and whites: "......they (whites) didn't walk on the balls of their feet the way people (blacks) did - they walked on their heels ....." Elsewhere she mentions she went barefoot all summer, except for Sundays; she was relatively well off compared to most black children, whom I imagine were barefoot most of the time. Interesting to speculate what this would do to muscle/tendon development and running style/form ....and not just in America of course.
I've just made my first pair of Barefoot Ted DIY sandals (using their 4mm rubber sheet), and now looking forward to my first run in them tomorrow. Very good service from the Luna Sandals website, I followed Mandovark's advice and ordered two pairs with one P&P from the USA.
I'm doing almost all my running now in sandals, using shoes only for races, although that may change soon!
I've already converted one running friend to using sandals, more to follow maybe?
I'd be interested if anyone knows of a supplier of the vibram sole material (or anything similar) in Britain. I'd like to have a go at making sandals without importing the material from the states.
Use an old tyre, that's what the indians use anyway
I haven't been able to find anyone in Britain who supplies sheets of Vibram rubber. Some sheets of Vibram Cherry pop up on ebay from time to time, but they're mostly from American sellers anyway. I did find a few UK-based sellers of soling material through Google, but most of what they were selling was either really expensive or didn't look like it would be suitable.
Some people do make sandals out of car tyres like Rob says. Haven't tried it myself, but it would probably work. Otherwise, the postage from the US isn't bad: Luna Sandals charge just under $14 - I ordered three sheets at once last time, so the postage averaged out to not much per sheet.
I may just order the luna kits, do you know how long it takes to come? I've only got another 2 weeks in the UK and we're off to live in France!
a quick one,
running down steep hills in the barefoot style...
I can quite happily run uphill, along flat ground is not an issue in the slightest.
However, when I go down hill, I heel strike, the steeper the hill, the more the heel action...
so, do you barefooter-type-people still run at 90 degrees to the ground and somehow defy gravity in order to "forefoot strike" as you head down a slope (of varying degrees, up to and including nigh on sheer drops)
or is there some secret that I have yet to discover?
Light quick feet is all you need to remember. Don't concentrate on your footstrike, it will sort itself out. Concentrate on lifting your foot before it hits the ground (sounds daft but works)
so is that long strides? or are you doing light quick feet with ridiculously short strides?
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