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Tynan loves his barefoot sandals

This just in from Tynan:

I stumbled upon a company calledĀ XeroĀ Shoes. They send you a rectangle of 4mm thick Vibram sole material, some rope, and you get to build your own shoes, called huaraches, according to the directions on the site.

So, one rainy afternoon about six months ago, I found myself huddled on the floor of my RV, using my Ryobi drill to bore holes in the rubber to feed the rope through. The resulting sandals looked ridiculous, and I somewhat timidly made the two block walk to Samovar. But, six months later, I now think they look pretty cool. Iā€™m willing to concede that I might just be influenced by how enjoyable they are to wear, though.

The shoes basically fade away, and you feel like youā€™re barefoot all the time. Unlike regular sandals, they have rope around the heel, so they stay on well enough to run comfortably. Iā€™ve put hundreds of miles on them, both walking and running, and have never wished for another shoe. I donā€™t really expect many people to give up all other shoes for these things, but they also make a great secondary shoe. Theyā€™re so small that you can easily stash them in your backpack. Or in your pocket, as I did when skiing last year. Iā€™d walk to the Gondola in the sandals, then put on my socks and boots on the way up to the mountain, rather than robot walking the whole way there.

For now, these are the best barefoot shoes you can get.

(Needless to say, we agree šŸ˜‰ )

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Barefoot running isn’t just running barefoot!

Back in 2010, I had the pleasure of attending the “Naked Foot 5k” barefoot race. Actually, it was a series of races including a kids race and a 1mile race and the 5k.

It was a beautiful Colorado day, the course was wonderful, the organizers did a great job… but the runners scared the crap out of me!

Of the 45 or 50 runners, a handful were barefoot (including Michael Sandler, author of Barefoot Running, who put in a FINE performance), and many wore VFFs.

But regardless of whether they were totally barefoot or minimalist, the majority of the runners had one thing in common:

They ran exactly like they were in shoes!

Frankly, I’d never seen anything like it. Heel striking, over-striding (reaching your foot out in front of your center of mass), pulling against the ground instead of placing your foot under your body, pushing off with the toes instead of lifting the foot…

It was watching people land on their heels that really blew me away (aside from the fact that the sound of their feet slapping on the ground just plain scared me).

The point of barefoot running isn’t to simply take off your shoes and do the same thing you were doing in shoes. It’s to LISTEN to your body, to adjust your stride so that it doesn’t hurt when you run. And, trust me, running barefoot as if you’re in shoes HURTS.

And you could see it in the runners — the ones with good barefoot form finished the race and were tired from running but they had no problems with their feet. The ones with bad barefoot form had blisters and tears and abrasion. Their feet were hurting.

A number of those runners came up to me after the race (I had aĀ XeroĀ Shoes booth) and showed me their battle-scarred feet, some with a sense of pride (“Look what I endured!”) and others with resolution to “toughen up their feet for next time.”

I did everything I could to explain how running barefoot is not a matter of pushing through the pain, or developing callouses. That it’s an opportunity to naturally find a light, easy stride that you can maintain without harming yourself. It’s about being kind. It’s about listening. It’s about learning to make adjustments. It’s about becoming your own coach. Ā It’s about more than just the fun of being out of shoes… it’s about FUN for its own sake.

The content of this post does not constitute and is not intended to be a substitute for professionalĀ medicalĀ advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions or concerns you may have about your health or aĀ medicalĀ condition.” to the bottom of the blog post.

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Barefoot Jason does it again (but in style, this time)

Barefoot Jason Robillard has done it again, running 2/3 of a 100 mile race in his XeroĀ Shoes.

But this time, he’s got some extra fashion sense added:

Now, some of you may know that I’m a sprinter. In fact, I ran “long-distance” at a meet last week when I did my first 200m race (and, for the sake of bragging, even though I totally lost it at the end, my time of 25.7 ain’t bad for a 48 year old… I think I can get below 24 with a bit of work).

So, to read Jason’s great post about training for and running an ultra was just amazing to me.

Enjoy it here: Burning River 100 mile Endurance Race Report by Jason Robillard

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Long distance running in huaraches

About once a week I get a call or an email from someone who asks, “Can you run in XeroĀ Shoes for long runs?”

I usually point out to them that the Tarahumara are known for running ultra-marathons in huaraches, so, Yes.

But some people respond, “Sure, but I’m not a Tarahumara Indian.”

True (but not necessarily relevant).

So, how bout a hometown boy who just ran in his XeroĀ Shoes huaraches… for SIXTY-EIGHT MILES!

Read the rest of the thread about his run in the archive of the Runners World Barefoot Running forum

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Xero Shoes on Boomer Alley Radio

Got 7 minutes for some laughs?

Then you’ll enjoy the interview I was invited to do on Boomer Alley Radio’s
“Better Mousetrap” show.

You can hear it online on Saturday or Sunday:

Saturday July 10 7 pm Pacific Time streaming on kfwb.com and live on KFWB NEWS TALK 980 AM (Los Angeles)

Sunday July 11 4 pm Mountain Time streaming on radioconetwork.com and live on AM 1060 in Boulder/Denver metro

ENJOY!

-Steven

p.s. I’ll try to get a copy and put it up here after it airs.

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Getting started with barefoot running

Imagine that you haven’t lifted weights in a while… or ever.

And imagine that you got the idea that you wanted to bench press 500 pounds.

Would you go to the gym, put 500 pounds on the bar, and just go for it?

Of course not. There’s no way you could budge 500 on day one.

Would you go to the gym and put, say, 100 pounds on the bar and lift it, over and over, until you felt tired… and then do a few more reps until you were wasted?

I hope not.

Would you take a small weight, like 20 pounds, and lift it for an hour or two?

Boy, I wouldn’t.

But for some reason people think they can get into barefoot running with one of those plans.

They think they can just whip off their shoes and replace one of their regular runs with a barefoot run. Or, worse, they think that even if they haven’t run for a decade, it’ll be fine to go for a 5 mile barefoot run. Or they get out for a barefoot run, feel some strain or pain in their feet or calves and think, “Oh, I’ll just work through this, it’ll be fine.”

And they pay the price.

They wake up with freakishly sore calves or Achilles tendons. They get blisters. They get plantar faciitis. They get stress fractures.

Look, over-training is over-training. Doing too much is doing too much.

Especially with barefoot running, TAKE YOUR TIME. There’s no rush to get to the point where you’re running an ultramarathon every day for 1000 days in your bare feet. And there’s no way to rush building up the strength in your muscles and ligaments and tendons, or to develop correct and efficient form.

It happens as it happens. No sooner, no later.

How long that’ll be is a mystery. Maybe it only takes you a week or a month. Maybe it takes you a year.

Who cares?

First of all, it’s not all-or-nothing. It’s not like you won’t be able to be barefoot and then, BAM, 6 months from now you can! It’s a process. Maybe today you can only run 100 yards and then need to ice your feet for 3 days. That’s fine. In a month, guaranteed, you’ll be doing more. And a month after that, you’ll be doing even more.

Secondly, nobody is telling you to throw away your shoes the moment you realize you want to become a barefoot runner. Keep your shoes. Enjoy your shoes. And look forward to when you don’t want or need them.

But, please, give yourself time — the amount of time that YOU need — to make the transition.

Honestly, there’s enough to learn and experience and benefit from if all you ever do is an occasional 1 minute jog without shoes.

I hate to toss out “prescriptions for living,” but in this case I can’t think of any better way to say it than, “Enjoy the journey… because there isn’t really a goal.”

The content of this post does not constitute and is not intended to be a substitute for professionalĀ medicalĀ advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions or concerns you may have about your health or aĀ medicalĀ condition.” to the bottom of the blog post.

The content of this post does not constitute and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions or concerns you may have about your health or a medical condition.

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Al Kavadlo runs the Williamsburg Bridge in Xero Shoes

Fitness Guy, Al Kavadlo, emailed me today to say, “I gave the XeroĀ Shoes another mention in my blog today.Ā  I really love them!”

Here’s Al running across the Williamsburg Bridge (between Manhattan and Brooklyn) in his XeroĀ Shoes huaraches running sandals.

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Barefoot Running Sandal Review by Al Kavadlo

Al Kavadlo reviews Invisible ShoesFitness Guy, Al Kavadlo gave his review of Ā XeroĀ Shoes huaracheĀ running sandals on his popular blog.

Says Al, “XeroĀ Shoes are the closest thing that I have seen to actual barefoot running. Theyā€™re based on the famous ā€œhuarachesā€ that the Tarahumara Indians wear when they run. Putting them on made me feel like a Native American warrior!”

Check out the complete review on Al’s blog (and sign up for his training tips while you’re there) atĀ Ā http://www.alkavadlo.com/2010/05/invisible-shoes/

Al also emailed me to let me know, “I’ve found that the I-shoes are great for my strength training workouts as well as running.Ā  Check out this youtube clip of me working on muscle-ups in my XeroĀ Shoes!”

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HBO Real Sports on Barefoot Running – Right or Wrong?

This week’s (5/18) HBO’s Real Sports with Bryant Gumbel did a feature on barefoot running.

Did they get it right, or not?

Well, overall, I’d say they were right on… with one exception I’ll mention in a moment.

  • They repeatedly pointed out that there are no studies that prove barefoot running reduces injuries, nor are there studies that show running in shoes causes them.
  • They emphasized that if you want to make the transition to barefoot, you should start slow — run for a short amount of time and distance (and build up slowly) to let your body learn to handle the new demands
  • Chris McDougal repeatedly qualified his statements with “I believe…” And it’s true, those of us who have moved to barefoot have our anecdotal evidence that we use to support us.

What they missed:

  • The point that Olympic athletes wear shoes is, in certain ways, irrelevant. Why? Because 99.9% of us are not Olympic athletes putting in the mileage they do, or running the speeds they do. And because if you look at their form, it’s closer to barefoot than your average heel-striking jogger.
  • The Nike Free is far from being a “barefoot shoe.” Sure it flexes really well (and, full disclosure, I have 3 pair that I used to love wearing… but it’s been a year since I last put mine on), but it has a big, padded, wide heel.
  • Ditto on the Vibram Five Fingers (I love how they pronounced it correctly — VEE-bram!). The VFFs have a lot more structure and support, plus a thickened sole on the ball of the foot and heel.

And, of course, the biggest thing they got wrong was right in front of their face! HUARACHES! They talked about the Tarahumara running in huaraches, but when they gave advice about protecting yourself from things you could step on (or in!) in our modern world, they neglected to mention huarache running sandals (let alone Invisible Shoes… even though they had some film of runners in I-shoes).

Ah, well… next time šŸ˜‰

Anyone else see the show? What did you think?

The content of this post does not constitute and is not intended to be a substitute for professional medical advice, diagnosis or treatment. Always seek the advice of a physician or other qualified health provider with any questions or concerns you may have about your health or a medical condition.