Barefoot

So I read this article, "You Walk Wrong: How We're Wrecking Our Feet With Every Step We Take," and of course had to give it a try.

I might have gone overboard, lol.

The article basically proposes the idea that our feet are perfectly adapted for walking and running right out of the box, so to speak. Shoes just get in the way. People actually put more force on their joints and have more injuries while running in expensive running shoes than they do in cheap ones because their feet are more isolated from the ground, robbing them of tactile feedback that would normally help the body in adjusting to the terrain.

So Victor and I went to the park where we do most of our jogging. I slipped off my shoes and socks and off we went.

I have to say, it was somewhat liberating. It felt good, though running on dry grass was a little prickly (I stopped once to see if I had picked up some stickers... I hadn't).

After three loops, I realized that I wasn't as fatigued as usual. And when I was rounding the corner on the fourth loop, I thought I'd go one more (which would be one more than normal these days). Just then my left calf muscle/Achilles tendon tightened up, and I abruptly stopped.

I suspect that it might have been due to the backs of my legs being a little more stretched than usual since I didn't have the height of my running shoes' heels to shorten my Achilles. But then again, I had the same problem when I ran in shoes on paved streets in Portland.

I'll have to continue this experiment...