After a few runs completely barefoot, with no trails near, the sidewalk was really starting to wear on my feet. Considering myself a moderately handy person, I decided to try and make my own huaraches after those marthoning Mexicans. They used old tires and some rope. Well I have some old bedroom slippers with rubber soles and some shoelace. How hard could it be?
About 10 minutes later with a box cutter and a couple cut up slippers I had fashioned my very own running sandals. The actual sole that I used was less than a milimeter thick and extremely flimsy. The shoe stings seemed to hold up fine. I got one of my running friends to go with me to some trails over the weekend to try these sandals out. Thinking about it now I see the irony. Running for a week barefoot on concrete, then waiting to try out these sandals on a nice soft trail. Anyway, it was a rainy Saturday morning. I thought this would be a great test of my new prototypes; rainy muddy trail running.
The soles were a bit too thin which had me skipping around knotted roots every once and a while, and the wet shoe laces started to stretch out. I made a small adjustment and tied the laces up around my ankles as tight as I could and kept going. By the end of the run my sandals, after being retied, worked perfectly; they didn't slip around, even in the rain; the front didn't catch on anything as I ran; best of all I barely noticed I was wearing them at all.
My friend who I ran with was breaking in his new Merrell Trail Gloves that he bought for $100 to simulate barefoot running. And here I am running around in make shift sandals made in 10 minutes. We talked for a while about how it is pretty rediculous to pay more for shoes that do less. And hour of brainstorming later we were thinking of buying some rubber, finding better straps, and making these ourselves to sell online.
I have been obsessing over this for a few days making drawings and sketches of potential styles. I knew that neoprene was a durable but flexible rubber that would last under constant use and nylon would work great for straps. Now all I have left to do is try to incorporate some kind of buckle.
Pictures to come!
Sunday, July 10, 2011
Saturday, July 2, 2011
My First Barefoot Run
I might have just finished one of the most fascinating books I have ever read, Born to Run. If you are a particularly avid runner I recommend reading this book subtitled: A Hidden Tribe, Superathletes, and the Greatest Race the World Has Never Seen. If you don't run, hate running, or any variation of that, I highly recommend this book.
The novel follows a tribe of very native Mexicans in the Copper Canyons who are perhaps the greatest marathoners ever. Really, ever. They can run hundreds of miles at a time through rugged mountains in nothing more than cut out tire treads. If you want to know more, read the book.
This whole story begins with me deciding to radically change my career path. Until this point hated running. It was a pointless, meandering excercise that did nothing for me but hurt. I have loathed running since high school when I tried out for the soccer team and encountered continual knee pain and terrible shin splints among other common running ailments. Luckily the football team was looking for a kicker, you know the player who only takes a few brisk steps toward the ball and thats about it, so I gladly volunteered.
Fast forward few years and not much had changed. I only run out of necessity. But now I am in the process of training for a Deputy Sheriff position and need to run 3 miles. To the great shock of many people, I can't remember seriously running more than one whole mile at a time, if that. Not to mention years of absolutely no running left me in a difficult position. The only thing I could think of was to buy $90 running shoes with as much cushioning as possible to brace my feet and legs for the gaunlet I was about to put them through.
Sure enough, here I am a few runs later I was keeled over cramping, shins burning and quite miserable. So naturally after reading about indians who can run fantastic distances practiacally barefoot with little to no injury I thought I would give it a shot. Up until now I had worked my way up to just barely running one and a half miles so I knew that running for such a short distance posed no real threat to my otherwise already beaten down legs.
Moment of truth. I got ready for my run and felt really awkward starting out around my block with out shoes. At first I was running along the grass near the sidewalk but all the roots from the near by trees made this impossible. So I just ran on the sidewalk. As it turns out I was able to easily run my 1.5 mile course, no shin splints, no ankle or knee pain, nothing. My legs were definitely sore, but they weren't hurting as usual. I was in shock, so I googled it.
There is a lot of recent scholrly information about reducing and eliminating running injuries by just going barefoot. There is even a Barefoot Running "University" with endless articles on the subject. And in an istant I went from a passionate hatred of running to a barefoot running enthusiast.
The novel follows a tribe of very native Mexicans in the Copper Canyons who are perhaps the greatest marathoners ever. Really, ever. They can run hundreds of miles at a time through rugged mountains in nothing more than cut out tire treads. If you want to know more, read the book.
This whole story begins with me deciding to radically change my career path. Until this point hated running. It was a pointless, meandering excercise that did nothing for me but hurt. I have loathed running since high school when I tried out for the soccer team and encountered continual knee pain and terrible shin splints among other common running ailments. Luckily the football team was looking for a kicker, you know the player who only takes a few brisk steps toward the ball and thats about it, so I gladly volunteered.
Fast forward few years and not much had changed. I only run out of necessity. But now I am in the process of training for a Deputy Sheriff position and need to run 3 miles. To the great shock of many people, I can't remember seriously running more than one whole mile at a time, if that. Not to mention years of absolutely no running left me in a difficult position. The only thing I could think of was to buy $90 running shoes with as much cushioning as possible to brace my feet and legs for the gaunlet I was about to put them through.
Sure enough, here I am a few runs later I was keeled over cramping, shins burning and quite miserable. So naturally after reading about indians who can run fantastic distances practiacally barefoot with little to no injury I thought I would give it a shot. Up until now I had worked my way up to just barely running one and a half miles so I knew that running for such a short distance posed no real threat to my otherwise already beaten down legs.
Moment of truth. I got ready for my run and felt really awkward starting out around my block with out shoes. At first I was running along the grass near the sidewalk but all the roots from the near by trees made this impossible. So I just ran on the sidewalk. As it turns out I was able to easily run my 1.5 mile course, no shin splints, no ankle or knee pain, nothing. My legs were definitely sore, but they weren't hurting as usual. I was in shock, so I googled it.
There is a lot of recent scholrly information about reducing and eliminating running injuries by just going barefoot. There is even a Barefoot Running "University" with endless articles on the subject. And in an istant I went from a passionate hatred of running to a barefoot running enthusiast.
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