Posts Tagged ‘city’

Injuries While Barefoot: The Elephant in the Room

Okay, everybody. Bring it back in for a minute. We need to talk candidly about something.

For as much as many others and I promote the barefoot lifestyle and talk about how low-risk it is, a very real possibility is that we willactually get hurt because we’re not wearing protective shoes.

We can even get hurt wearing minimalist footwear when something might have protected us better. The general public believes that catastrophic injuries to bare feet are waiting in every aisle of every store and under every table of every restaurant. We know that’s not true, but injury risks still exist. It sucks.

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Barefooting in the First Snow Fall in Toronto this Season

I can’t really say I am an accomplished “winter barefooter” by any account since I’m very much a summer type of guy through and through. However, living in Toronto, Canada, I must endure long and cold winters every year. And, every year, I do at least a minimum amount of barefooting outside to keep both my sanity and my feet in some sort of a decent shape for when the warmer weather comes.

We had our first significant snow fall last night and throughout the day today so I decided I had to go out for a few minutes and enjoy some of the white stuff before it gets all hard, slippery and dirty.

I took two videos with my cellphone and I thought I’d share them here – please excuse the poor lighting on the first video, since it was taken last night at about 1 am. The Sound is not the greatest either – I’m still figuring things out with this new phone.

In both cases the temperature was about -5°C with a windchill factor of about -12°C. Overall, the experience felt good; my only wish is that I could do longer barefoot outings in the winter. I guess, like anything else, I need to get used to it and build some tolerance as I go.

Here are the videos, I hope you enjoy them:

Dec. 6, 2010 – 1:30 am

Dec. 6, 2010 – 2:45 pm

Keep ‘em bare, keep ‘em happy.

Barefoot Moe

Shoddies simply don’t care…

I recently had a very interesting, and somewhat disturbing exchange with a friend of my partner’s, who happens to be a nurse and has also been training for a running competition. While I have always known this person has never been supportive of my barefooting lifestyle, I never thought she would be so closed to new information.

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My first jog completely barefoot


Well, it’s been exactly a month since I started power walking and jogging and today I managed to do my first ever jog fully barefoot (so far, I’d been wearing either my Vibram FiveFingers Sprints or my Nike Free runners).

The day has been beautiful here in Toronto. We reached temperatures of 14°C, the sun is shining and there is a nice breeze. When I went for my workout, the temperature was about 8°C, so I decided I was going to wear my gym shorts, a t-shirt and a spring jacket – I thought I was going to get a bit chilly but I was perfectly fine throughout the whole time.

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Out of Hibernation

I’ve been struggling with my weight over the last few years so, after turning 40 last year and a wakeup call from my doctor, I’ve decided to take charge. Knowing how beneficial barefoot running has proven to be, I thought I ought to give it a try myself. Of course, I’m no runner and I’m overweight, so I need to be sensible about the whole thing and start from the beginning: walking – power walking, that is.

Last week, I approached fellow barefooter Ryan Graham to get some pointers and he gave me some sound advice and info on how to get started. I got out for my first power walk last Wednesday and it really felt good! I’ve been getting out every second day since and I’m hoping to get out there on a daily basis, starting next week.

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Key Articles
Foot Notes
Foot Education
Stem Footwear, Farrell, Pennsylvania
Interesting information on foot bio-mechanics, courtesy of Stem Footwear specialists.
Running barefoot soothes the sole
by Samuel Marx - The Daily Gamecock (Student Newspaper of the University of South Carolina), November 20, 2010
Minimalist marathoners create message that we don’t need much, not even shoes
Xiamen man dreams to run barefoot in 1000 marathons
What's On Xianmen, November 9, 2010
On Nov 7th, a barefoot man from Xiamen, Wu Shankuan, showed up at the Hangzhou International Marathon and took 38th place in the competition.
Study: Humans Were Born To Run Barefoot
by Christopher Joyce - PNR.org, January 27, 2010
Anthropologist Dan Lieberman, one of the proponents of the "human runner" school, concludes that we do it better without shoes.
More »

Photos
Oivind - NorwayJay - Tulsa, USAOliver - FranceAlison - Steyning, UK
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