Barefoot - Day 10

I've been thinking of trying to run barefoot.

Barefoot - Day 9

I've been forgetting to log my barefoot walks. I suppose it's because I've already become used to them. Yesterday I didn't wear shoes, and also on another day this week (which one I'm not sure). Today is the first time I leave my shoes at home for two consecutive days. That was something I was avoiding at first, out of fear of hurting myself, but now I think it's going to be fine. The reason is I'm combining doing consecutive days with doing less walking each day. I've recently joined the bike share program in my city, which kind of gives me a good balance between walking and biking (you have to walk from your point of origin to the nearest station from it, then from the nearest station from your destination to your destination). And last but not the least, yesterday was the first time I've randomly bumped into another person walking barefoot on the streets, which is kind of cool by itself.

Barefoot - Day 6

I've forgotten to log my last barefoot walk, which I think was two days ago. No discomfort anymore on my Achilles heels. My skin doesn't toughen as fast as I'd like it to, though. The middle front bump on the soles of my feet rub a lot against the asphalt and by the end of the two-way walk, the area feels a little sensitive.

Barefoot - Day 5

When will I be able to run on these bare soles? Maybe I should add some sand walking.

Barefoot - Day 4

One more day. barefoot. I had been avoiding walking without shoes because I was feeling some discomfort in my feet. I thought it was from walking on my bare soles, but then I noticed that even though I hadn't walked barefoot already for a while my feet were still kind of sore. Maybe it could be something else, and what I thought it was was this: At the same time that I started working on walking without shoes I also started trying to correct my walking gait. I tend to angle my feet outwards when I walk. I was trying to point them forwards. And of course after 30 years walking like a duck, forcing a "normal" gait is going to use all sort of muscles that had atrophied from "anormal" use. So what I did today was I tried to walk the way my feet wanted, and I think it might be working. I still want to correct my feet's angle, but I guess I should work on a thing at a time.

Barefoot - Day 3

One of the things I feel happens to a barefooter is you end up using your calves more. The internal part of my left Achilles's heel is a bit sore today. (The soles of my feet are all right, though.)

So, why did I think it would be a good idea to learn to walk on my naked feet? All of my life I've worn mostly minimalist footwear. Flip-flops and the like. Then I bought these fancy hiking boots for a trip to Peru and found out, once I was already there, that the boots hurt my knees. I was way too far from EMS to return the boots, so I ended up just doing all of those long hikes in Crocs. It was the rainy season, and sometimes I'd actually have to take the Crocs off if I didn't want to slip and fall in the wet slippery terrain.

After this trip I thought: to the hell with those shoes things. I already know I don't need no arch support from them (not any more than Crocs provide). It might not be too far-fetched to try and simply drop shoes altogether.

So that's basically it. I want to develop this super-power I thing is dormant in me.

Barefoot - Day 2

Today I walked barefoot to my office again. It was a nice day to barefoot. I like feeling the wet ground under my feet on rainy days. And as a bonus, your feet don't get as disgustingly dirty. That's one thing I'm not a fan of. My feet dirty by the end of the day. I won't go to bed before cleaning them. And after walking the whole day barefoot, cleaning your feet stops being a matter of simply rubbing them against one another in the shower. As I found out, though, it's not too terribly much harder, as long as you use soap and the cleaning brush you maybe already keep in your bathroom for cleaning the floor.

Barefoot - Day 1

I've decided to give barefooting a try. All I've read and felt indicates it's going to be a process. I'll be writing this series of posts in order to help me keep track of my progress and also, in case I succeed, to help other people do it ---or in case I fail, to dissuade them from trying. Today was not the first time I walked the 15 minutes that separate my house from my workplace barefoot. Last time must have been Monday, or maybe Sunday? I can't remember. Anyways, my inability to keep track my memory is one of the reasons why I'm writing this series.

I've been doing this for maybe a month now, so this is actually not day 1, call it so though I may. One of the things I've figured is I can't do this every day (yet?). The walk on the abrasive asphalt rubs the skin on the soles of my feet a bit thinner, to the point that I can feel it on the walk back by the end of the day. It's a bit like how your hands feel after a day climbing on abrasive rock. They need a little rest before you can do more of it.

My big toes crackle a bit when I'm walking barefoot. That worries me a bit, even though everything I've been able to read on the Internet about crackling toes said I shouldn't. I used to feel a little pain on the big toes' joints after walking without shoes, which I would associate with the crackling. Now I'm not feeling that pain as often, but my toes still crackle. Maybe these things were indeed not related.

I've gone through a lot of different walking gaits too. Experimentation. What I've been doing more of more recently is trying to walk as relaxed as possible. I think of loosening up to my jawbone to help me do it. It seems to work. Maybe my big toes joints hurt before because I was walking too tense.

A lot of maybes.