BOSS - The Boulder Outdoor Survival School

BOSS - The Boulder Outdoor Survival School: "'This is a lifestyle for me, not just a way to make a living,' he says, his thick-padded feet rolling over sharp volcanic rocks and shuffling around prickly pear as we head toward central Arizona's Verde River. He never wears shoes, not even in snow ('Don't want my feet to get soft'), and I can't help but wince with his every step. 'I'm very passionate about doing more with less. "

Niagara Falls Barefoot

I just got back from Niagara Falls, Ontario, CA. The family spent most of 4 days and nights there. We did all the falls-related tourist stuff on the first day: Maid of the Mist, Journey Behind the Falls, Whitewater Walk, Butterfly Conservatory. On the second day we went to Old Fort Erie and then went for a hike in the Niagara River gorge. On the third day we went to Marineland. On the 4th day we did a few of the attractions in the Clifton Hill entertainmant & dining district; and we also spent some time in that area after dinner a few nights. We walked everywhere except to Fort Erie, to the hike trailhead, and to Marineland. Took lots of photos and AVI movies.

This is the first vacation I tried to experience as barefoot as possible. I carried my flip-flops attached to my backpack, but walked everywhere we went barefoot. Whenever we entered a sit-down restaurant, I wore my flip-flops in because I didn't want to embarrass my family anymore than they already may have been, but removed them under the table and generally didn't put them back on again. There were two places I obayed the no-barefeet signs: The Maid of the Mist boat ride, and the Duty Free Shop on the way home when I went to get my Canadian tax paid refunded. Besides that, there were two places where overly self-important types asked me to put shoes on, without any specific reasoning beyond, "we wouldn't want you to step on something." In both cases, there was nothing to step on, and I had alredy been there walking around for a half an hour. One of the places was Old Fort Erie, where a really fat guy who was acting as the British commander of the fort asked me to put something on my feet, claiming there was a lot of broken glass outside and nails in the floorboards inside. There wasn't either of those anywhere. And, as I said, I had already been walking around there barefoot for at least 30 minutes. The other place was at Luis Tussard's Wax Museum. I was talking to an employee in his 20's, asking him if the wax figures came alive and moved around at night, and he was telling me some stories about actions of maintenance people that were sometimes misinterpreted as such. During that convo, another 50-ish woman employee appeared and asked me to put on shoes because I might step on something and cut my foot. Now, I gotta tell you, the wall-to-wall carpeting in that museum was better than one would find in most homes and it was flawlessly maintained! It was the most forgiving, comfortable and safe surface I experienced the entire trip! I asked her if there was a policy against being barefoot and she persisted, so I said OK, again to save my family from further embarrassment....

Barefoot Before

Here is something to consider : PF is strange because it hurts after RESTING not DURING exercise, if it is properly warmed up. The dammage to the tissues in PF is fairly minimal, but the pain caused by the inflamation can be debilitating, and the inflamation can lead to a heel spur. (I am not a doctor, but I played one on TV.)

I had PF about 8 years ago, before my barefoot running days, and the podiatrist and expensive orthotics did not fix it. I fixed it myself while maintaining a moderate training program, and am realizing in retrospect that being barefoot helped my cure. I stretched and did self-myofascial-release using my knuckles on my heel and arch before getting out of bed. I walked barefoot through my morning rituals of grooming, work preparation and breakfast, but I concentrated on making my foot maintain an arch while barefoot so I did not ruin any healing that may have occured overnight. I only ran slow distance in the afternoon in running shoes and Superfeet insoles. I applied ice by rolling a frozen orange juice can under my feet after running and and a few more times every evening.

Nike Free Stupidity

Debra commented on one of my previous posts about the Nike Free web site. [see comment]
She said: "Did you notice (in the runner section of the academy) the heel strike of the runner wearing nike frees?"
So that prompted me to go back and look at the site again. I think the intro movie changed, and I don't think this little footstrike imbedded movie was there either. It shows a horribly incorrect barefoot footstrike!

Heat Wave Bare

Since last Friday, New Jersey had a week of hot, humid, 90-degree-plus days. Running shoeless on these days makes my runs more bearable, and adds to the dread of the days when I have to wear running shoes. On days with shoes this past week, my sweat made squishy wet sounds inside them before the end of the runs. Plus I have another perception problem when running barefoot out of my house and through my suburban neighborhood. This perception problem is all in my own head. It goes like this -
If I have shoes on, I have no problem leaving my house in only running shorts. If I am barefoot, I need to leave my house with a singlet on. It is as if I feel too naked wearing only one coomax/nylon garment that weighs almost nothing. Yet, once I am running on grass in the park, away from houses and people and gangs of kids on bikes, I have no problem getting my sweaty shirt off and tucking it into my waistband.

Giving and Getting Back at Greenbrook Park

Giving: Many of my barefoot runs are in Greenbrook Park. On Friday I had to groom my course a bit. There was a broken wine bottle in the grass right along the route I loop. It was probably from July 4th celebrations. I found a discarded potato chip bag and piled the pieces onto it, then got it to a trash can. I also had to remove other soft-drink cans and plastic bottles. There were some annoying sticks and branches to throw aside too. This park clean-up detracted little from my run, since I was on a recovery run from the difficult week of training and racing I had cut out for myself in the previous 6 days.

Getting back: On Saturday I ran first thing in the morning. It was about 9 AM and quite hot already. I didn't realize I left the house dehydrated, but in retrospect I remembered I had to get out of bed the night before to fill my waterbottle for my bedstand. I wanted to do a fairly long run of 10 miles or so, but was feeling I had to cut it short from dehydration. So I am running along my usual grassy loop when I spotted a full Poland Spring water bottle in the grass. I picked it up and unscrewed the cap and it had been still safety-sealed! I sucked down the sun-warmed water for the next couple of miles. Did somebody passing through the park or watching a softball game mistakenly drop that bottle, or was the park supplying it to me in thanks for cleaning it up and regularly tickling its grass with my naked feet?