Barefoot Runner/ Podiatrist Conversations

I'm well aware of the podiatrist forums.

Actually when I first started barefoot running my emediate response was to try and find out what those who were against it actually thought. I wanted to challenge my position to see if it could hold up to rational scrutiny. I went through a similar procedure when I lost my faith and became an atheist.

I've actually lurked on the forums for about a year reading as many posts as I could about barefoot running. I only really started to speak out on page 7 or so of the thread you posted on. In retrospect I probably was a little bit too antogonistic, but in summation I found the supposed "doctors" on the message board to be very unreasonable, and irrational. They quickly straw manned my arguments, and resorted to ad hominem attacks, both of wich is no way to treat a fellow health professional. In the end I got banned from the forums, as they said for being an idiot.

Not very professional at all in my opinion, extremely rude and condescending.
 
Definitely worth some conversation I think. My wife had some health problems and our "regular"doctors routinely refer her to naturopathic doctors for help. I don't know what I think of naturopathy but I do know that it took a long time and a lot of convincing to get doctors to accept what they do as legit.

We're in the same space and will do many people greater service by being convincing.

I'm sure glad I meet Scott Hadley when I did though, cause my podiatrist at the time was definitely not going to fix my plantar fasciitis.
 
I'm well aware of the podiatrist forums.
They quickly straw manned my arguments, and resorted to ad hominem attacks, both of wich is no way to treat a fellow health professional. In the end I got banned from the forums, as they said for being an idiot.

Not very professional at all in my opinion, extremely rude and condescending.

So, I'm wondering if THOSE were actual, practicing podiatrists that straw-manned you? I looked at that forum a bit last night, and some of the forumites seem to have terrible people skills. I'm wondering if these individuals truly see patients, or if they are podiatry-fascinated trolls.

Why are they not discussing the issue that the Barefoot Zealots are their former disgruntled patients? How can they better serve these patients? Why are their patients leaving with such animosity towards the profession of podiatry?
 
One thing that makes me smirk at these guys is that they are Podiatrists. Not biomechanists (A select few are dual credentialed) but a vast majority are not PhD's in Biomechanics. I have had a lot of interaction with many Biomechanics PhD's and they are not one-sided or close-minded like a lot of these guys represent themselves. One thing a lot of sports medicine professionals know/discuss is that doctors are not always great researchers.
 
I'm a babe in these woods and suspect there might be bears (or trolls) waiting to chew me up. I've never met a Podiatrist, to my knowlege. Let me read a bit before going off half-cocked.
 
So, I'm wondering if THOSE were actual, practicing podiatrists that straw-manned you? I looked at that forum a bit last night, and some of the forumites seem to have terrible people skills. I'm wondering if these individuals truly see patients, or if they are podiatry-fascinated trolls.

Why are they not discussing the issue that the Barefoot Zealots are their former disgruntled patients? How can they better serve these patients? Why are their patients leaving with such animosity towards the profession of podiatry?

Hence the reason I called them "supposive" doctors. If they were only internet trolls you would think they would be able to moderate their forum a little better.

I am impressed with how Jason is handling himself here though. He's taking a more "let's all be friends, and learn tact". I'm sure we can learn a lot from his approach.
 
Hey Jason, I don't want to jump into that conversation with a red herring so I'll ask here; how do you determine peak metabolic efficiency?
I have some background in VO2 max testing in my early 20s in a lab but without the equipment is it as subjective as having enough long runs in your past to know how many calories you need to keep performing?