Barefoot in the Rain

[BFWendyBird]

Welcome!  I home school too,

Welcome! I home school too, it makes it easy to go barefoot nearly all the time

 

[barefootmetalman]

Glad I came across this

Glad I came across this thread. I ran twice in the rain...once it was raining before I started and the second time I just got caught in the rain. After my first rain run, my feet were extremely tender, but no blisters, so I have been trying to avoid running in the rain. Now that I hear it is something that your feet will get used to, I won't avoid it so much...unless it is lightninging too?

One other thing I have been avoiding is running right after work. Since I am in the military I have to wear my thick uniform socks and boots and my feet sweat and get soft. I made the mistake early in my BF running (like 1st or 2nd week) and ran right after work on fairly rough concrete, and my feet got really tender and I wore through the skin on my 2nd and 3rd toes. I'm sure it was a combination of things that caused the "toe" problem since I don't think I was "lifting" my feet and I was pushing off too much. Anyway, is running while feet are soft like that something I could or should be doing occasionally to help my feet get accustomed, or should I avoid it?

 

[Barefoot TJ]

Another military person.

Another military person. Hey, thanks, Metal, for your service.

I've never developed blisters from wet feet or running in the rain. I do think that once your feet toughen up, this shouldn't be a problem anymore. And I do believe that all running will help to condition your feet, even rain runs. It's a matter of if you want to risk getting blisters to find out.

 

[stomper]

NakedSoleNate wrote:I notice

I notice when I run in the rain, my feet do get softer (like when I'm in the shower) and while I don't get blisters, I def. end my run with my feet much more sensitive.

yup. +1.

[edited to add: oops, just noticed this thread is several months old. can't delete this comment, which at this point adds little. now back to your regular programming...]

 

[Barefoot Gentile]

Tj is right.  Over time your

Tj is right. Over time your feet will toughen up and you won't experience that softness. I actually ran 4 miles in the rain this morning, it was great.

The bottoms of my feet now have developed a hardness to them, they look completely smooth but to the touch the pads are are much thicker than they were a year ago. It's a natural shoe!

 

[NakedSoleNate]

 funny, I was just thinking

funny, I was just thinking about this thread, as I ran 5.5 miles yesterday in the rain, road and trails, and had none of the issues/feelings I had back when I posted this thread (when I was running 2-3 miles)....no "prunage" ect....so, that kind of conditioning doesn't appear to take very long at all :-D

 

[Matt]

I used to sometimes have

I used to sometimes have issues with the rain, but this summer my feet did really well in the rain. I think it's more of a form issue, rather than a "toughening" issue. My feet are probably as wimpy as they've ever been as a barefoot runner. However, I think I'm now better at keeping good form during a rainy run. I think in the past, my form used to be a little off when I ran in wet conditions.

 

[Danjo]

I haven't had a chance to run

I haven't had a chance to run in rain yet, and even if I had it only rains for like 10 minutes here anyways. From what I've heard though it shouldn't be to much of a problem, depending on how hard its raining and for how long. Basically its not a good idea to run when your feet are completely soaked, but that would happen more from sitting in a tub or pool, like Longboard said, than from rain. Now if you ran an ultra in rain and mud, your feet would probably start to soften up and you might have some trouble. I guess we can just toughen our feet a bit, focus on our form, and hope we don't have to run 50-100 miles in mud.

 

[JosephTree]

The first time I ran in the

The first time I ran in the rain I wore holes in the soles on the balls of my feet. I believe it was a combination of form problems, insufficient so;le conditioning and stupidness (I was pushing a stroller for more than 6 miles I think).

I like the rain now, and ran today for about 4 miles on a nice wet trail. My only concern remains that I'm blind when my glasses fog or get too wet.

...and i think there's no problem with reactivating old threads. The info is still lively and new to lots of us.

 

[Barefoot TJ]

JT, have you thought about

JT, have you thought about wearing a baseball cap to keep the rain off your glasses. It helps keep the rain out of my eyes (and sunglasses---yes, I'm weird--when I where them).