Barefoot on muddy trails?

James7

Barefooters
Aug 5, 2011
30
7
8
I've decided to go off road more this year but in the UK there is a lot of rain and currently trails near me are very muddy. I can't wait until spring /summer to either go barefoot or wear i.s. or lunas but was wondering what others do? I'm thinking of NB minimus zero or Vivobarefoot Neo just for the muddy season.
Cheers.
 
Slick mud + bare feet = faceplant

In my case, anyway
 
  • Like
Reactions: migangelo
Depends what's in the mud - I ran through some lovely looking mud the other day, only to discover it was full of pine cones - ooowwww! Generally I prefer to avoid getting shoes muddy though, feet are so much easier to clean.
 
  • Like
Reactions: BFwillie_g
Slick mud + bare feet = faceplant

In my case, anyway

It can also lead to a butt plant. Or a hip plant. However...I ran on super slick muddy trails a lot last winter, and I only bit it once. Just like anything, your body learns to adapt and re-learn how to balance on slick mud. However, what does not work are muddy spots. That's because it is too difficult for your body to transition back and forth that quickly. So completely slick trails are the only thing I can run on without causing undue stress to my body. What's hilarious, is when the trails dried out after last winter, I couldn't run on them correctly -at first- and had to let my body re-adapt it's balance to dry trails.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Sid
I ran a 50k race barefoot a few years back and the muddy parts were very slippery and I had to really slow down, especially on curves. I also ran a 5k race with spikes in Cross Country on a rain soaked course and people were sliding all over the place. I even had a teammate do a belly flop right next to me and slide down the hill. When it comes to mud, I don't think it really matters what you have or don't have on your feet, it is just slippery. It can also pull the shoes right off feet as I witnessed during a couple other races, too.
 
  • Like
Reactions: jldeleon
I ran a 50k race barefoot a few years back and the muddy parts were very slippery and I had to really slow down, especially on curves. I also ran a 5k race with spikes in Cross Country on a rain soaked course and people were sliding all over the place. I even had a teammate do a belly flop right next to me and slide down the hill. When it comes to mud, I don't think it really matters what you have or don't have on your feet, it is just slippery. It can also pull the shoes right off feet as I witnessed during a couple other races, too.

Ya, I did Warrior Dash barefoot this year, and everyone was stuck in the mud -except me- cuz their shoes were stuck in the mud. I pretty much zipped past them. Lol. Well, after I played in the mud for awhile -on purpose of course!
 
  • Like
Reactions: inakilt
Ya, my hard-core marathoner friends refuse to "start over" barefoot because they are impatient and obsessed with time over quality. Oh well, their loss.
 
I have never ran barefoot in mud but it sure sounds interesting. I used to like walking in ud as a kid. Want to give it a try this spring / summer and was thinking of trying it out on some minimum maint roads up in the hills where the soil is clay. Not sure if its doable as I mostly remember this clay soil being the king where about 1 pound of extra weight of mud is added to your foot after each time you step down. Well at least when walking in it anyway. Maybe running would knock some of it off. Might be a quick way to really build some leg muscle in a much shorter distance!:) There are not alot of dirt trail options here in NE... unless you count the corn fields then the skys the limit same with the number of chemicals placed on these feilds.
 
J7, My best advice to you is to learn your trails. There're all kinds out there, and I know of a few that I run on BF with joy while there are others that I won't go on ever again, even in my VFFs. I don't know what's out there in your neighborhood, but down where my wife grew up in Wiltshire, there are a few paths that are gorgeous for BF, being packed silt. Others have flints embedded in clay and I'd never want to find out how much they would hurt to run on. I've been in other areas in the UK where there's a plant called gorse, or wynn in Ireland. That stuff seemed pretty hard to deal with BF.

Once you have some fairly safe trails to try BF, you can learn to try them in varying states of saturation. I have trails that I run now that I know will have sections underwater from time to time, and I find them great fun.

Good luck and take your time.

btw, my wife and kids were just over for a visit for a fortnight starting on Boxing Day. It rained their entire visit, I think. In 2012 parts of the UK had the 2nd wettest year since records were kept . Lucky you!
 
  • Like
Reactions: jldeleon and Sid
Parts of the UK had the 2nd wettest year since records were kept in 2012. Lucky you!

I guess the UK isn't as technologically advanced as I thought they would be. Why haven't they been keeping records before 2012? :)
 
I guess the UK isn't as technologically advanced as I thought they would be. Why haven't they been keeping records before 2012? :)

"In 2012 parts of the UK had the 2nd wettest year since records were kept."

Better, oh thou punctilious grammarian?;)
 
  • Like
Reactions: ThomDavid
Thanks for the response. One of my concerns was not being able to see what was under the mud but I guess i'll have to give it a try.
 
Oh, just for the heck of it, see if you can find a set of posts w/ pics from Nakedsole Nate's worst-ever muddy trail run from a couple years ago. Not for the squeamish.

(Can you help with a link, TJ? ...or would you prefer to leave it to dusty history?)
 
  • Like
Reactions: BFwillie_g