A long time ago I was not a runner. Every time I tried to run my knees would hurt. Hence, I tried running barefoot and lo and behold, my knees stopped hurting.
This was 2010. In the space of 6 months I went from non-runner to running 5 miles every 3-4 days, barefoot and everything was great ... this was between spring and fall of 2010.
But then 2 things happened that made me stop running barefoot:
1 - winter. Running on ice/snow does't really work for me (and I can't do vibrams) so ... I had to transition to shoes. Which was hard but I got it done and was able to run through the whole winter.
2 - hecklers. I had more than a few episodes of people calling me out, yelling at me, insulting me or (in one case) almost running me over with a car (2 drunk college punks). Not to mention that some of my friends and family relentlessly and insistently called me crazy and insisted that I stopped.
Because of this, once I transitioned to shoes, I simply never went back.
For reasons I can't explain though, I miss running barefoot. For reasons I can't explain ... I just liked it better.
These days I run 7 miles a day, 4-5 times a week successfully and with minimal pain other than blisters and inflammation caused by using shoes.
I'd like to go back to barefoot running though so ... any advice about how to resolve those 2 problems would be appreciated:
1 - winter: how do you guys do it? I can use shoes, it's not problem. Is that how you guys do it? or do you go BF no matter what? (PS: this past winter doesn't count because ... well it wasn't a real winter).
2 - hecklers: how do you guys deal with this? do you guys even face something like this or have I just been really unlucky? do you ignore people that look at you funny? do you ignore people that call you out, family that calls you crazy, etc? I know that it's silly if not downright stupid that I am allowing other people's opinions to influence the choices I make in life. I shouldn't ... and that's a whole different topic but I'd really like to hear your opinion about this.
Thanks!
This was 2010. In the space of 6 months I went from non-runner to running 5 miles every 3-4 days, barefoot and everything was great ... this was between spring and fall of 2010.
But then 2 things happened that made me stop running barefoot:
1 - winter. Running on ice/snow does't really work for me (and I can't do vibrams) so ... I had to transition to shoes. Which was hard but I got it done and was able to run through the whole winter.
2 - hecklers. I had more than a few episodes of people calling me out, yelling at me, insulting me or (in one case) almost running me over with a car (2 drunk college punks). Not to mention that some of my friends and family relentlessly and insistently called me crazy and insisted that I stopped.
Because of this, once I transitioned to shoes, I simply never went back.
For reasons I can't explain though, I miss running barefoot. For reasons I can't explain ... I just liked it better.
These days I run 7 miles a day, 4-5 times a week successfully and with minimal pain other than blisters and inflammation caused by using shoes.
I'd like to go back to barefoot running though so ... any advice about how to resolve those 2 problems would be appreciated:
1 - winter: how do you guys do it? I can use shoes, it's not problem. Is that how you guys do it? or do you go BF no matter what? (PS: this past winter doesn't count because ... well it wasn't a real winter).
2 - hecklers: how do you guys deal with this? do you guys even face something like this or have I just been really unlucky? do you ignore people that look at you funny? do you ignore people that call you out, family that calls you crazy, etc? I know that it's silly if not downright stupid that I am allowing other people's opinions to influence the choices I make in life. I shouldn't ... and that's a whole different topic but I'd really like to hear your opinion about this.
Thanks!