Kyle Day 6 : The plus side of dirty feet

Went for another run at lunch time with Paul. Nice to get some more runs in, even if they are not the longest, it still feels great. This week I was able to get out Monday with the Barefoot Pack, Tuesday by myself for about 2.5 miles, today with Paul and I think I'll squeeze in another lunch time run tomorrow by myself.

 I have to say that barefoot running certainly has changed me and how I normally do things. If you have heard of the two kinds of runners, Cats (solitary runners) and Dogs (run with packs, love company) I definitely fall into being a Cat. I like running by myself as it lets me zone out and get some quiet time to myself. That's how I always did things.

Finding Paul and other barefoot runners to run with has been a refreshing change. It's nice to run with others as well. It's great to have someone else to ask questions of, to get advice from and also just to run with. I feel with barefoot running, rather than running in shoes (minimal or marshmallow), it all about connection and listening. You have to listen to your feet, listen to your whole body, watch your surroundings carefully and the tactile sensations from your feet let you connect with the ground so much more. It's pretty cool. With that in mind, I've been enjoying talking and meeting with other runners. I have also been running without headphones in. Not a big surprise when running with others, but when I ran by myself, I ran without headphones. And it felt great. I'm sure I'll still have runs where I want to zone out, but I'm enjoying connecting with everything now.

Anyways on to the run for today. It was just Paul and I today and we ended up running around 2.8 miles. Felt great with no blisters or hot spots afterwards. Got a couple of good tips from Paul also. I was asking about his shoes that he attached to his belt when he runs. I have my Vibrams attached to me whereas he just uses a pair of $8 Walmart water shoes. This is what he uses in the winter and he finds they work well. An additional use that he has for his walmart water shoes is that he will rip the upper off of them and using the sole, make a pair of Huaraches. Good timing with that because I was just looking at Invisible Shoes for Huaraches. This would be cheaper and homemade is cool.

Dirty feet. Also, happy feet.

Another tip that Paul gave me was that having dirty feet is a good thing. When checking your feet for damaged areas you look for red or white spots on your feet. Well when your feet are dirty you can double check it by looking for areas in which your feet are clean where they should be dirty. If you have rubbed off the dirt, you're rubbing those areas when you run. Adjust and move on. Definitely a good thing to know to try and get better form.

Paul and I after our run.

Kyle