In the spirit of investigation, I decided to walk home from work on Thursday night. Without my shoes.
I thought it would be a good introduction to the 'minimalist' running idea that Barefoot Ted et al have been talking about.
I was a little self-conscious as I couldn't fit my flip flops in my bag so I had to carry them. This drew attention to my al fresco feet and I felt a bit of a tool (that's been happening a lot recently). To distract myself from tool-dom, I started taking photos of my feet on the various pavements and roads they encountered. (I took 241 pictures in total. I got a bit carried away.)
Ted was absolutely right about pavements being an easy flat surface to potter on. It was all pretty much plain sailing (or walking?). There was one minor incident when something non-specific got stuck to my forefoot. (I'm hoping it was just a soggy leaf.) And I found you had to be especially careful around parked cars. (You see a lot of smashed wing mirrors when you're staring at the floor.) But on the whole, the actual walking experience was fine.
However, once I'd got home - and washed my dirty black feet (top tip: don't try to shower with your jeans on) things took a turn. They really started to throb. I'm sure this is normal as it was around the padded raised areas that must have taken most of the flack. But they were so sore, I couldn't put them on the floor. It was almost as if they were burning in places.
At this point, I berated myself for not waiting till after the half to experiment. But just as I was going to text my flatmate to bring me a bucket of ice, the sensation began to subside. And by the next morning they were pretty much back to normal.
So, not the most auspicious of beginnings; but then, even Barefoot Ted had to start somewhere.
(Stats: 4.67 miles (2.67 sans flip flops); 1.30 minutes; not sure of the minute-mileage, probably not a personal best.)
(Pic: Using my flip flop to flick something untoward off my foot. I never ever want to know what it was.)
No comments:
Post a Comment