pandora_parrot | Barefoot experiment (Reply)

chirik has been doing the barefoot thing lately, which has rekindled my desire to do so myself.
There are a lot of reasons to go barefoot, but for me, it's a matter of experience. Unshod, I can actually feel the ground with all those wonderful nerve endings that are in my feet.

So, on Saturday, I began my barefoot experiment. I'll record my experiences of this here.

Day 1 (March 6, 2010):
Barefoot for the night only. Ground was cold and hard. Uncomfortable in spots, but nice in others.

Day 2: (3/7/2010)
Did a bunch of climbing and went shopping at Fry's. It was neat to feel the differences in textures in the different places at Fry's. I also noticed that I feel a lot more sure of my step when doing minor hopping around while barefoot.

Day 3: (3/8/2010)
First day at work barefoot. A few coworkers asked about my lack of shoes, and I explained the benefits of being barefoot. A little girl at REI asked me why I was barefoot, and I didn't know how to respond right away.

It was really nice to walk around barefoot and feel the ground, especially at work and in the gym. It really sucked when I was walking through the gravelly parking lot at Planet Granite, though. Not because of the gravel, which normally wouldn't be that big of a deal, but because of the rain, all of the gravel was sticking to my feet and making it impossible *NOT* to walk on it constantly.

I'm hoping that as I do this, my feet will become more resistant to this sort of thing.

Day 4: (3/9/2010)
Walking around today has been really nice! The ground is more comfortable, and I'm really starting to enjoy the feel of it in places. There were several moments today were I was really just enjoying feeling the ground as I stood. The different textures can be rather interesting and enjoyable.

I'm starting to get the feel for how to walk barefoot. It actually takes a bit of relearning to learn how to take shorter strides and land with fore-strikes or mid-strikes instead of heel-strikes.

A few more questions from coworkers. My explanations seemed to make them think I'm completely sane and rational for doing this. Fascinating. :)