I went barefoot today...

Earlier in the morning, I went outside to get my mail. I normally don't wear shoes inside the house, and if I go to the mail box, I usually go barefoot. Today, I thought I'd jog to the mailbox instead of walking. The jogging went well. The sidewalk is smooth, and I had no problems going barefoot, a distance of about 100 feet. I took small steps and made sure I used a mid-sole strike.

A couple of hours later, I went for my regular run and did the 2.66 miles again. I felt fine, had a good energy level, and enjoyed the run/walk. My wakeup HR was 54. I'm still doing the 30:30 (seconds) ratio of running to walking. On the way back, I decided that since my morning excursion to the mailbox went well, I'd try it barefoot to get back to my car. I took off my shoes and socks and stood on the asphalt path. The asphalt wasn't smooth, and I realized my feet weren't used to the roughness of the path. I walked around for a minute and then decided I'd walk to the next bench. So, I carried my shoes and socks and headed down the path. After I'd walked a couple hundred yards, I realized my feet felt better, and I had high hopes of making it to the bench, a distance of about 0.4 miles. However, as I continued walking barefooted, my feet started feeling tender, and I put my shoes on and finished the distance using my normal 30:30 running and walking.

When I first started the run, a few sprinkles were falling, but by the time I'd gone half a mile, the sprinkles had stopped and the sun was coming out from behind the clouds. A short thundershower had gone through.

The picture shows a barefoot runner and was taken from the web.