4th September — Barefoot run 12

A short road run home from work of 5.5 miles.

I selected the aqua shoes for this run and the plan was to take them off for a spell and run barefoot. So at about the halfway point that’s just what I did. I’ve not run on this road barefoot before. It’s another quiet lane, but it is surfaced with a rather more coarse aggregate than the lane I’m used to; more like the lane I encountered in Scotland last week.

My legs felt a bit sore generally, not surprising given the week’s training so far. Nevertheless, I was running at a reasonable speed. The road surface is quite patchy, some of it smooth and some of it felt decidedly spikey, although no loose gravel. I thought I’d go barefoot until the feet got very slightly uncomfortable. This happened very quickly when the surface deteriorated markedly. I put the aquas back on after 1.6 miles for the run home. I thought I’d manage more than this, but the surface and the speed rouged-up the poor feet quite quickly.

Now, two hours later, the feet feel quite mashed, and they are warm to the touch — it’s borderline overdoing it. Oh, and I’ve skinned that small 2nd toe again (it wasn’t really recovered properly from last week). Interestingly, on my left foot the sole has a new hot spot, right in the middle of the ball. Whilst this is sore, it is encouraging, because it means that the outside of my foot is taking less of the strain. I take this as an indication that I’m gradually beginning to iron-out my wonky feet, and correct the misalignment that I believe has been caused by wearing orthotics.