Introduction…

As a new contributor I suppose I’d better introduce myself… My name is Dai, I’m 30, and I’ve been running, on and off, for about 4 or 5 years.  I’ve run a handful of 10kms, one half marathon and 2 Tough Guys (Google it, it’s great fun!) in between bouts of injury and laziness, so I’m pretty much a recreational runner and as such, my weekly mileage varies from anything from 0 to 15-20ish depending on whether I’m training for a race or laid off through injury or lack of will power!  I usually run on a mixture of pavement and grass near to my home.

I’m barefoot or in my socks most days when inside (I work at home, so can chose my own footwear!) but, until recently, I wore mostly Doc Martens boots or sandals outside.  I’ve since started walking more in my bare feet, carrying a pair of flip flops in case I need to cover up.  Running-wise, I’ve worn a wide variety of trainers over the years, but the trainers I’ve worn most recently were a pair of Brooks that were recommeded to me after a gait analysis in a specialist running shop.  I’ve yet to find a pair of trainers which didn’t give me blisters when running more than 4 miles, one of the reasons I decided to try barefoot running instead.  I’m pretty much a heel-strike runner going by how it feels and the wear on the soles of my trainers.

Over the years I’ve picked up a number of injuries through running, mostly blisters, sprained ankles, back pain, knee pain and a nasty case of achilles tendonitis after running the Great North Run that had me out for around 3 months.  However, I’m mostly injury-free now.

I decided to run barefoot , well, on a whim basically.  I’d seen a couple of people running in VFFs and in bare feet locally over the last few months and just decided to have a go myself!  I’ve actually been running barefoot (or trying to!) for a few weeks now, I’ll explain how it’s been going below…