How Barefooters Hurt Themselves (with bonus podiatrist rant!)
Don’t worry, nothing happened. I’m fine, ran a pleasant and easy 7 miles today (combined runs with dogs and by myself). MissZippy and Mr. Loser expressed a bit of concern about the pinkie toe pain, which started the brain wheels turning. The barefoot debate seems to be focused on extremes: it’s either a cure-all that will propel you to running Nirvana (hello, hello, hello, he-loo) or a new age cult that will put you in a wheelchair. Based on my personal experiences and observations of others so far, I don’t think it has to be an either/or situation. Here are four ways runners can hurt themselves by going barefoot:
1. No research. People are used to being sold products that solve their problems. Buy x, solve problem y. But barefoot is not a product. It’s a how. You don’t just kick off your shoes and resume your training schedule. And don’t “just take it slow,” either. DO YOUR HOMEWORK, you lazy slacker. Make sure you have a good grasp of the HOW before you give it a shot. You don’t take the Garmin or whatever out of the box and expect it to just “work;” you have to know how to use it in order to, uh, use it. Your feet are tools. Read the directions first.
2. Boneheadedness. Hey, that’s me! Many barefooters who get the gist of the whole process quickly (because they did their homework) can feel invincible. Let’s do a quick cause and effect rundown of the pains I’ve had since going barefoot: Increased mileage by 100% in one week (Aug ’09) = sore left hip, left ankle. Hawg Run 5K, cold wet weather, ran as hard as I could = blister. Mistletoe half, cold wet weather, ran as hard as I could = REALLY BAD blisters that put me on the couch for weeks. Increased mileage by 90% in one week (Mar ’10), including a 10 mile tempo run with an altered gait = sore pinkie toe. All of these were avoidable, and they all involved pushing too hard when I KNEW I was pushing too hard. I either went fast before I learned how to do it smoothly, in weather that compromised my feedback system (cold and wet = numb and blisterable), or ignored the slow mileage increase rule. Because I’m a bonehead.
3. Rocks, glass, roots, booby traps, etc. Although fear of debris is absurdly overblown, I’ll go ahead and throw the anti-barefooters a bone (just don’t step on it!). Even if I’m paying attention, I still from time to time step on something that makes me say “ouch.” So far the only damage done has been a small cut from what I assume was a piece of glass. I didn’t even know I was cut until I saw blood spots on the kitchen floor. By the time I cleaned up my foot, the bleeding stopped. That’s it. That was a few weeks ago, and I don’t even remember which foot it was. If you’re paying attention, and not acting like a bonehead, everything but the occasional small cut or abrasion is avoidable.
4. Deformed feet. I really don’t know anything about anyone else’s feet but mine. Podiatrists like to blather hysterically (hat tip Barefoot Brandon) about how one needs perfect feet to run barefoot, but maybe they’re right to at least some extent. Maybe a lifetime in “corrective” footwear deforms the foot to an irreparable state that the only option is more of the same. Sort of like a battered wife who knows of no other life than the one with her violent husband, and is incapable of functioning in any other environment.
Yes, I did just compare podiatry to the actions of an abusive husband. An abusive husband (or elected politician, potato, potAHto) attains and maintains power by instilling and propagating fear. And it’s fear that the barefoot haters are peddling. There are so many absurd shoes on the market, that if they were really concerned about the health of their customers, the “experts” would speak out against them, too. But they don’t. Why? Because they’re on the same side. They sell fear.
In such an atmosphere, it can be difficult for barefooters to be upfront about the struggles we have. I didn’t take any pictures of my foot after the Mistletoe Half, in part because it was just gross, but also because I didn’t want my lack of caution to confirm people’s fear. So, sorry about that. Of course there’s risk. There’s risk in everything. But fear makes you stupid. Remember after 9-11, when people were duct taping their windows and buying portable parachutes? In, like, Des Moines, IA? Right. Don’t live your life that way.
No offense to any Iowans.
Oh, wait – I forgot. I’ve gotten a splinter or two, too. So, forget all that. Be afraid. Be very afraid.
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Comments
I think “Don’t be stupid” covers just about everything you need to know about running, regardless of shoes or lack thereof.
Wow! After reading the “good Doctors” interviewposted by BB, I am celebrating the fact that I am one of the exceptional few. I will continue to dominate the barefoot category in races. Sweet!!
Well put. I’m sure there are plenty o’ people out there finishing the last pages of BTR while simultaneously tossing their shoes and heading out for a 10-miler. Smart running, of any sort, requires a modicum of conservatism (and that’s not a plug for FOX news!).
100% right on fear; fear sells, people buy. Agree that we create our own reality and then convince ourselves it is the “only-right” way to live, rather than seeing it as a function of our experience and relative to culture/socialization (i.e. shoes/abuse/eating cats and dogs). You and Viper correct: boneheaded-ness/rampant stupidity cause of 90% of life’s problems, including those related to slogging.
[...] How Barefooters Hurt Themselves (with bonus podiatrist rant!) [Barefoot Josh] – Josh explains the primary reasons why people who run barefoot might end up injured (including me?) I would say my injury falls in the “Boneheadedness” category, after trying to run my two longest runs of the year within a couple days of each other. [...]
Barefoot Josh is afraid. Very afraid. Afraid of telling me he stepped on glass and bled all over the kitchen floor. Good thing I read the blog and learn these things. Big baby.
One of the reasons I enjoy your blog, Josh, is that you always make clear that yours is an experiment of one. Yes, you express infectious enthusiasm for your running but never is there the word from the mount; “Thou shall run with naked feet!”
I do sense that this debate will be negatively impacted by the exteme passions of both sides. The shoe companies have clearly drawn their line in the sand (with a big ol’ clodhopper that prevents them from feeling the sand) and some bf sites try to build too much “proof” from the limited research available. We are all individuals, and there will always be those who can or wont go bf. But if someone is running, period, we should be happy they are off the sofa.
But you are right, trying too much too soon will make have you lose the fun in it all and even may make you think you were duped somehow by the kool-aid drinking bf-ers.
One small rant: Battered housewives? Try this: I compare the shoe companies arguments against bf to those of the passions of the La Leche League. Some women cannot, or choose not to breastfeed. But the literature and passions of the “breast nazis” make you feel like you are violating the will of nature. I agree that breastfeeding is better, but it does not work for everyone. Shod and bf are the same.
Now, comparing barefoot running to breastfeeding. I believe that does not appear on many blogs!
I hope readers realize I’m not really comparing podiatry to acts of violence. The analogy was regarding the selling of fear and the incapability to imagine life could be any different.
I have a beef with fear peddlers that extends far outside the world of running. I keep my mouth shut about most of them because I don’t want to alienate myself too much from society. I’m a jerk to podiatrists because I feel confident they won’t send a SWAT team after me.
I also think it’s important to be a jerk from time to time. Shows your human.
What? More homework. Dammit.
Sage advice indeed.