Oh, the joys of being barefoot. We will all be able to look back and think of this time as “the enlightenment” when we finally ditched our constrictive foot coffins and let our toes emerge, shaking and crooked, to see the light and heal. The more you adjust to ditching the shoes, the more you find yourself heading out shodless or in something minimal (not everyone wants to get kicked out of a restaurant or pay attention to every shard on the street).  Unfortunately, this pedal liberation does have its costs. You may now find yourself struck with a case of shoeguiltitis (SHOO-gilt-ite-iss).

The Problem:

This affliction generally creeps on slowly, but as you embrace your barefoot life more fully, you may quickly and unknowingly find yourself in its grips. Do you avoid looking at the piles of shoes in your closet? Do you find yourself making negotiations when passing the shoe rack? Oh, I will wear them next week. But next week never comes. Do you feel regret and see $$$ signs oscillating through the air when confronted with your shoe collection? Do you suppress a strong urge to hurl all of your shoes out the window and into the nearest dumpster? Then feel the inevitable guilt for the landfill waste you would be contributing to as well as the hundreds of wasted dollars spent? Do you feel the urge to run with your old shoes only so you can get your “money’s worth” and use them until they are “done”? If you have answered yes to one or more of these questions, you have Shoeguiltitis.

The Solution:

Fear not, my barefoot amigos! While you have moved on from your raised-heel, toe-spring, arch-supportive motion-control running  shoes, there are others that will find hope and safety in your shoes. Soles4Souls can take your old shoes, clean them up, and donate them to those in need. I know what you’re thinking – why would I want to give someone else the very shoes that had me feet up with two bags of frozen peas on my knees? Here’s why: in other countries where clean water isn’t as plentiful and infectious disease isn’t as easily controlled, there are children and adults who can protect themselves from sickness and disease by wearing shoes. For others, they may have access to clean water, but may have lost everything they own due to devastating circumstances. You can make a difference.

Soles4Souls was founded on the mission to “change the world, one pair [of shoes] at a time.” After seeing the devastation of the 2004 tsunami in Asia and later damage inflicted by Hurricane Katrina, CEO Wayne Elsey felt compelled to do something. When television coverage aired a single shoe washing up on a beach, he knew he had found his calling. From there S4S was formed and has since donated well over 14 million pairs of shoes to 127 countries including Kenya, Thailand, Nepal and the United States. Every 7 seconds, a pair of shoes is placed into the hands of someone in need. Soles4Souls is a 501(c)(3) organization recognized by the IRS and donating parties are eligible for tax advantages.

How to Donate: Follow this link and find a drop-off location nearest you.

Learn More: www.soles4souls.org

Take a few minutes and cure your Shoeguiltitis just in time for the summer sunshine.

Feel the World!

Barefoot Jason Robillard has done it again, running 2/3 of a 100 mile race in his Invisible Shoes.

But this time, he’s got some extra fashion sense added:

Now, some of you may know that I’m a sprinter. In fact, I ran “long-distance” at a meet last week when I did my first 200m race (and, for the sake of bragging, even though I totally lost it at the end, my time of 25.7 ain’t bad for a 48 year old… I think I can get below 24 with a bit of work).

So, to read Jason’s great post about training for and running an ultra was just amazing to me.

Enjoy it here: Burning River 100 mile Endurance Race Report by Jason Robillard

Imagine that you haven’t lifted weights in a while… or ever.

And imagine that you got the idea that you wanted to bench press 500 pounds.

Would you go to the gym, put 500 pounds on the bar, and just go for it?

Of course not. There’s no way you could budge 500 on day one.

Would you go to the gym and put, say, 100 pounds on the bar and lift it, over and over, until you felt tired… and then do a few more reps until you were wasted?

I hope not.

Would you take a small weight, like 20 pounds, and lift it for an hour or two?

Boy, I wouldn’t.

But for some reason people think they can get into barefoot running with one of those plans.

They think they can just whip off their shoes and replace one of their regular runs with a barefoot run. Or, worse, they think that even if they haven’t run for a decade, it’ll be fine to go for a 5 mile barefoot run. Or they get out for a barefoot run, feel some strain or pain in their feet or calves and think, “Oh, I’ll just work through this, it’ll be fine.”

And they pay the price.

They wake up with freakishly sore calves or Achilles tendons. They get blisters. They get plantar faciitis. They get stress fractures.

Look, over-training is over-training. Doing too much is doing too much.

Especially with barefoot running, TAKE YOUR TIME. There’s no rush to get to the point where you’re running an ultramarathon every day for 1000 days in your bare feet. And there’s no way to rush building up the strength in your muscles and ligaments and tendons, or to develop correct and efficient form.

It happens as it happens. No sooner, no later.

How long that’ll be is a mystery. Maybe it only takes you a week or a month. Maybe it takes you a year.

Who cares?

First of all, it’s not all-or-nothing. It’s not like you won’t be able to be barefoot and then, BAM, 6 months from now you can! It’s a process. Maybe today you can only run 100 yards and then need to ice your feet for 3 days. That’s fine. In a month, guaranteed, you’ll be doing more. And a month after that, you’ll be doing even more.

Secondly, nobody is telling you to throw away your shoes the moment you realize you want to become a barefoot runner. Keep your shoes. Enjoy your shoes. And look forward to when you don’t want or need them.

But, please, give yourself time — the amount of time that YOU need — to make the transition.

Honestly, there’s enough to learn and experience and benefit from if all you ever do is an occasional 1 minute jog without shoes.

I hate to toss out “prescriptions for living,” but in this case I can’t think of any better way to say it than, “Enjoy the journey… because there isn’t really a goal.”