So I was wondering if anyone here ran barefoot.

Today was my first day ever truly running barefoot. I ran for 30 minutes in an indoor track. I'm going to be running three times a week and I imagine I will eventually move to harder surfaces [ie pavement] in a while/once it gets warmer. For now the indoor track it is.

So far I only have one blister on the end of my toe next to my big toe. This is on both feet. And I imagine its because that toe sticks out further than my big toe for me.


[update]
Date: 12 Janurary 2007
Time Spent: 30 mins

Alright so for my second barefoot run I had no problems during the whole thing. I really focused on my technique, running ball-heel-ball, leaning forward from the waist, and stepping lightly with my feet. I also varied how far I leaned forward and noticeed that as I leaned farther forward I let my feet start moving faster; this is consistent with Ken Bob Saxton's How to run barefoot article.
For the whole run I tried to enjoy the run, not focus on the time at all (there are two clocks and I tried to avoid looking at them, and maintain a constant conversational pace, ie one where you can still maintain a conversation. Near the end of the run I was having trouble maintaing the covnersational pace so I slowed it down a bit. After the run I looked at my feet and they were nasty black looking, which is to be expected.
I showered and then inspected my feet once I got back to my room. The longer toe of mine seemed to have improved their calloses and the big toe of mine is begining to get some callouses. On my left foot the longer toe has more of a blood blister than a regular one, where as my right foot has more of a regular blister. The left long toe's blood blister has more of a callous on it now than previously, I can't see the blood as clearly.

Note: if you guys don't want me to log my efforts here let me know and I will move locally.
Note2: Ken Bob Saxton's How to Run Barefoot Article

[update 2]
Date: 15 January 2007
Time Spent: 30 mins
Intensity: Aimed for conversational pace.

I ran a bit later today as the indoor track didn't open until 11. Usually I wake up at 8, go eat a light breakfast and try to leave my room to the track by nine o'clock or so. Today, I woke up at 9:10; went and had a standard breakfast, bowl of cereal[granola] and a bagel. By 11:34 I had started running. The run went well nothing really interesting to not, I worked on my form as well. It's hard to do as it is really suited for going a lot faster than I can go. I haven't really mastered it at slower speeds. [duh only 3rd time]. I notice I sometimes revereted to heel-ball-heel as I became more tired; i quickly corrected this on the next. I can vividly remember this happening a minimum of two times.

Right foot seems good no reall new blisters. The one on the second toe has more pus in it than previously. My big toe is tender to the touch. I think i notice more callous on the far right side near my pinky. I don't really know if there are more callouses/hardness on the ball/heel/area inbetween of my foot. The blister on the second toe seems to indicate that that toe was hitting the the ground first, which shouldn't be the case. My toes shouldn't really come in contact much with the floor I believe.

On my left foot there is a new blister on the left bottom side [farthest away from all other toes]; it is a bit painful tot he touch but not that bad, I've had worse blisters. ON my second toe I see the blTimeood more in the blister, though there is more callous on it which is good. More callous on outside of the foot as well, similar to right foot. There is definitely some hardness on my foot but I can't tell if it is greater or less than before.

After the run i looked at my foot and it was all dirty, footprint area. I only investigated it briefly so I can't tell about the concentration of dirt everywhere.

[update 3]
Date: 17 January 2007
Time Spent: 30 mins (0917-0948)
Intensity: Aimed for conversational pace
Breakfast: Granola with a bit of crispix and skim milk

I started off this run a bit faster than what was good for me. It was a nice pace but it left me panting for breath. So I eventually slowed it down a bit and tried to keep it there the whole time. I'm pretty sure at the pace I was going I wasn't completely bending at the ankles only, but a bit more from the waist. When I corrected this I was going at a much faster pace than I desired, at the same time I know it's possible for me to go at a slower pace and keep myself bent at the ankles.

Right foot: Nothing seems especially sore to the touch, the only place that is a bit is my big toe on the outside edge. The complete bottom, from ball to heel, is a bit redder I think; this is not especially new but I wanted to note it. Their is a new blister on my big toe and this is what is sore when touched from the side. My second toe blister seems to be normal. The outside callous is tender to the touch/step.

Left foot: Blister on big toe has increased in size and seems as if a grater came in contact with outside. it hurts a bit to walk on it. The outside part has calloused a bit. The bottom of my foot has the same reddness as my right foot, it seems as if their is increased blood flow their perhaps (this could be wishful thinking). The top of the blsiter on my second toe looks like the grater went to it as well. THis may be cracking, but I am not sure and it worries me. I shall ask on the barefoot running group.

Everything seems to be going well, I am pleased.

[Update 4]
Date: 19 January 2007
Time Spent: 30 mins (0935-1007)
Intensity: Mostly conversational pace with some faster areas
Breakfast: Banana, Cliff Bar, Odwalla Bar @ ~0715

I had physics lab at 7:30 so I wasn't able to run at my preferred time of 0900. Otherwise the run went well. I started of a bit faster than conversational pace. Then slowed down to conversational pace. At my conversational pace my whole body does not seem to be in a straight line. My upper body is a little bit dorward of my hips. I have noticed this in previous runs; to remedy this, I thhink I have to lean forward more and thus increase my speed but I'm not sure how the rest of my body is aligned. For my last lap I increased my speed and ran faster, definitely not a complete sprint but good enough.

Right foot:
My foot is doing well. I deifnitely beleive that my sole is hardening. My big toe and the far side of my foot (nea pinky) have callouses, I think they are rubbing a lot against the ground. I'm not sure if this is good or bad but it happens.

Left foot:
My big toe callous has definitely calloused some more, it has also popped a little bit on the left side. The blood callous on my second toe has decreased in size. The far side of foot (near pinky) is calloused as well. The bottom of my foot has hardened, besides that everything seems normal.

[Update 5]
Date: 22 January 2007
Time Spent: 30 mins (0922-0953)
Intensity: Conversational pace
Breakfast: Bowl of granola with small amounts of honey nut cheerios and crispix with skim milk.

Run went well. I still think I am not leaning forward enough. The only other difficulty per se is that my right calf had a harder time then my left one, ie it was sore and a bit stiff. I still think I am not leaning forward enough with my whole body, I can't really be sure until I meat another barefoot runner, or someone who knows their technique.

Right and left feet seem to be progressing well. The callouses I have on the outside of the feet aren't that sore compared to on friday. My big toe on my right foot has a tender callous. The blood blister on my second left toe is decreasing and seems to be healing well.

[Update 6]
Date: 24 January 2007
Time Spent: 30 mins (0916-0948)
Intensity: Conversational pace, 3 laps (.3 miles) at faster speed
Breakfast: Bowl of granola with small amounts of honey nut cheerios and crispix with skim milk.

Running itself was uneventful. My right calf still hurt a lot after the run, but not the left calf. In my left fourth toe at the base there seems to be some slight cracking developing I think; this sort of has me worried.

[Update 7]
Date: 26 January 2007
Time Spent: ~15-20 mins (0945 - 1006
Intensity: Conversational pace, 2 laps of walking
Breakfast: Banana, Cliff Bar, Odwalla Bar @ ~0715

So today's run was interesting. I stretched before hand as usual and got ready to run. I stood still, as usual, and began to lean forward from the ankles (i think). Before I knew what I was doing my left foot came forward and stopped me from falling. I paid no real attention to this except that on impact by left foot began to hurt. It was the top of the foot I believe and more on the coming up (ie ball lands, heel touches, [HERE PAIN] ball comes up. So i ran through it for as long as possible (bad idea should have stopped as soon as felt pain). The pain eventually got worse and I stopped and started to rub (massage?) my left foot. I rubbed the top as that seemed to have the most pain, i also rubbed the bottom a bit. When I went to go run again, this did not really help in the least. So I walked two labs, and then stopped. The time then was approximately 10:06.

Not a good idea to run regularly without arch support.

no: but I do use these occasionally.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nike_free

I've run barefoot during karate training, mostly on the balls of my feet.

It's a lot of fun, but my callouses have all gone away so it's a lot more painful now.

I'm going to use this topic as a log of my barefoot running. I'll update the first post accordingly. If this is a problem let me know.

Question was from a different topic, but belongs here.
I'm running on an indoor track and I have an arch. Also our feet were designed to run. We are predators, that's the only way we could have gotten our food. Our feet are designed to touch the ground in a ball-heel-ball fashion, which is how you should run barefoot, instead of the typical heel-ball-heel fashion.

But anyways, here is a side picture of my foot to highlight the arch:

I was like "what I asked this in this topic too?" and then I realized you just quoted it over here. Ball heel, really? I can't even fathom how you run ball heel. I would lose all my momentum trying to step on the front part of my foot before the back. Then again, I'm not much of a runner. Also, maybe I had it backwards, my feet are flatter than yours, perhaps having more archy feet is less painful to run barefoot for a while. Or maybe I was just fat the last time I did it much.

You could do it no problem.

Read Ken Bob Saxton's How to Run Article above, it's lengthy but worth it. It's sort of why to run barefoot as well.

I read a little bit of it. It's just really long and I have no interest in running. Read about the ball-first thing, though. I can't really comprehend it without trying, and I'm far too unclothed to go outside.

Inside your house, get barefoot. Stand up straight and lean forward from the ankles. Keep on leaning forward until you almost fall then catch yourselg. it's almost like that.

You're supposed to run toe-heel anyway, so running barefoot is probably not bad for you.