There’s something truly wonderful about feeling earth beneath one’s feet. The feel of the rocks, grass, different textures, different temperatures. There’s a feeling of “connectedness” that happens when one is outside with bare feet.

Now my issue is that my feet are always cold, so bare feet isn’t always an option, but when it is, I’m all for it. Many of you are aware of the weird shoes I wear when I train, and the only time I wear anything else for training is when it gets below -20°C, and my Vibrams can no longer keep my feet warm enough to avoid frostbite – a discovery I made with some consternation last year.

Also, unless you’ve got (or want) really calloused, hard feet, you’re going to need some minimal protection to keep your feet from getting rubbed raw or stabbed by sharp rocks and glass. There are some great companies out there with shoes that totally fit the bill of being almost barefoot. Take a look:

Vibram Five Finger
FeelMax
Terra Plana Vivo Barefoot
Tom’s Shoes (and these ones come with a cause!)
Soft Star Shoes
Arrow Moccasins
Pocket Slippers
Walking Liberty Moccasins
Gola Store
Steger mukluks and moccasins
Socwa Shoes
Stem Footwear
Skora

Should be enough choice there for even the fussiest of tastes!

Of course, if you’re so inclined, you can even make your own: How to Make Cool Weather Minimalist Running Shoes – wikiHow

The problem is, we’ve all been brainwashed to believe that God had no idea what He was doing when he designed feet, and so we must make up for His lack of education. We’ve designed footwear with so much support and cushioning that our feet no longer know how to “read the road” and we get injured. In fact the injury rate in those who wear “properly designed running shoes” is much higher than in people who run barefoot. Don’t believe me? Check the evidence: Barefoot Science

Or take a look at this site, with some interesting video: The Definitive Guide For Going Barefoot

And then there’s this one that’s almost humorous from Stanford’s Athletics team: The painful truth about trainers: Are expensive running shoes a waste of money?

I think Vibram says it best on their site

The typical human foot is an anatomical marvel of evolution with 26 bones, 33 joints, 20 muscles, and hundreds of sensory receptors (over 7000 nerve endings apparently -DH), tendons and ligaments. Like the rest of the body, to keep our feet healthy, they need to be stimulated and exercised.

Some of you reading this have some real issues with your feet – plantar fasciitis, flat feet, etc. For those of you there is a great book called “Fix Your Feet: Build the Best Foundation for Healthy, Pain-Free Knees, Hips, and Spine” by Dr. Phil Maffetone with some simple, yet effective treatment for problem feet. (read teven Robbins, Edward Waked, and Ron Rappel. “Ankle taping improves proprioception before and after exercise in young men,” British Journal of Sports Medicine, 29(4), 1995, pp. 242-247 for more background information on his methods).

Now, if you’re used to those comfy shoes, don’t go whole hog on me and decide to go totally barefoot starting tomorrow. You need to break your feet in slowly – remember, all those muscles are now badly aligned and atrophied. You can’t fix that overnight.

Start going barefoot at home. Then get yourself a nice pair of minimalist shoes and wear them around outside in your daily activities. Take them for a longer walk, then use them to do your warm-ups and cool-downs when you run, etc.  Go slowly, and retrain your feet to work the way they were designed to work.

Ah, the joy of setting my feet free – it’s such a great feeling, that once you try it, you’ll probably never go back to traditional shoes.  I know I dread dressing up with heels…

Oh, and if you’re like me, cold feet all the time, you might want to check out this site: Cold Feet, and see if you can nail down the cause. I’m going to spend a little time here myself to see if I can generate nice toasty toes for myself!

What do you  think, am I nuts (well, ok, that fact has already been established numerous times!)  Have you tried this yourself?  What’s your opinion?  Comment below!  I’d love to have your input.

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Who is Darlene Hull? Click here: www.darlenehull.com to find out!

My funky shoes have become my trademark, and rightly so.  I adore them.  Given my ‘druthers, I’d wear nothing else (well, nothing else on my feet, that is..).  They are just the greatest thing to have on your feet, though they won’t help you win any fashion points!

With the Frostbite, I’ve had to switch to something different when the temperatures are below 0°C to prevent frostbite from happening again, but I’m not happy about it.  This is the case at least until Vibram gets caught up with their world-wide back orders.  They do have winter shoes, but none in stock in my size anywhere in the world, apparently.

Everyone thinks you need all this cushioning and support for your feet.  The research now shows that the more you pay for your shoes, the more likely you are to be injured.  When you buy shoes – especially for exercise – the rule of thumb is, “the less the better” if you want strong feet, and if you want to avoid injury.

According to the Vibram site:

The typical human foot is an anatomical marvel of evolution with 26 bones, 33 joints, 20 muscles, and hundreds of sensory receptors, tendons and ligaments. Like the rest of the body, to keep our feet healthy, they need to be stimulated and exercised.

That’s why we recommend wearing FiveFingers for exercise, play, and for fun. Stimulating the muscles in your feet and lower legs will not only make you stronger and healthier, it improves your balance, agility and proprioception.

Want more information on getting the best shoes for your feet?  Check out this excellent article

Still not convinced?  Read this: Athletic Shoes & Supports: Facts & Myths

Want to risk trying the Vibram Five Finger shoes?  Get them here -but you’ll probably have to wait until Spring.  Sigh.

Happy Walking!

Darlene

A couple of weeks ago I developed frostbite on the toes of both feet during one of my longer walks.  I’ve been working hard to take care of my toes properly since that time, and hoping that the feeling will come back in most, if not all of them.

Well a friend of mine is in to Essential Oils and gave me some Helichrysum Italicum to massage into my toes to see if the feeling comes back.  The good news is that my toes – all except for the very tip of my left big toe – have their feeling back, and are functioning as normal.   The problem seems to be that the frostbite created a very thick layer of dead skin around the tips and bottom of my toes that wasn’t really visible – it looked completely normal.  The massaging removed that, and now all is well.

Whew!

I still have to be careful in the future to not allow my feet to get cold, but my new “Post Frostbite Kit” seems to be keeping all the cold away completely.

Today I get to start back in to my full training program again.  This is a happy lady!

Darlene

Ok, so it’s a week since my Sunday Frostbite fiasco.  Winter walking will never be the same.

First of all, there seems to be some permanent damage – especially in the fourth toe on my left foot – the one that went gray.    Dead as a doornail, that one.  The rest are tingly at the tips, some are still a little tender, but not bad.  Yesterday I was able to wear my normal shoes without pain, though, so that was great.

Last night I visited some “new” friends – well, I was actually his Gr. 12 prom date, and haven’t seen him since… I found him on Facebook, connected with his brilliant wife – who seems to be my twin separated from me at birth – and she’s into Essential Oils.  Last night while we visited at their lovely country home, Sue offered to massage my feet with some Essential Oils (not many people have offered to massage my feet EVER, let alone after knowing me for fewer than 12 hours…).  This morning my toes felt irritated more than usual, which gives me hope that this oil mix/massage might be waking up some of those dead nerves.  We’ll see what happens over the next few days.

I saw the doctor on Friday and he made it clear that I must now be extremely cautious for the rest of my life as I am now 10x more likely to get frostbite again.  As someone who has freezing feet even at the height of summer, I felt somewhat doomed by that statement, and knew I had to re-think winter walking.

SO…

Today my most-generous-of-all-wonderful-husbands drove me down to Gord’s Running Store to check out some different options.  The problem is that Vibrams strengthen all the foot muscles and allow your feet to work the way they were designed to.  “Normal” running shoes don’t – they support everything to the point that the muscles in your feet atrophy, and no longer work the way they were designed to work.  By switching between the two you end up living in a place where you go from body-builder to wheelchair-bound and back again – at least as far as your feet are concerned.  WAAAAY too much work!

I explained my dilemma to the incredibly helpful saleswoman, and told her I don’t want to spend six weeks during the peak training season re-strengthening my feet when the snow goes and the temperature warms up, and I can be back in my Vibrams.

She directed me to Biom Shoes.  You have to sacrifice your first born to afford them (Simon’s a good kid, he won’t mind…) but they apparently encourage natural motion in your foot and they keep the foot muscles strong. Not everyone believes they achieve that, but my options are limited at this point in time.

Knowing that the real key is keeping my feet warm at all times, I bought the shoe two sizes too big after trying them on with double socks – one very thick hiking sock and a standard fitness sock – and insoles, because I’m also going to be investing in thermal insoles.

While I was there I got two pairs of Injinji Outdoor socks made with micro-fine Merino wool to make sure my toes don’t rub together and get lesions that get infected without me knowing it (when your toes are numb, you don’t know there’s a problem…) and also to keep my feet warm, as Merino wool is “excellent at regulating body temperature, especially when worn against the skin. The wool provides some warmth, without overheating the wearer. It draws moisture (sweat) away from the skin, a phenomenon known as wicking. The fabric is slightly moisture repellent (keratin fibers are hydrophobic at one end and hydrophillic at the other), allowing the user to avoid the feeling of wetness” (according to Wikipedia)  And, of course, I can wear these in cooler Spring/Autumn temperatures in my Vibrams and still keep my tootsies warm.

Finally I got some ice-grips.  A few close calls made me realize that adding a numb head to numb toes would make walking impossible (though I’m sure many of you think the head’s already numb…) so I decided to not take any chances.

And there went the second child – thanks, Tina!  LOL!

So now I have cool gear on my feet to keep the toes toasty, I’m all set to go!   I’m breaking in the new shoes over this weekend, and I’ll do an easy 1 hour on Monday to test them out.

Wish me luck!

Darlene

(PS – who was it who said that walking is a very inexpensive sport?)

(PS – and never fear! I’ll be back in my beloved Vibrams once the temperatures are above 10˚C!)

(PPS – Oh, and just kidding there about exchanging my kids for cool gear.   The kids are here and safe…)

I was so proud of myself for getting out for my 3 hour walk yesterday in spite of the -19°C/-2°F temperatures. I bundled up, set up my technology, and headed down what was actually a beautiful pathway with fresh snow that sparkled in the sun.

As usual, my toes got pretty cold when I started out, but I knew that once I hit training speed, they’d warm up and be fine. Or, so I thought. Yesterday was a “ladder” walk, a kind of Interval walk where you jump around into different heart rate zones, several of which are quite slow. At times my feet felt fine. Other times, my toes were quite cold, but not painfully so.

On the way home, however, I began to feel quite uncomfortable and about 1km from home, when I should have been in HR Zone 2 (HR in the mid-90′s) I just kept it up in HR Zone 5 (HR in the mid 130′s) because my right foot felt numb, and both feet were feeling uncomfortable.

I got home and found a hot meal waiting for me, so I peeled off my shoes and snow gear, and sat down to eat. My feet began to thaw over lunch, but my toes were still numb. After lunch and a cup of tea I finally got my socks off – and realized how wet they were. I looked at my feet and discovered 3 toes were an odd grey-colour, and all my toes were bright red. One was swollen. My feet, however, were very warm.

It was then I realized I had frostbite.

Thankfully it wasn’t really serious frostbite, but I quickly did some research to treat my feet to make sure I didn’t damage them further.

Following instructions to continue to keep them warm and dry, I had a quick, not-too-warm shower, put on clean Injinji socks to keep the toes separated, wrapped those in fuzzy warm socks, and then slipped on my hut booties. Feet were toasty, but as the toes began to heal, the pain started. By dinner time I could no longer walk – it felt like a 200lb someone was standing on my bare toes with work boots on. There was no place to “put” my feet. No place brought release – raised, down, with weight on them, without weight. The only relief came from walking so I walked around the dining room table for about 40 minutes trying to cope with the pain. I have no idea what serious frostbite feels like, but if this is mild, I never want to find out.

Finally at about 6:30 I took some ibuprofen and crawled into bed. It was after 7:00 before I could tolerate covers.

This morning I’m still in quite a bit of pain, but it’s tolerable. I don’t walk too well, but at least it’s not excruciating when I just sit. Toes feel like they’re soaking in “too hot” water.

The real dilemma is, where do I go from here? Looks like new VFF’s won’t be ready before March (!!). I don’t have any shoes to walk in other than my regular day shoes which will get totally wrecked in the snow and salt outside. Do I pay $160 for shoes that will “do me” until the VFF’s are back in stock?  I do have my Sketcher‘s (which I stopped wearing almost right away because they “re-activated” an ankle issue I used to have), but with the lack of feedback from the thick soles and the rocking soles on sheer ice, I’m liable to end up in the hospital with a concussion wearing those.

ARGH.

Well, one thing is for sure – no walking this week! I’m not sure what I’ll do with all that extra time…

Darlene

Darlene

Here in Calgary, Alberta, the days are getting quite cold – and the mornings quite dark. At the peak of the cold season we’re looking at temperatures of about -25˚C (-13˚F) plus wind chill. Keeping up with walking during the winter season takes some pretty tough discipline and great clothing. I thought I’d share some of my best finds with you.

_	For the ladies: Don’t go for a walk without a GREAT sports bra. the Powerback Wirefree Bra is my personal favourite because it doesn’t pinch, twist, ride, squeeze, chafe, flop, or otherwise cause extreme discomfort.
	Next comes a good base layer set which I’ll wear if it’s -10˚C (14˚F) or colder. Make sure it’s got a “Moisture Management System” or you’ll be wet and soggy when you get home, and likely colder than you want to be. I wear the PolarMax brand – mostly because it was crazy cheap when we were in Montana!
	Next comes a turtleneck to keep arms and neck warm
	Then I add my funky injinji toe socks (which I have just discovered in colourful stripes!!!)
	Then come thermal pants to keep the wind out and the warmth in. I managed to get mine cheap at Costco, and they work great!
	Then, of course, it’s my Vibram FiveFinger shoes, which I passionately love, and prefer to never walk in anything else. These winter ones are still on my wish list. Everyone (including Vibram!) is sold out. Sigh.
	If it’s above -10 I just wear a fleece top. If it’s colder than that I move to my ski-jacket.
	Then come the 180′s to keep my ears warm and my iPod ear buds in place. I wear a wool hat over these if it’s really cold.
	And I top it off with cheap wool gloves, unless it’s below -10,in which case I wear good ski gloves.

On dark days I have a blinking reflector that goes on the back of my hat/180′s and a headlamp that goes in front.

On painfully cold days I’ll add a scarf, buy if it’s cold enough for a scarf I also need to wear ski goggles because otherwise my breath condenses on my glasses and freezes, and I’m blind. the good news is, the more stuff I put on, and the more ridiculous I look, the less recognizable I am! LOL!

I also put good cream (I like Avon’s “Moisture Therapy”) on my face and lips to prevent chapping.

If you want more information on waking in/dressing for the cold, check out this video:

Prepare for Winter Walking

And there you have it.  I need to get up earlier in the winter just to get dressed!  Hopefully I remember to go pee before I start…

Happy Walking!

Darlene

Every now and then I hit a place in my walking where I need to take about a week off.  Because I’ve never had problems starting up again, I allow myself this grace.  It happens about once or twice a year.  No biggie.

About a month ago, such a time had arrived.  I just needed a break, so I took a week off.  That weekend I got the dreaded flu, and the following two weeks, while there were no messy flu symptoms, I was so tired as to be useless.  I did do a couple of walks, but not enough to brag about, and each one left me drained and exhausted.

Following that my husband and I took a week off and went to Montana.  Training wasn’t even slightly in the picture.

In the meantime, due to complications with getting the winter version of my “funky feet” I succumbed and bought a pair of Skechers.  Since having begun with my Vibram 5 fingers, I’ve really only worn shoes with next to no support or cushioning in them, and my feet have loved it.  When I got the Skechers (SUPER comfy shoes with lots of support and cushioning) I’ve been wearing them quite a lot to get my feet used to them, and have hardly worn my normal shoes.

So for about a month I’ve not done much in the way of serious walking, and my feet have also been relaxing in these lovely skooshie shoes.  On Monday I went for my first serious walk in ages, with my Vibrams, and came home with feet screaming in agony.

I told them to “suck it up” and went again on Wednesday.  Well, my feet then went on strike altogether and I could hardly walk.  It meant I had to take a break from walking yet again, and baby my feet, getting them used to the Vibrams again.

What a nuisance.

The moral of the story is “suck it up”.  Don’t get lazy.  And if you DO get lazy, don’t let your feet get lazy too.

Ouch.

Darlene

As you all probably know, I LOOOOOOVE my Vibram FiveFinger shoes. Unfortunately, here in Calgary, winter is already upon us (except when the Chinook comes for a visit) and we’ve already had snow a couple of times. My Classic Vibrams are NO good in the snow – too cold, too wet, no protection. I’m desperately wanting a pair of FiveFinger Flow shoes for our Winter, but Vibram is all sold out. Sigh.

In desperation I decided to try something really different going in completely the opposite direction from normal and trying the Skechers Women’s Shape Ups – Strength Fitness Walking Sneaker I was hoping to try something that would keep my feet out of the snow (which has melted since I bought these, of course, but I tried them anyway).

Wierd feeling. After the “barefoot” feeling of the Vibrams, these new shoes feel somewhat constricted (though they are comfortable, as far as shoes go) and they “rock” when you walk – it’s like walking on rocking chair runners! The soles are very high – about 2″ at the highest place – and that makes me a little nervous about turning my ankle while doing any power walking.

I haven’t tried them on a “real walk” yet, but walking around town I can see that they actually work different muscles than regular walking, which feels a little odd, but I’m thinking that alternating the two kinds of shoes might be good.

So far, the VERY few days I’ve walked since getting them have had weather that’s suitable to my Vibrams, so I haven’t tried these on a long walk yet, but they’re fun to wear around town – and I’m not so short!

Happy Walking!
Darlene

I completed level 2 in my training on Saturday by participating in a 10k race for a local church here. Even without the 1˚C (33.8˚F) temperature and brisk winter wind, it was an interesting experience.

I warmed up well, started out by climbing up a reasonably steep but short hill, and proceeded through what was a beautiful, not-terribly-strenuous walk to complete the first 5k loop. I found that although I wasn’t breathing hard or feeling like I was exerting myself beyond my comfort zone (keeping up with about a 7 on the RPE in my estimation), I was pushing myself beyond my ideal heart rate, and my muscles got very tired, very quickly – which is unusual, as I walk a 10k or more almost every week with no issues whatsoever.

I have been training using the Maffetone method which I love, but I’ve not been using it long enough to get a good speed result from a 10k race, so I decided to ignore all his good advice about keeping within your (much lower than conventional) ideal training heart rate level, and just walk as quickly as I could without getting winded. By the end of the first 5k my feet were numb from the cold and felt like bricks, I was demotivated, tired, frustrated, and feeling generally like quitting. I couldn’t believe it. I warm up with a 5k. This was ridiculous.

The second half was better because I hooked up with the woman who owns Distinctive Catering and we got into a great discussion about my funky shoes (they were quite the hit at this walk) and walking in general and I slowed my pace a little to keep together with her and engage in conversation. This moved me back into a better pace within my ideal heart rate. My pace had moved to about a 5.5-6 on the RPE, and with my feet now having some warm blood circulating through them, engaging myself in interesting conversation, and staying within my hear rate, I felt much better on the second lap – but was still feeling quite tired. Much more tired than my long walks (i.e. 21k) feel. This was odd.

The race ended in the middle of a pretty good downfall of snow, so I didn’t want to hang around much outside when it was over (though I did snag a bagel and had a brief chat with some walkers around the coffee urn…) Because of this I didn’t really stretch properly (what is WRONG with me?) and so for the rest of the day I was tired, achy, and quite uncomfortable.

So, lesson learned. I will take longer to prepare for my 21k so that my aerobic level is at place where I can complete it within my proper heart rate level at an 8 minute/kilometer speed (2.8hr finish time – I’m not too far off). And I will take the time to stretch properly when I’m done.

Live and learn….

Happy walking!

Darlene

(PS – sorry I don’t have any pics. My hubby had a meeting on in the morning and couldn’t be there to take pictures of my crossing the finish line in the snow… Too bad)