Category Archive

As I’ve learned is the norm with running, or indeed any exercise program you set yourself; nothing ever goes to plan. My latest effort to get back into running involved walking barefoot or in minimalist shoes for 5k every day for a month. Two weeks into this I started running a 1 mile route, leaving a whole week of rest …

So it’s been two months now since I wrote on here that it had been five months since I’d last ran. Moving back to live right next door to Clapham Common was just the inspiration I needed to get going again. Now since I’d had a break, the skin on my soles had become soft and unconditioned. I was starting …

I’m constantly asked, “if it’s so good, why don’t I see professional athletes running barefoot”. It’s easy to assume that what professionals do in competition is what we should also do. However we never see these professionals in training, and for most runners, that is effectively all they do – train. So we really should take our cue from what the top …

So I’ve not run at all for five months. Mainly because I became obsessed with a novel I’ve been writing and ended up spending all my time on this, at the expense of everything else. And also because I moved to Putney and just never continued the habit I’d built up in Clapham. But on Thursday I moved back to …

I gave a presentation recently at my work, to explain barefoot running; what it is and what it isn’t. Obviously the subject is too complex to completely cover in a 30 minute presentation, so this was tailored to give an overview, and hopefully interest people enough to do their own research into the subject. The presentation went down very well, so …

Last night I attended the UK launch of Christopher McDougall’s new book, “Natural Born Heros”.  In his last book, “Born to Run”, he examined the lost art of running; most humans today being locked into a perpetual injury/purchase cycle of running technology fueled by clever marketing.  This time round McDougall expands on the natural movement of running, into all areas …

I noticed today out running that I’d stopped noticing small stones.  They are pretty much all you notice when you first removed your shoes and go running, or walking.  Our feet have become so used to wearing shoes that our soles are so delicate that detect and find uncomfortable the smallest of stones.  And they are everywhere.  On the paved …

I got an email this morning from Tumblr, telling me that my blog, ‘barefoot’ was 3 years old today. That blog is no longer on Tumblr, I moved it to its own website a while back and I’ve been working hard to complete the accompanying content since.  I can’t believe I’ve been doing this barefoot running experiment for three years now; it’s …

It’s been two months since I last ran.  There are a couple of reasons for this.  I went on holiday in November last year and didn’t want to obtain an injury just before I went that could have spoiled my holiday.  Then when I got back I succumbed to various cold/flu-like illness that were doing the rounds as they usually …

So although I’ve not posted much lately, I have still been running.  I’ve been sticking to 2 miles (3.3k), 3 times a week in order to accustom my soles ready for the stepping back up to 6k – a complete circuit of Clapham Common.  I’ve been up to that distance a few times before, but I think each time I’d …