Today I decided to take a one mile walk downtown to get some lunch from The Hotdog Cart and decided that it would be a good idea to try it barefoot. Everything was going pretty good for the first 1/2 mile. At that point my old baby-blister decided that it wanted to open back up and my feet started to feel like I had been walking on 5 grit sandpaper; literally! I think if you got down and counted a square inch of the old sidewalks around here you would probably count 5 rocks... I'm very happy to report that I didn't form any new blisters today but I think I got about as close as possible, my feet are slowly getting tougher. As long as I remember I've had a callus on the bottom outside edge of each foot (right where they bulge out on the inside of my ankles), this is from my orthotics rubbing on my flat feet day after day. An interesting thing is that those callus' are starting to soften from that part of my foot not touching anything now. Not that it really matters that much but it does seem that my feet are slowly starting to transition toward the normal side. Not that I ever expect to be normal... ;)
Today, after having a couple down days sitting around studying, my calves were pretty-much completely pain free. That was, until I went walking! After my walk my calves were SHOT! I think going barefoot is going to make them explode! (In a good way...) But, I am expecting my legs to look like I've got bricks stuffed under my skin by the end of the summer... Not having shoes on really makes me walk differently and step onto the ball of my foot rather than heel. I'm interested to see how I feel tomorrow.
My major take-a-way today was: Throw my Huarache Sandals in my pocket if I'm going to do anything barefoot for an extended period away from home...
I wish I could remember the source... Oh wait! It was a book on the tunnel fighters in Vietnam. There were myriad issues with foot rot and the like during extended stays in the jungle and a reference was made to a special forces officer that eschewed the wearing of boots to address this problem. It took him a while, but eventually his feet toughened up to the point where they were heavily calloused and able to stand up to the rigors of the jungle. Conversely, my best friend has flat feet, and was declared 4F during his physical when drafted for service during the Vietnam war.
ReplyDeleteScott Simonton
Wow, that's interesting. It is amazing how our bodies are designed. It's almost like God knew what he was doing... ;) It's strange to think that by trying to "improve" our quality of health we have created so many other problems...
ReplyDeleteI had to google 4F... Apparently I'm not a war buff or history fan! I always wondered if the services would have a problem with my feet or not. I think they're more lenient on that these days with orthotics available.