(no subject)

So, as a few of you know, I recently picked up a pair of Vibram Five-fingers, rather like this:



decuto had kicked me with a similar pair rather a lot of times and I was quite charmed with the design. I also picked up two pairs of socks with toes, one lightweight and wicking, the other wool. Hey, new shoes for training.

Actually, maybe new shoes for almost everything. I thought they were cute, but I had no idea. The experience is quite like going barefoot, except more comfortable. You can feel the mud squish between your toes. You can feel the snow crunch under your feet. You can grab things with your feet. You can walk over acorns, and feel them, but they mostly don't hurt. There is a wonderful intimacy and sensuality in your contact with the ground... and they are sneaky and functional and good for things like climbing trees and walls. (Um. Theoretically, of course.)

I wore them to the conditioning class last week. And after we were kicked out of the room we'd been using, B and I headed down to go running and punch and kick the wall a bunch. Now look, running and I mostly don't get along. (And next time I should bring my inhaler - which I probably won't need, but just getting over a bronchial bug...) I've had several doctors tell me I oughtn't to take up running because of my funky leg structure. Actually, this has been leaving me feeling a little ornery. And my legs aren't so funky anymore.

It was awesome. Okay, I definitely have a lot to work up to. But it felt great. (And the next day all the stablizers in my legs hurt, but in a great sort of way.)

Then it occurred to me that the only other time I've really gotten along with running, it was part of wushu conditioning, and I was wearing martial arts slippers. At the time, I thought I should really get decent runing shoes (and I did) and push things further... but my attempts mostly left me feeling awful, and I was busy with research and martial arts, and didn't follow up on it well. Now I'm wearing something that is even more like going barefoot than my martial arts slippers. But running works in them.

The other thing about this that has me so excited is that it wasn't very long ago when spending any extended period of time barefoot was uncomfortable. I've had alignment problems pretty much my whole life, and after blowing out my right knee and having knee surgery, I submitted to orthodics. That helped a lot of things, and was part of what really got me going on my remodeling project, but I figured I was probably setting myself up for long term dependency there. I've been trying to work on my stance, I did some slow forms work barefoot, and I moved to more subtle orthodics, but it was still really hard.

Since I moved out here, I've been spending a lot more time barefoot. And we spar barefoot. And I do walking meditation barefoot. I've been working on my stance a lot, generally, and in specific martial arts and yoga contexts. But darn - walking around essentially barefoot? Running? Doing forms without feeling kind of awkward and unstable the whole time? I would have thought that was a ways off, not "Oh, my muscles are a little sore after I've been running around in these all day."

This morning I did forms at Veale, and then ran a little afterwards. It feels good. I'd always heard running could feel good, but it's seldom been better for me than "Not awful."

I promised myself I'd wait until next month to buy a pair of the cold weather ones. Luckily, next month is soon.