Tuck,

I’m pretty much in agreement with you – if it weren’t for the fact that most of us have been conditioned to wearing heeled shoes, making the switch would be an obvious choice. I still have times when I value a cushioning after beating my feet up in flats for a week or in a marathon, but my hope is that this will become less and less necessary going forward.

Disqus has been having issues lately apparently. Unfortunately, now that I’ve been using it for so long it’s hard to change, and it does offer me as moderator some benefits above the standard Blogger comment system.

Pete

Sent from my iPad

What science there is on this topic is pretty clear, and in its entirety, pretty overwhelming. Shoes surely have a use, but one must keep in mind that they’re a tool. Tools that are well designed improve performance, tools that are poorly designed degrade it.

Sneakers are pretty poorly designed.

The heel, for instance, serves no purpose. Heels were invented by the Mongols to allow them to stand up in their stirrups and shoot bows in any direction. They work extremely well if you’re in stirrups. European aristocrats adopted them, and made them popular because, as they became shorter from inbreeding, heels made them look taller.

I spoke to a professional shoe maker last year, and he mentioned that none of the other professional shoe makers could agree on what the correct height of the heel should be. When I told him zero, he pretty much agreed.

Based on that history, why put a heel on a running shoe? It makes absolutely no sense.

Most of the rest of the design is equally incoherent.

Tuck.

P.S.: this Disqus comment system is dreadful…

The conditioning is the trick. I’ve been at this diligently for a year, and continue to make progress. But I grew up in shoes. No running barefoot memories for me…

I’m still making progress, but I’m still progressing. It takes a lot of time.

On the other hand, I just ran my first half marathon. I couldn’t understand how folks could run that distance and endure the pain for so long. In Vibrams, there was no pain, just sore muscles. It was actually quite fun.

http://www.tips4running.com/St…

Dave,

Not sure if you’re on the Barefoot Ted Google group, but there’s a
discussion thread on your interview with Steve going on over there. Nice
work!

Pete