How do my Barefoot sandals wear?
2 min read
In October 2016 when I was having a serious lack of motivation I wrote “When you don’t want to run” and I also decided to make a change to my running and use my Gladsoles barefoot trail sandals as my major running shoes and use minimal shoes far less. Since that time I have accumulated 700km in the sandals across all surfaces however with a large part of this being on roads as i have been preparing for a marathon.
I didn’t run the marathon in the sandals as I haven’t run a distance equivalent to a marathon in the sandals and wanted to give myself the best chance of a fast time on race day.
Recently I have been looking at the wear of the sandals and have noticed that they differ from left to right sandal. the left sandal or the right sandal in the picture showing the bottom of the sandal has far less wear at the forefoot of the sandal than the right and more on the heel area. This indicates to me that my landing on the left is slightly different to the right and I am more likely to heel strike on the left foot. Recently I have been conscious of this and concentrating on my technique when i run to make each foots landing more symmetrical.
I am not concerned my heel striking. I don’t have a medical qualification however my experience with barefoot running is that the most important thing for me is to not over stride. If I am over striding I am more likely to land on the heel and this is something I need to improve however wearing a barefoot sandal and feeling much more of the ground contact then any shoe I have worn gives me greater feel of the contact point and will help me fix this area of my running.
The other interesting point is that the sandals are holding up beautifully to the running I have given them. Since October they have run over 700km and before this I estimate they have run 200km from when i bought them. I don’t believe they will need to be replaced anytime soon and may be able to have another 700km run in them before they need retiring. That’s a great advertisement for Gladsoles barefoot sandals.
If you are interested in a pair of Gladsoles sandals use “TheRunninger” coupon code for a 15% discount. Rich and the team at Gladsoles would love to help you #freethefeet.
