Barefoot running...good idea?

[OakLeaf]

but then, most of them didn't run 10 miles every day.

I'm not so sure that's true - at least for males in hunter/gatherer cultures where men were the hunters and women were the gatherers. I've read more than once that before the invention of the bow, people hunted deer (or the ancestors of deer) by running them to exhaustion. I don't know how long a deer has to run before you can get close enough to club it, but it's probably a pretty long ways.


To the extent that overpronation and other gait problems are the result of atrophied and imbalanced foot and leg muscles, increased disuse isn't really a good solution... which is exactly why I'm trying to improve my body mechanics and foot strength so that I can wean myself off orthotics. Yoga, barefoot beach walking, barefoot work on a balance mat, Chi Running.... I doubt at my age that I'll ever "graduate" to barefoot running, but I can always hope.