I ran 5 miles today, running the last mile barefoot. I think that my body is not quite ready to run barefoot two days in a row, especially if I throw in anything that is fast. I ran the last 800 of the workout in 2:30 (79, 71), and it ripped up the bottoms of my feet. I also noticed that my body naturally tries to avoid ripping up my feet worse once the hot spots start to develop. Subconsciously I seem to reach ground contact with more of a midfoot strike rather than a forefoot strike in these occasions, which leads to greater force being placed on my heel (thus the sore heel that I have now). Total time for 5 miles was 34:47. The barefoot mile at the end was a 5:55, which is the first time that I have broken 6:00 for a mile barefoot. The 2:30 final 800 was also the fastest I have run for that distance barefoot as well (this is all relative to what I have done recently on the track, as I am sure that I have run faster barefoot on the grass in the past). | 