I’m trying to figure this out and save myself a few seconds in transition (takes me forever to get socks on wet feet). How do you break your feet in? I’ve tried doing short runs without socks but I just get terrible blisters that keep me from wearing the shoes I tried breaking in for the next week. Do I just need to suck up the pain for a week or so and then I’ll have both the shoes and my feet broken in or do some people just have tougher skin on their feet that let them go sockless while others don’t?
My experience w/ running sockless is that the shoe itself may be causing your problems. There are some shoes that I can’t run barefoot in, and some shoes that feel like nice, soft slippers.
I was just about to post something similar, i am wondering if it has more to do with the shoes. I have been told that if you put body glide or Vaseline on your feet or in your shoes it helps.
yup - that’s what I do - bodyglide in transition. Takes like two seconds, easier than socks, no blisters.
did you buy your shoes a 1/2 size smaller than if you were planning on wearing socks?
I was an ocean lifeguard for several years, and never had any blister problems running in sneakers barefoot. The first year I didn’t lifeguard, I got blisters running barefoot.
When I was a lifeguard I spent the whole summer barefoot. Running on HOT sand, and walking on even hotter black pavement. Feel were gross and very dark on bottom…but they were tougher than you could imagine. My girlfriend hated it, but never had an issue with blisters.
no, same shoe size.
Any recommendations for shoes that feel like slippers? My Zoots feel great but the back of them are too high and rub against the top of my heel (or maybe that’s technically my ankle).
I use Vitruvian Harmony shoes, and they are like butter.
I’m trying to figure this out and save myself a few seconds in transition (takes me forever to get socks on wet feet). How do you break your feet in? I’ve tried doing short runs without socks but I just get terrible blisters that keep me from wearing the shoes I tried breaking in for the next week. Do I just need to suck up the pain for a week or so and then I’ll have both the shoes and my feet broken in or do some people just have tougher skin on their feet that let them go sockless while others don’t?
If you have a shoe that really fits your foot it is easy. If the shoe fits your foot no socks are necessary and “break in” is easy.
I am just not a sock person. I wear steel toed boots all day long and very rarely wear socks under them. I can, however, say that a pair of shoes that do not fit correctly will give me blisters. A pair of Adidas Super Novas destroyed my feet in one 4 mile run. Anyhow, like the others said, fit is key both with and without socks.
If I were starting from a socked perspective, I would start by wearing my everyday shoes without socks a couple of hours at a time and work into running without socks.
since you’ve tried and gotten blisters, you know where the friction spots are in the shoes. liberally apply a glob of vaseline to those areas inside the shoe and try again. i know that i tend to blister at the very front of my arch, so i put a lot of vaseline inside my shoe in that area when i set up my transition. i also do most of my training runs without socks, so my feet get used to it. hope this helps.
I am just not a sock person. I wear steel toed boots all day long and very rarely wear socks under them. I can, however, say that a pair of shoes that do not fit correctly will give me blisters. A pair of Adidas Super Novas destroyed my feet in one 4 mile run. Anyhow, like the others said, fit is key both with and without socks.
If I were starting from a socked perspective, I would start by wearing my everyday shoes without socks a couple of hours at a time and work into running without socks.
I might add that in my experience that the “fit” of the different manufacturers is completely different. So you may need to experiment with different manufacutrers. Adidas worked well for me and even though I could run 50 miles without a problem in my Adidas SL72’s sockless, I could never run any distance in any New Balance shoe. They simply did not work for my foot.
I totally agree with Frank (he IS a scientist, after all…) about shoe fit. I race barefoot, so I can give you some pointers. You should choose your barefoot shoes such that the heel cup is the proper type. Should be lower and less deep. Also, the shoe should be smaller, but you can always tighten them and its not an issue. I assume you get heel blisters and not mid or forefoot blisters. Some shoes with low back/shallow heel cup are Mizunos. I raced in Precision 8s this season and they were great and I never got a blister in my brick runs or in races. I tried a pair of Sauconys and they tore my foot up in one run. I now have a pair of Pearl Izumi Streaks and they are just like the Mizunos. I have run in Adidas CSHs and adizeros and they are good, too. I also agree with Tigerchiquita that some bodyglide is good, too. I put it on before the swim and it is still good in transitions, and it helps with flying mounts, too. FWIW…
I’m use to play hockey without socks in my skates so running barefeet is not a problem for me. The only thing I would recommend is to make sure that the shoe thong or whatever its called in english is sitting properly where its suppose to be.
Angela-
I always start wearing the shoes with socks for a couple runs, spend a couple hours spread out over a few days/week walking around in them w/o socks, to build up calluses, then do a couple 30 minute runs w/o socks before I race in them w/o. I also slather body glide all over the inside of the shoe before the race.
But, having said that, I cannot wear my Pearl Izumi racing flats w/o socks. No matter what I do, after 10 minutes my feet are bleeding.
i used to run without socks during cross country and track races to keep my feet cool. i wore spikes and never had problems
I’ve been running and racing without socks for 18 years. I break in shoes by coating the vulnerable parts of my feet with vaseline the first 2 times I wear them. After that I have no problem. I got used to running without socks the same way. Did this for a few weeks and I never had a problem