OK, I’ve had it. After wasting about 15s in T2 fumbling with my socks yesterday, I’m wanting to try to run without socks for sprint and Olympic races. The only experience that I have with that is I ran about 2.5 miles in a pair of shoes about 7 pairs of shoes ago before I got a blister in the arch of my foot. Should I just try 1 mile at a time and build up from there or are there some shoes that are designed to be worn without socks.
Thanks.
I stopped wearing socks because I got too many blisters as the socks became soaked in sweat.
I think you have the right idea. Start with a mile sockless, put socks on and finish your workout. Toughen up your feet slowly until they are callused enough to do the whole run.
All of the Zoot brands are meant to be worn without socks and I have yet to get blisters. I train and race without socks. Before I switched to Zoot I would sprinkle some Blister Shield in my shoes and never had a problem.
Zoots are designed to be worn sockless. I’ve done a half marathon in them. I use Glide on the areas that might be tender, like the underside of arches, and the heel.
I don’t wear socks for solo marathons or IM marathons … haven’t for years. Just start doing it and your feet get tougher … just get used to putting paper tape on blisters and put glide lubricant on rub spots from your shoes. Remember, some people don’t even wear shoes (not me!)
Dave
I put some nuskin or other type of liquid bandaid stuff on the problem areas before the race. It is like rubber cement. Works great.
Olympic and below I don’t wear socks. Half’s and fulls, I take the time to throw them on after the bike. To get used to it I wore my shoes around the house, mowing, to the store etc…sockless. Then did some short runs without socks here and there and since then I’ve done numerous races without socks. Shoes are Newtons, btw, which did give me a funky callous or two on my toes but no problems since I broke them in sockless.
There are a few brands made to be worn sockless. I have never had a major issue with blisters, and can pretty much take any shoe and go sockless, which I do for oly races. That being said, Just like anything else in training, build up, dont go straight for the whole deal. Even if you look at the vibramfivefingers that was posted, they tell you not to wear them initially for more than an hour or two a day to let your body get used to it.
If you have a good running store, some of the employees should be able to tell you which shoes work well for them / other customers for going sockless if you don’t want to go for a race flat.
Rob
Use talcium. Besides preventing rashes and blisters, it´s way easier to slip your shoes on in transition (especially if you use rubber bands). I never use socks.
I wear Zoot’s to race in for anything up to a 10K. No socks and don’t have a problem.
I go sock-less for Oly and shorter and also powder (talc) my shoes prior to the race. Trying to put socks on wet/damp feet is a waste of time. And I’ve never had blisters wearing Shimano bike shoes (TR01’s I think) and Asics (Speedster 3’s).
Ray
I did IM Germany and IMLP (both in July) w/ the Zoot Energy’s…worked out great. I started training w/ them about a month prior to the races. I was using Asics Nimbus but those were too heavy and I was tired of socks. The Zoot’s worked perfectly…no blisters. Only thing I’ve noticed is the upper’s begin to get looser over time and your frontal lower leg muscle (i thnk tibilus anterior) starts working harder than usual.
I’m waiting for next year’s models to come out so I can get a discounted '09 model…or see if anything cool comes out 
Good luck!
what worked for me, biking w/o socks, mowing lawn, painting house, etc. w/o socks, and running, as you suggest, first 1 mi, then 2, then … eventually you’ll be sock free, at least to 10k. I doubt for most people that the 30sec to don socks matters for long course races.
The risk vs. reward leans towards the risk side for HIM and IM distances for me so that is why I wear socks for those distances. The reward side of the equation is better for sprints and Olys.
I guess I’ll start by wearing shoes without socks for a week and see how that goes before I start adding in some running mileage. I’ll also check out some Zoot shoes, too.
Thanks for the help.
I’ve been 50/50 on whether or not to try the Zoots sockless, I think I’ll give them a try when it’s time to buy another pair of shoes. Can anyone compare how the Zoots fit compared to Adidas running shoes (specifically the Adizero Mana or Sequence/Sequence 2’s)? Thanks.
I wouldn’t bother doing anything special.
Train in the correct shoe type for you, and in socks if that’s more comfortable…train hard, prepare properly.
Race no socks…get a blister? Big f’n deal, run through it (if blisters slow you down in sprints & olys then you have much bigger problems).
The healing process starts immediately post race (lots of threads here on treatment), use a few recovery days to let it run it’s course.
Rinse, repeat.
I really don’t understand this issue people have with blisters…
Blisters hurt and if you compromise your natural stride to accommodate the pain, that could cause bigger issues elsewhere in the legs or back.
Good grief. Are we still talking olys & sprints? You’re overthinking this…
You are partially correct, but you’ll do more damage (in that respect) by trying to train through blisters rather than simply sucking it up for the last few miles (if that) of your race.
Blisters hurt
Is this one of those HTFU moments 
Dave
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