Barefooting

I find myself frequently facing questions about my crazy running shoes and Barefoot Running in general. The long & short of it all is that I think biomechanics is cool and I totally buy the theory that "supportive" shoes do more harm than good if worn your whole life. Regardless of how I feel, you can make up your own minds on the subject if it even interests you at all. I'll even make it easy for you and share my links that I've found either useful or fascinating.

• This guy's site has a lot of reading.... http://runningbarefoot.org/
• This has some opposing viewpoints... http://runningtimes.com/rt/articles/?id=5810 and http://www.runwashington.com/features/barefootrunning.html
• Blog of a barefoot runner... Has an interesting running technique video.... http://runbarefoot.blogspot.com/2007/10/form-video.html (the most fascinating part is at about 4:50 if the narration irritates you)
• Has some interesting stuff... http://completerunning.com/running-blog-mark/index.php/archives/category/barefoot-running/
• Also kind of interesting... POSE is frequently paired up with Barefooting since they use the same posture principles and POSE frequently makes use of running flats which are the next best thing to barefoot, mechanically... http://www.posetech.com/training/archives/000198.html
• Here's something from a marathon site... http://www.marathonandbeyond.com/choices/clift.htm
• a phys site... http://www.physorg.com/news84737938.html
• http://www.post-gazette.com/pg/06157/696125-114.stm
• South African Medical Research council: http://www.mrc.co.za/mrcnews/july2005/running.htm
• NY Times articles: http://www.nytimes.com/2005/06/23/fashion/thursdaystyles/23Barefoot.html and http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/08/sports/othersports/08barefoot.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=barefoot%20running&st=cse
• These are interesting, but I am skeptical of anyone who refers only to excerpt and not the text as a whole, who knows what else was found... http://www.barefooters.org/medicine/
• From National Geographic: Oldest Footprints with modern anatomy found and Humans were born to run
  

That all being said/shared, I'll let you know how my "strengthen your foot for greater mobility later in life" experiment goes.... I don't think that one will be solved for at least 30 years though. : )

UPDATED: Thanks to Karina for posting this in the Comments: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/home/moslive/article-1170253/The-painful-truth-trainers-Are-expensive-running-shoes-waste-money.html