Another thought occurred to me, as I was running bareofoot home from
work after writing this.

It might be good to think of running barefoot on grass, sort of like
desert - the sweets, that you earn after several minutes of nutrious
running on surfaces that teach us how to run better, and provide
conditioning to the soles.

There, is however, another benefit to running barefoot on grass. It
does help develope muscle and tendon strength and flexibility. Again,
the problem for beginners, is the possibility of doing too much, too
soon. In which case, your feet will probably feel like mine, sore and
stiff, for a few days after I completed the San Francisco Marathon
(26.2 miles) with just a few miles a week practice for the preceeding
few months.

Have fun,
-barefoot ken bob

--- In RunningBarefoot@yahoogroups.com, "Ken Bob Saxton" <KenBob@...>
wrote:
>
> I will warn you of a few other problems (not yet mentioned)
starting
> out on grass.
>
> 1. Not much feedback to help teach you how to run gently, smoothly,
and
> naturally
>
> 2. Grass won't provide much conditioning to your soles.
>
> 3. The grass is comfortable to run on, so much so, that it is easy
to
> overdue your begining barefoot runs, and cause other injuries.
>
> In my experience, it is GOOD to begin on rough, hard surfaces.
>
> 1. You'll get plenty of feedback, teaching you to run gently, from
the
> start (when it is most helpful)
>
> 2. You'll get plenty of conditioning of the soles, while learning.
>
> 3. You won't want to run too far, too fast, too soon!
>
> At the very least, I do encourage people to begin, by not snubbing
> their noses to difficult surfaces. Run barefoot on a variety of
> surfaces and terrains.
>
> Have fun,
> -barefoot ken bob
>
> --- In RunningBarefoot@yahoogroups.com, "mizzzkittykat"
> <ex.e_ge_ses@> wrote:
> >
> > Thanks for the input, all!
> >
> > Due to the glass and other debris on the way to the park, I've
decided
> > to wear sandals to walk over. My plan of action is...
> >
> > #1 Start out running on the grass
> >
> > #2 Move on to using some reston's sticky foam pads on the
sensitive
> > areas of my feet on the running track
> >
> > #3 Complete transition to bare feet
> >
>