We are in a heatwave and despite this I have cycled for four and a half hours and walked for three hours and fourty minutes. For the bike rides I woke at 6am to avoid rush hour traffic, and to do things before the temperatures rose. Yesterday the temperature in Geneva reached 39°c. Just a few decimal places away from 40°c heat.
Despite the weak I still went for my afternoon walks, but it’s also because of the heat that I walked with 1.
Yesterday I went for a walk with a Garmin Etrex 32 that was sometimes in my hands and at other times in my pocket. I could have been hands three with a GPS watch but it’s good to play with a variety of devices. I chose the Etrex because it was paired with the Tempe thermometer. The Thermometer was in my backpack, in the top pocket. I knew that the air temperature would be around 30°c but I wanted to see what the “felt” temperature would be.
Since the Seventh of May 2023 I have walked more than 360 kilometres in the Merrel Trail Glove 7 and the experience has been good. For a long time I enjoyed wearing normal shoes but recently they started either to rub the front of my feet, or the heel would get worn away to bare plastic and I’d consider protecting the heel from friction damage when walking.
Not Goldie Locks The first Merrel Barefoot shoes I tried were the Merrel vapor glove 6 but they felt too thin.
Yesterday I walked into the wind for two to three kilometres. The wind was so strong that the Apple watch gave me “high noise level” warnings more than once. The wind was around 30-40km/h. It was so strong that I stopped listening to an Audiobook because I couldn’t hear it. I then heard the summary for the last kilometre and was told that I was walking at 11 minutes per kilometre, compared to my 10 minutes 40 per kilometre.
A few days ago I took twenty seven thousand steps in barefoot shoes. My feet did not suffer at all from walking that far in such shoes. I did some of that walking in the vapor gloves and the rest in the Trail Gloves. The beauty of barefoot walking is that you acclimate to such shoes quite fast. Within a matter of a week or two they become comfortable and feel normal.
Most shoes are designed to protect the heel with a cushion of air or material that absorbs heel strikes, before they are transmitted to the rest of the skeletal system. With barefoot shoes, especially the Vapor Glove 6 those heel strikes are not absorbed. You feel the force with which your heel is hitting the ground. Winding Up
I tried three walks with the Vapor Gloves. I decided to try purchase and try the Trail Glove 7 as a result of my Vapor Glove experience.
Some of us remember a time when you could get roller skates that fit shoes. Moonwalkers have the same idea, except that the goal with their project is for the wheels to be powered, to drive you forward at a maximum speed of 11 km/h.
Speed Increase Depends on Base Walking Speed They claim that this would increase walking speed by 250 percent, but I already walk at 5 to 7km/h, so it would double walking speed.
I walk from three to fie million steps per year. In doing so I wear through shoes and through socks every six months or less. It makes sense that I would experiment with barefoot shoes since I spend so much time walking. The Experience
Initially I tried the Vapor Glove 6 and I was able to walk my usual routes without trouble. I did find one surface where it felt as though the shoes were not adapted to the weathered road conditions and that’s part of the reason I decided to try others.
The easiest sport to practice every day is walking. We can walk to the bus stop, train station or other places every single day. We can walk in the morning, we can walk at the shops, and we can walk at lunch time or in the evening. All of these walking opportunities mean that shoes are on our feet for hours at a time and need to be comfortable. That’s why playing with Vapor Gloves and Trail Gloves makes sense.
I went for a walk with the barefoot shoes for a second day in a row. I didn’t regret it. I need to pay more attention to how I walk, specifically I need to make sure not to slam my heel into the ground with each step and this takes focus, muscle use, and discipline.
This time I wore socks with the barefoot shoes and the sensation is different. I prefer feeling that my feet are protected by the shoe, and by the socks.