How does anyone stand the heat of the pavement in the summer? I went out today and came back with a mild burn on both soles from just walking on the sidewalk. Does it get easier the more you do it?
The short answer is: yes. The long answer is: You can S L O W L Y build up tolerance by walking on concrete (the beige stuff). The darker the surface (like asphalt), the hotter it is. You can cross the street (asphalt) by walking (literally) on the white lines. You can walk on the asphalt if you move QUICKLY, but your better bet is to build up tolerance. Go barefoot on mildly warm days to see how it feels. Just bare in mind: the lighter the surface, the cooler it is.
you may want to carry a bottle of water with you as a form of foot emergency coolant. no, seriously ! :sunny:
Personally I prefer hotter pavement than pavement below 70 degrees, (Still getting used to the varying temps of the U.S.). I find it easier for me to go barefoot. for some reason, in the cold, even when it's like 60ish degrees, I feel even the slightest thorn. Not painful, but less comfortable. Must be because I'm still getting used to it all. That, and I haven't seen dreadfully scalding hot weather here in the upper midwest yet.
maybe tomorrow will be better... supposed to get storms. but its been in the mid-high 90's everyday here.
Luucckkyyyy... Every morning, it ranges from 60-70 here in Minnesota, and that's when I generally do my barefoot jog. It gets up in temperatures later during the day though. I just wish it were warmer on earlier hours.
This. Just walking across the parking lot to my girlfriends apartment is enough to burn them. Hot asphalt seems to be the last thing that I must get used to.
Avoid hot asphault surfaces. Why abuse your body? The body will become what it needs to be for your use in a natural environment. I don't think hot asphault is within that realm. It is an unnatural manmade surface. I know from experience what it will do to your feet....even feet that are toughened within a barefoot lifestyle.
I always, always, always have a pair of flip flops in my bag from now until September. If you can keep walking in the shade yeah, but hot tar is a fucking bummer that I'm not prepared to tolerate
A S-L-O-W progression works best. Your feet are accustomed to a nurtured environment and have adapted to it. When you go barefoot, the soles have not adapted or built up natural protection to the different surfaces you walk on. Blisters are the body's self protection mechanism. Start walking for a brief period on cool to warm surfaces such as concrete, etc. Slowly increase the time you do this, then onto warmer surfaces. Everyone's tolerance is different so what works for one may not for the other. I had one GF whose soles were calloused and hard as rocks. She and I could walk on anything, hot, cold, gravel, asphalt, small pieces of glass and never feel any discomfort. Another had very tough, leather like soles and another friend had soft soles and yet all of us had the same (in)tolerance for hostile surfaces. Everyone is different. Start slowly and you'll be OK.:sunny:
it was around 95ish or so today (The pavement would've been hotter than the outside temperature) when I went to take my daily run, and it wasn't uncomfortable at all. I still prefer warmer grounds of any sort than anything below 70. (Still getting used to the hot summers and cold winters of the U.S.). My feet seem to be more sensitive to the cold.
We had the first real heat wave of the summer at the beginning of this week, with temperatures rising as high as 35°C (95F) on Monday and Tuesday... it was quite demanding to sit in the office (no A/C!) and working on spreadsheets and reports. I went to the office loo on an hourly basis, dousing my lower arms in cold water and splashing handfuls of cold water onto my face. I wish I'd had a bowl of cold water to dip my bare feet into under the desk, too. Since I was working a late shift from 11 am to 8 pm, I was mostly indoors during those hot hours, and also stayed in the shade on taking breaks outside the building. On the way to work and back home I felt that the sunlit parts of the pavement were indeed very warm, but due to the toughness of my bare "living leather" soles, I was never in danger of getting burnt. If new barefooting apprentices would have chosen such a hot day to try it out, they might have been in for a painful experience. As has been written already, the best way to prepare for such conditions is to start barefooting in mild conditions in order to build up a little strength of the sole (I still hear that title song of the Star Trek: Enterprise series with that line that might apply to barefooters "I got strength of the sole, no one's gonna bend or break me..." OK, it's "soul", originally, but that's not nearly as amusing as my version, IMO). Fortunately, temperatures dropped to bearable levels yesterday, and now it's barefooting in cloudy weather around 20°C (70F). Wiggling bare and unscathed toes, ~*Ganesha*~
The more you walk barefoot,the tuffer with time your soleS get.In my part of the World,summer gets to 44 degrees Celsius,and the tarmac at places become spongymThe worst was when I worked in the Kalahari desert wher temps get in excess of 50 Celsius,and you can fry an egg on the sand,yet,my feet never burned,and I was barefoot 24/7/365.Ones feet get used to it,just takes. Time,and if you look at the Dan people,they are always barefoot.It can get to bearable levels,just takes time an exposure
I love going without shoes. So when the tmps get hot I take a pair of flip flops and keep them in the car. I can then judge the distance from the car to cooler pavement. If it is 95 deg or more I won't walk more than 50 feet. Over 95 deg I wear flip flops to cooler ground.
two days ago i was left (again) with no bike 'cos it needed some major repairs. i left it at the bike shop and crossed the town heading for home. out of town i had my first full sun walk over a hot pavement, but it was white concrete and not black tar... i kind of missed that burning sensation.
I remember some years ago, I was covering a country music festival in the middle of July in Apple Valley California (in the middle of the desert) as a photographer. It was freakish hot - like maybe 112. So around 2 P.M., after shooting a few rolls I went back to my car for more film. The waves of heat coming off the blacktop parking lot was overwhelming. And then along comes this young man, maybe 11 or 12 years old, blonde and blue eyed with a big grin, calmly munching on a hot dog while strolling (repeat strolling) barefoot over the blazing hot terrain. He walked all the way over to the far side of the sizzling hot pavement, a good distance of maybe some 200 yards, and back, all the while strolling with the greatest of calm and ease. He never hurried, nor flinched, nor ran, nor gave any indication of pain. I would not have been able to stand barefoot on that blacktop for more than maybe 10 seconds without jumping in pain. It reminded me of my best friend when I was a kid. He was always barefoot, no matter how hot the ground was, and never gave any sign of discomfort even when the Southern California weather was over 100. So maybe it is a matter of getting used to it. Of acclimating and getting your soles used to the heat. But even now, after 15 years of constant barefooting, I can't come close to handling hot asphalt when the weather is over 100 or so. My hat is off to that young kid in the desert for his remarkable barefoot endurance.
