Building barefoot endurance back up, that rough road no problem again

The craziness of the beginning of the pandemic along with some drinking I fell back into the shoe habit for months.

Went back to barefoot but didn't work at it constant till lately.

Took a few weeks of doing a walk at night, not much less then a mile intentionally hitting medium rough areas but the rough road to the beach with the larger stones in the pavement no problem again.

I had forgot how bad regular shoe wearers have it, getting started again even the lightly rough roads hurt after a very short distance.

No wonder people scoff at going barefoot. I forgot !

 

The pandemic did the opposite for me. I had to wear shoes to work before, but with work from home status I can be barefoot for days at a time. My soles are more conditioned than ever.

Interestingly, I also found that my foot has changed shape a bit since then, becoming a little flatter at the balls of my feet spreading my toes out more. Has anyone else experienced this?

 

This picture pasted from a barefooting site its true my footprint changed. The side harly touches at all anymore, regular barefooting made the outer arch better.



Toes spread, crooked toe shoe damage reversed quite a bit

 

My experiences with the barefoot living in the last few months are quite similar to yours. Working from home, I don't wear shoes all the time, and in my free time Im barefoot anyway.
While being barefoot all the time, uninterrupted by wearing shoes at work, my feet became more muscular, the space between the toes became larger and pads of fat developed under the leathery skin of my soles.
Unlike your case, the arches of my feet became rather higher than lower.

 

My experience I loose a lot of callouses, now a became again and re build them, many of my cracks lost and sometimes I feel a little pain.
Greetings from Chile.

 

Realy great callouses on your soles, stay barefoot.