December Barefooting

Any barefooters enjoying the cool seasonal sidewalks? Only 50F here in Philly, so sunny afternoons are a literal barefoot breeze! Yum!!

 

at this point my outdoor barefooting is pretty much limited to trips back and forth between my apartment and the laundry room (probably about 100 yards). and no, i wouldn't say i'm enjoying it; it's pretty much a neutral thing.

 

It's been an unusually mild winter so far. The coldest that I've had the chance to do has been -4 Celcius (24.8 Fah) last week, before the temps got back up again and all the snow melted. I managed that -4 C for roughly 3 minutes this time, which is actually a far cry from the 10 minutes I've been able to do at my best. Because the snow was fine and powdery, it melted very quickly on skin contact and the resulting cold, liquid water then absorbed my body heat fast. Even though we're in the plus degrees right now (+5 C, 41 Fah at the time of this writing), all the rain and strong winds are discouraging me from doing anything outside, so my outdoors barefooting is also pretty infrequent and limited at this time, with sessions being pretty few and far between.

 

Not very useful below 37 degrees F. By then even the tops of the soles are getting a chill. The soles definitely start to become uncomfortably cold when walking longer distances on nearly freezing surfaces, and yet the toe pads seem like they can still handle a bit more cold (but I still wouldn't push to 32 F or lower).

However, rougher and sharper surfaces are much more rigid. Rougher surfaces almost scrape, not just scuff, on the soles. Sharper surfaces almost actually pierce into the soles, while less sharp still hurts more becomes it pokes deeper into the soles. What is interesting is that after just a few minutes of exposure to the cold, with or without actually walking on the nearly frozen pavement, I still find that soles trained for prolonged burning hot actually become sweaty. I have confirmed that they at least want to stay warm, but can't actually get as hot as when they were done with a day of hot surface barefooting. Confirmation that the soles are still trying to warm up are softer and slightly damp soles, but without any foot odor at all. The sweaty soles do dry off when they reach a warm enough temperature. Soles up in the air works even better than sitting down with the soles off the floor, because of heat rises.

Training too much for cold will greatly reduce the heat tolerance, since the soles are using up some heat tolerance each time they sweat from the cold.

 

I havent been yet just because of how cold it's ben here but its supposed to be exceptioanlly warm here for this time o year so i plan on doing some barefooting this week.

 

It's not consistently cold here yet, so it's amusing to see all the girls who dress by the calendar instead of the thermometer wearing their winter boots when it's 67 degrees outside, and sunny.

 

Barefoot time! Do it!!!

 

I've managed a few barefoot walks, since we have had a strangely warm December so far! I haven't really been paying attention to the temperatures when I go barefooting though. Day barefooting is probably somewhere just above 0°c and night barefooting is probably just below zero.

 

As long as the winds are calm, barefooting in the 50s is a...breeze!

 

Looks like ill be barefot around Xmas Eve and Xmas day due to 70 degree weather later in the week (with rain) Ill get to go to my birthday dinner at Red Robin barefoot! Woo hoo!

 

It's supposed to be in the 60s and 70s where I am all week. I'm not planning to put shoes back on until after Christmas.

 

Lucky you, we're supposed to get rain all week. I still might go out barefoot just for fun.

 

If it's still warm the rain doesnt stop me

 

Go barefoot IN the rain, or after it stops. Fantastic sensations!

 

...or possibly frostbite, lol

 

This is the main deterrent to going barefoot right now, even briefly:



That stuff all over the ground is giant chunks of road salt. A lot of it has already melted into the slush and water all over the ground. This is terrible for your skin and will probably make my feet dry and crack (like crack and bleed not just superficial) if I walk through it regularly. People around here are discouraged from letting their dogs walk through it even, so I sure don't want to.

The wet ground probably isn't good either when it's below freezing... *sigh*

 

Luckily here in the UK it has been so warm nor road gritting has been needed. Nasty stuff,rock salt, for bare feet and animals paws! The salt melts ice and snow but actually lowers the temperature of the water. Very cold water + salt can cause salt burns! Keep this in mind if you have pets that have been out in it. Wash their paws straight away because they will instinctively lick the salt off which could be fatal - it certainly won't do their kidneys any good!

 

That is Incorrect sir.
Did you ever wonder why you add rock salt to the ice in an ice cream maker? Its because the salt, in the process of melting the ice, actually makes the water colder and lowers it's freezing point..

 

Which is what I said!

 

Still barefoot since I don't have any shoes. Above 0°C here during daytime but in early morning today it was -1°C ...