Finding The Hot Spots, Sidewalk And Asphalt

Those who don't do heat-footing as part of their everyday walk or as part of deliberate heat training can move on from this topic. For those that do:

We already know what spots are standable for tens of seconds at a time with the soles fully on the ground before using heat relief methods to stand minutes at time, which ones burn more quickly and require heat relief methods just to stand for more seconds at a time, and in the 100 degrees F range which ones are so ow hot! that even standing in the shade requires heat relief.

So how you find those hot spots? Accidentally or deliberately finding the ones that are ow hot! is easy enough: burns quickly enough when standing, heat relief methods don't cool that much, walking keeps increasing heat... soles already feel the sting so everywhere is hot spots, and no amount of shade is cool enough. Sidewalk is needed, and grass is an even better relief, except for some lawns that are well mowed to be close enough to the dirt are HOT LAWNS!

The ones that burn more quickly and require heat relief methods, but not so ow hot! need some paying attention to: your shadow from the sun MUST be as behind you, even if off to the side, so you aren't making cooling shade, and the surface has to be hotter in direct sunlight than the others (so test it with some short standing first and there should be a very quick heat increase even if it doesn't sting). Stop. Stand there. If it burns momentarily and then equalizes and dissipates, it did burn, so take a couple of steps away from that spot and stand fully on the soles again. Did it get slightly hotter? Good! That's some remaining heat that didn't get dissipated from the soles... you found your hot spot area! Keep alternating between standing until the burning equalizes, because at some point it won't dissipate, and do the hot spot for as long as tolerable, even if it means walking back to the start of the hot spot after the next few steps are not in the hot spot. Many barefooters do stand on the hot spot, even using heat relief methods, but if they've already sufficiently cooled their spot they will get no additional heat tolerance by staying in that cooled down spot.

Now, In my case, because I still have a more burn-prone spot in the middle and just behind the balls of the foot on both soles, it's about tip of the thumb size... I went from burning to slightly tingling, ended up with very blackened and reddened burned soles about an hour ago, and even now there is still some slight stinging as the soles want to sweat out the burned in asphalt that got into the soles from standing. That's barely a proper burn, because I don't feel a pulse in the soles and the soles still don't feel hot. Walking still barely burned, I had to walk as slowly as when I took two steps before standing. Closer to the 100 degrees F range and hottest afternoon hours, I'll probably blister from this hot spot training but it is just tens of steps away from going home and healing the blisters... so I can blister if I want that much heat relief in one hot spot barefooting outing.

Standing for minutes at a time isn't worth much heat training, but the slow and gradual burn, even if it equalizes, is only good for a slower and gradual pre-heating of the soles before hotter burning. If it's only warm or in some cases even cool... don't waste your time... find a hot spot.

Heat-footers well experienced with this already know it, but for those who want to get started with heat footing, or want to do even hotter heat than standing until heat relief methods are needed and then walking off the heat if there isn't a nearby cooler surface or cool enough shade... this is what I do, especially during heat waves and most of summer. Just don't stand in a cooled down spot unless it is so ow hot! that the soles tingle when walking longer distances on that hot. As I have posted, but just to reiterate... when I have pushed that much more I have gone from gritting my teeth, to clenching my teeth with the eyes almost closed, soles start feeling a pulse, they begin tingling (about the time I would be saying ow hot! or similar), tingling so strong my face even begins to sweat, but then... just a sharp pinching feeling. Checking the soles? Not just hot spots, actual blisters that will fill up in tens of seconds. Stopping the barefoot walk is a must. I find draining them is better than leaving them alone. If it was almost too hot that hot-footing by flicking the soles up in the air at the end of each step was needed... blisters might even need to be drained AGAIN even after an overnight rest of the soles.

I've been through it all, most of the heat-footing barefoot lifestyle... because I've been living or shopping in inland valleys for many years... and sleeping in when I don't have work that day ends up being going out as close to or during the hottest afternoon hours, even if I don't deliberately go out for a heat-footing training walk, so I have to deal with the hot surfaces as I encounter them for that hot weather barefoot day. Now, for desert area heat that is already hot everywhere in the air just starting at 9:00am? I am not sure how much of that I could take, especially on asphalt, but that's when I would have my flip flops and even a pair of socks with me. Too hot for the bare feet? Socks, doesn't matter if less men but more barefoot women go socks only when their soles aren't rough-ready or sharp ready, even if getting more used to the heat (but often times they also aren't used to hotter heat yet). Flip flops, after removing the socks, if it was still hot for socks only. Smooth footbed flip flops because my one experience with hot spotted but not blistered soles from 100 degrees F range weather... and a couple of minutes at a time walking on the asphalt before needing to stand on shade... the knobs in the flip flop footbed combined with walking up a moderate hill ACTUALLY MADE BLISTERS, not from barefoot on the heat by itself even when it made hotspots.

Hope this helps.

 

...er, yeah, I guess so.....think I need greater help with my increasing narcolepsy though.

Sorry, but honestly is this guy for real!? But to be fair at least he does post here, without which this board would be virtually dead, and his posts appear to be enjoyed by several on here, so who am I to try to be clever. Guess I'm the one who's just a "blah blah" (see other thread)

 

"This guy is for real". Barefoot forum. Might as well talk barefoot, right?

Look... I have a lot of experience with it ever since I outgrew the parents won't let me go barefoot phase as an adult. Wore closed shoes early on in college because it wasn't practical yet to wear just flip flops, still put them in the backpack because I wasn't a barefoot to class person like another person I knew about on campus. Once used to it, the more hilly and rough terrain in spots, flip flops were more common, but shower shoe type flip flops don't work well with that hard in-between-the-toes part of the strap except for shorter walks. Relatively hot streets in summer, though... especially for extended asphalt walking: many years back, two overconfident female barefooters who already crossed a hot parking lot forgot that the sidewalk around the library area was asphalt, asphalt street too. No, they weren't heat testing in a literal sense... they were in almost a panic sprint running to the nearest shade area before sidewalk, during a summer hottest afternoon hours graduation ceremony they were going to watch. Only noticed because I was working graduation and transporting light items on a golf cart. Saw it... done, didn't look twice. Still, they would have to walk the same walk back even hotter than when they started, so hope their feet were okay, having been burning them that much to have to sprint across the heat. Even so... they were still heat-footers that were just too overconfident... they knew it would be hot starting with the asphalt parking lot who knows how close or how far away they parked, and sprinting on the heat instead of walking faster more confidently meant they didn't bring shoes even if they wanted to wear them. If I remember correctly, one might have had a purse, but neither had a handbag... no shoes for sure.

Get over it. There are more heat-footers than even this group realizes. I'm just one of the more deliberate and detailed ones about it. Cold-footing is rarer but feel free to go to an SBL Facebook page where some even share supposedly barefoot snow-running.

Again, barefoot lifestyle means as much as possible. I get hotter surfaces during heat waves and in summer. If I'm going to heat-foot regularly, might as well work on it deliberately, then longer distances are less problems and I might not even need shoes for miles of practical heat-footing, practical meaning surfaces as they are normally encountered. Might as well share it, no matter how short or how long of a post. For everyone tired of my posts: if it helps even one barefooter understand heat-footing... understanding what they went through and what they still are going through is normal... at least as far as I am concerned... or if it helps a barefooter who is going to become a heat-footer, either by choice or because they moved to a hotter area and have to as part of staying with a barefoot lifestyle, understand what they will go through, that's all that matters.

So let me also share this: I have a blister on the tip of the right big toe. Part of it was standing long enough that it felt like it was being pinched, even though the rest of the foot was only feeling like my feet are burning after several seconds, and not necessarily ow hot. Part of it was rubbing friction from walking on a laminated wood floor because I didn't notice an immediate blister when I was done heat training. The lesson to be learned: don't be fooled into thinking an indoor grocery store is the solution from heat-footing. I have encountered some floors that are not necessarily polished but have a noticeable rubbing feeling when walking on that floor. The rubbing friction can work the hotspots into blisters... even if the hotspots are not visibly white pre-blisters. Knowing where the cold or refrigerated aisles in the store still can mean walking several aisles on that floor... and the more the soles feel like they need that cooling, the more they were burned enough to be sure to walk slower on that floor.