Bare Soles At 90 Degrees

Today as almost a perfect barefoot day. Went out during afternoon peak heat, not intentionally but that's when my errands started. I knew it would be 100 degrees F dry heat going out the door and feeling the heat, but I wasn't expecting a 106 degrees F heat index when I got to the next city by light rail.

Wow! The sidewalks were quite hot, enough for me to really feel it until it equalized to persistently burning hot, but I did not have to walk faster only had to roll on the soles when standing at pedestrian crossings. Asphalt was extra hot to my soles, realisically capable of blistering my soles in a couple of minutes if I didn't do heat management once I felt the soles tingling and pinching from the burning. I could still endure the increasing asphalt burning for over a minute, because of my 10 minutes walking training on blacktop in the middle 90 degrees F range. Heat management included shade and sidewalk were necessary whenever possible, rolling on the soles when standing, and even putting on flip flops momentarily to stand on them when there wasn't any nearby sidewalk or shade. Standing was only doable for about three seconds without rolling on the soles, but that got too hot after about 10 seconds even rolling on the soles and quickly needed heat management. Periodic checking of the soles only showed that all callused areas, including healing previously blistered areas, got no blisters because I was doing proper heat managment. The soles were just burned very white on all callused areas to the point where there was hardly any dirty soles look wherever the calluses were that burned.

Then I made the mistake of taking a longer walk on an uneven dirt road, instead of continuing to walk and even tough it out on more than hot enough sidewalk and near blistering hot asphalt while doing effective heat management during the walk. I don't walk very well on uneven dirt, especially when it's quite burning hot. That required me to wear flip flops for a longer walk. Thankfully I had my barefooter's first aid kit, because I got some blisters (on the left foot only, not sure why) from wearing the flip flops, and not from improper heat management! I cleaned the soles to do a better inspection of the soles, and it's only the left foot:

View attachment 2214

DO NOT wear knobby footbed flip flops with significantly heat burned soles after more than just a short amount of burning! The knobs will create way too much friction after a longer distance, especially if there is any uphill walking. When using flip flops as practical heat relief, make sure the footbed is flat.



Another strike against shoe wearing, even if triple digits inland barefooting requires heat management.

 

??? Don't know where you live, but it can't possibly be summer now.

 

Its still pretty warm in lots of places. Low 90's in Houston today.

 

High 90s to low 100s yesterday in the inland San Diego area where I happened to be yesterday. Escondido area. Add humidity and that made additional heat index. Accuweather showed 100 degrees F feels like 106 for peak heat, so not quite desert area extra hot, but still plenty hot! Good thing I did bring flip flops for urgent heat management, just the wrong kind. Heat wave gradually cools down to low 90's and mid-to-low 80's this week. Hopefully I don't lose too much heat tolerance during the fall and winter, when I was able to tolerate just over a minute at normal walking speed on smoother and darker blacktop before first only having to walk through shade.

 

Yeah, I live in San Diego, North Co. Well Valley Center to be exact. But I'm in Escondido daily.
For me I think I've fully conditioned myself. I remember years past I used to feel pain in this type of heat, now, especially this year I'm not even noticing.
I go to Palomar College in San Marcos and the parking lot is a long walk but I manage just fine.
I think the hottest temp I've walk on blacktop was 117 in Indio for a singing contest. Made it from the hotel across the parking lot to the bar just fine.

I also do Julian in the winter when it snows. I spent 2 hours walking with my GF in Julian last year in the snow and temp was 33. I wasn't uncomfortable.

 

San Marcos is slightly cooler, even on blacktop. When visiting someone there, I deliberately took a long walk along the blacktop streets. Low to mid 90's, dry heat, I can last 10 to 15 minutes on the unshaded blacktop with only a couple of times walking through shade, and then mainly if I can't jump over it or walk around the shade. 100 degrees F, I can still last about 7 minutes but I do have to stop in shade for about 2 seconds or so on a very occasional basis before my soles start to feel way overheated enough to start closing my eyes and really gritting my teeth from burning that much. Accuweather didn't show San Marcos even got to 106 heat index.

I figure roughly, not exactly, a proportional difference and nowhere near scientific: if I can walk almost 10 minutes on unshaded blacktop at 96 degrees F, then I can only walk only about one tenth of that when it's 10 degrees hotter at 106 degrees, or about one minute. That's basically being ready in advance so the soles don't get into too much heat trouble especially at a point of no return. That's also for normal walking. I can probably extend the time and distance walking if I hot footed it after each step; however, that still isn't practical for extended distances longer than just the length of a very long parking lot without using shade when it's mid 100's.

 

Yes San Marcos is not as hot. Valley Center a different story.

 

Well, this is it, the last opportunity for very hot summer heat on bare soles. Saturday, October 10th: high 95 degrees F, heat index makes it 100 degrees F. Whatever heat tolerance I maintain or increase from extended standing and walking after standing, to keep the soles consistently and increasingly burning until it's too urgent and the soles need a quick relief from the heat, has to last me all the way through fall and winter unless there is another heat wave.

 

buy an iron or a stove and you can damage your feet year round.

 

Lmao I know this was a joke but I'm now picturing someone putting a tray of rocks in the oven every day then standing on the rocks after.

 

Because I went back on the heat for minutes at a time, each time getting closer to the hottest afternoon hours, I can walk about 7 minutes on blacktop at the start of afternoon peak heat hours when the weather is at 100 degrees F. My absolute limit was just over a minute when afternoon peak heat was 106 degrees.

However, my soles have become more than just significantly more burnable. They are much tougher, even though they don't appear thicker. I was using a magic eraser to wash off some ingrained dirt, and when it passed on the balls of the feet part of the soles, about a half inch started tearing off due to enough resistance to catch on the magic eraser instead of the magic eraser gliding over the soles. I fully tore off that piece, and used two hands to hold the magic eraser so that it didn't tear again when washing that part on the other sole. The soles also have a fine enough roughness, even though it can't be felt, so they catch on microfiber run across the soles enough to even make a slight scratching sound. Now that's toughness I want to keep, in addition to not losing too much heat tolerance during fall and winter. Maintaining most of that toughness also means less time needed to get used to getting back on hotter summer heat and during afternoon peak heat hours, because spring heat will still be effortless to even stand on.

Wearing the knobby flip flops, instead of the smooth ones, should help keep most of that toughness. I only go to wearing closed shoes with socks when my soles and toes start to feel a chill, usually close to 40 degrees F when it would be frost on the ground in the early morning, but I prefer not to go barefoot even with the overnight low is 50 degrees F or lower.

 

...and this summer is going to be no problem.

Already going out during a temporary heat wave close to the 90 degrees F range earlier this year in my area. Asphalt is walkable for minutes at a time (40 minutes!) without a significant burning sting, even in hotter spots that just start to feel hot on the soles. Standing in those hotter spots is occasionally a steady burn that doesn't increase at most, and even if the steady burn is approaching ow hot, even when the heat doesn't equalize to no burning. Shade isn't needed at all so far and it's actually annoying when I have to walk through shade I couldn't jump over or walk around. Forget just getting used to a temporary burning sting, it's very extended burnabiltiy to the point I almost don't feel the burn when walking in many locations of blacktop asphalt that should at least feel burning hot. Any tenderness is from walking on rough after that long of hot asphalt walking, because they are still gradually burned enough it still tenderized the soles enough to make rougher feel sharper. I'm just not getting that ow hot need to do heat relief, cooler surface, or shade... from walking just yet. So far, the standing burning is steady, even if it's approaching ow hot some spots, and standing on less than ow hot is equalizing to feeling warm to at most less hot and no longer burning in seconds.

Even testing the soles on metal plates shows some progress: the silver ones in direct sunlight burn the most quickly in just a couple of seconds to need heat relief, but doing heat relief motions could potentially extend that to closer to ten seconds. Closer to 100 degrees F might burn too quickly almost on contact, but high 80 degrees F to low 90 degrees F is doable even standing for a couple of seconds with no heat relief.

Toughened soles still do not lose feeling, but it takes sharper rough and hotter hot to feel it after a longer time on it as the soles become thicker, more callused, and even more burnable.

 

Man asphalt guy need to calm down on ur mega posts. We get it ok
Hi charlie. Yeah i think many of us conform to society when they are the man who pays us!!! I did walk on hot roadbase got blisters thick ones not watery. Not the reason for a prize and perhaps not best for the largest organ of the body. For me the best bit of barefooting is the freedom getting filthy feet and while also taking care of my loved and most decorated body part. Enjoy barefooting dont harm ur body to do so.

 

My point was to detail what I was going through as part of getting the soles used to high heat. See, I have a ranking of heat levels:

*70 degrees F to 85 degrees: Low heat
* 86 degrees to 94 degrees: Moderate heat.
* 95 degrees to 103 degrees: High heat.
* I'm going to put 104 degrees to 110 degrees F as extreme heat, only because of once I ended up hotfooting, that is flicking the sole up to cool it... hopefully... at the end of each step.
* I'll put 111+ as excessive heat.

Now then, many of those detailed posts are from LAST SUMMER when I was going through a high heat retoughinging of the soles to minutes at a time on the hottest asphalt I could stand. The point was also for any experienced barefooter that was not already a high heat barefooter transitioning to a high heat barefooter, that as far as what I was going through it was normal. Other barefooters might vary, but in an indirect way the posts are supportive about how much heat for how long, and the overall effects from it. This included the healing of any blisters.

So, as for your blisters that were thick but not watery... good. Not the reason for a prize but actually it is "a prize" in terms of significantly higher heat tolerance instead of more gradual burning below the blister point. Also depends on size, and in my case anything larger than a US quarter might be too big. That is great progress towards making the soles much less dependent on shoes, especially when they reattach as thicker and whiter, so you can probably related to my high heat barefooter posts from last summer, even if they are long ones. I follow up with a grating of the soles for next time, but as you posted in the getting hard feet discussion, you didn't want to grate your soles to make them harder and rougher.

As for getting your soles black? Mine do too, but not on purpose. Asphalt in moderate heat actually gets them blacker than high heat, because the calluses are not burned enough to show white through the dirt. High heat burns them so white they start showing through the dirt, even though I am not starting to get pre-blisters (as you probably felt an increasing sharper tingling sole burning before you got blisters from pushing to much). Standing tends also to bake in more dirt into the soles, especially when it's hot enough to have to rock back and forth on them, so that's one reward for toughening out standing heat!

In other words, as I posted my long posts from last summer, if your feet aren't burning, you aren't getting used to enough high heat, or even extreme heat. If you blistered, then you blistered... normal as long as you didn't get third degree burns. I have experience with going back on the heat too soon and got blisters under blisters, not fun but still not unwalkable. Don't go walking in sand, especially when going swimming at the beach, or the sand will get in through the blister drain hole, all of the blister will have to be cut away, and that unhealed red skin is going to HURT for a couple of hours.

Good luck with your continued barefooting, but if you want your soles to be like shoes in high heat bordering on extreme heat, you'll have to get used to prolonged burning enough that slower and more delicate walking is needed, especially on rougher surfaces, and the occasional blisters, whether thick or watery. That's "the prize" when standing on hot parking lots foot fully on the ground can be done for several seconds, the rolling on the soles extends it for minutes, walking after that much burning actually reduces the amount of lasting burn... and in this case I am even able STAND on metal plates during the hottest afternoon hours... only a couple of seconds full foot on the metal but I can extended it to five to seven sections by rolling on the soles.

And that's that... I don't need to post again until I have extended EXTREME HEAT experience because I spent two hours during hottest afternoon hours in high heat... sidewalks felt almost cold except for very isolated spots of consistent burning hot with no need for heat relief, parking lots that increase burning could be tolerated for several tens of seconds or even up to a minute before wincing burning, walking again was only slightly burning to only feeling hot. I would have needed several consecutive metal plates, each being stood on up to eyes closing and teeth gritting hot after rolling on the soles, and then going to the next plate without even one step off the heat.

 

I assume you're talking about air temperature, not pavement temperature. Dark pavement gets a lot hotter than the air around it on a sunny summer day, and it gets hotter all through the afternoon. One day a couple of summers ago, my synthetic rubber flip flops partially melted! I could feel them sticking to the pavement. When I got back inside, half the sole thickness was gone!

 

Yes, I am referring to air temperature relative to the hottest afternoon hours, also excluding humidity, judging by how quickly the hottest asphalt (and short times on metal plates for if I do encounter them during a long with walk and there is no shade) burns when standing even when using heat relief methods, and then if the shade burns too much to need heat relief methods. As I mentioned before, but just to reiterate: I also find that more humidity makes the asphalt much hotter a lower temperatures, so in that case the dry heat weather forecast when they exclude the humidity can be deceptive in terms of I-don't-even-need-to-bring-shoes-today for the hottest afternoon hours.

I wear men's rubber flip flops: rubber footbed, fabric strap, rubber sole about 3/4 inch to 1 inch thick, and haven't yet encountered a sole melting surface to any extent, so that much have been summer well into the excessive heat range, right? Half the thickness of the sole melted? Wow! I do know that some women's flip flops barely have a 1/4 inch sole even for the ones that look like they have a vinyl footbed with a hard sole; the leather footbed ones with the hard sole probably not even 1/8 inch thick sole and almost looks like they aren't wearing any when seen a distance away (probably the closest to more-just-for-fashion without wearing no shoes at all). Was it desert area heat in the high 110's? I know that one summer, Arizona was at 118 degrees F (although I didn't live there).

 

It was downtown Raleigh NC at 105 degrees and high humidity, middle of the afternoon.

 

Ok, there it is, high humidity. That makes sense also if it was one of the thinnest flip flops. I have been surprised by what some women I knew wore for flip flops, but was still acceptable foot protection for when they needed it. I mentioned those thinnest leather footbed/hard sole sewed onto the leather footbed (thread stitches are visible on the soles) flip flops, and those "fit the contour of their soles" if they have a lower arch, but obviously if they have a higher arch it doesn't. In both cases, those are thin enough they can still press with the toes and balls of the feet to actually bend the soles when sitting with feet up. That means enough heat could burn right through. Those synthetic ones still have a flexible sole, but probably something closer to vinyl and not rubber, right? That's not a bad thing, but even a men's flip flop has no less than a half inch sole, obviously because it needs to look more manly, but then the man still has a heat walking advantage over the woman with the thinnest flip flops when walking over extra hot to extremely hot asphalt: if her soles are half-melted, even if his are just starting he still has plenty of sole to work with before worrying about it.

 

Again piss off dickhead. Barefooters dont have to and shudnt harm their feet. To be real. Tough and authentic

 

Finally The Voice Of Sanity......Thank You tattgirl.......This Guy Is Doing His Level Best To Make All Us Responsible

Barefooters Look Like We Are Total IDIOTS.

If You Want My Personal Take On This Guy, I Think He Is A Previous Member Who Was Given The Boot,

Then Decided To Come Back And TROLL Us To Get Revenge.

May He Melt Into The Roadway.....The Sooner The Better...... :sunny:



Cheers Glen.