Feet, what a lovely invention

I really appreciate feet (not in any kind of fetish way, you sickos).  They are a marvel of engineering.  Next time you are barefoot, take a moment and consider your feet.  Rotate your toes in a circle.  Flex and extend your foot.  Move them every way you can think to move them.  Remarkable.

As a taekwondo practitioner since 1996 I've been training barefoot for a long time.  Some TKD players do wear thin-soled shoes at least some of the time.  I would sometimes wear them when I was teaching class all day (mostly to keep them clean) or if I had, say, cuts or bruises.  All things being equal I'd prefer to do my martial arts training totally barefoot.

A couple years ago I started wearing Vibram Five Fingers (aka "toe shoes") for my gym workouts.  I'm a big advocate of integrated cross-training: doing somewhat unorthodox movements such as climbing around on monkey bars, bear crawls up and down stairs, balance beam work, etc in addition to more conventional cardio and strength training.  VFFs excellently lend themselves to my purposes.  Being able to articulate my toes is great for balance and stability. 

I didn't start wearing Five Fingers for running until this spring; I'd tried a couple neighborhood runs (ZZZZZ) and banged up my feet more than I like.  VFFs were a no-brainer once I pretty much abandoned running on pavement and started training in Portland's wonderful Forest Park.  They provide at least as much traction as conventional shoes, with the added benefit of feeling more sure-footed in mud (we're in Oregon, so traction in mud is a year-round issue).  In the summertime I can take a refreshing wade through a cool stream, and the shoes are dry five minutes later.  Try that with your $120 mega-engineered running shoes.  Oh, and they're machine washable.  My take?  I totally love them for the gym and for trail running, but I didn't care for them for tons of pavement running or very eroded rocky terrain (they're just fine on loose gravel, though).  I did just wear them for an urban 8K that was 2/3 pavement plus a crap-ton of concrete stairs, and they performed admirably.

You get the idea.  I'm pretty in touch with my feet, and I like to rely on as little protection as I can.  I like feeling connected to the earth.  That being said, I was never one of those kids who was barefoot all the time.  I respect and understand the total-barefoot running community, but I'd rather not risk cutting up my feet, so VFFs for me.

You can see how losing a toe has the potential to really get into my head.  There are a lot of unanswered questions.  What is my foot gonna look like?  How will it feel to run?  Will I still be able to wear my VFFs, or do I need to switch to more conventional shoes?  Will the amputation site be so sensitive that my right foot will be useless for demonstrating taekwondo techniques? Will my students be grossed out by my disfigured foot?  (My knee-jerk answer is "get over it".)  How the hell am I gonna do push-ups without both big toes as an anchor point? (I do several push-up variations, including dive-bombers, SEAL push-ups, etc, so I can't just cross my ankles.)  Make no mistake: as long as it's physically possible I'm gonna run again.  For me, running on a trail isn't about speed, it's moving meditation.  Even the worst trail session is a joyful exercise in living in the moment.  I won't give that up without a fight.  First things first: make sure my wound is healed.