Gift from VIVOBAREFOOT

The holidays arrived a little early for me! VIVOBAREFOOT sent me a beautiful gift that I wanted to share because it's so neat! They sent specially made VIVOBAREFOOT cookies from Eleni's New York, a hard copy of Lee Saxby's Proprioception: Making Sense of Barefoot Running, and a thoughtful card. Thanks Michelle and Lizzie, you're the best and I wish you both a happy New Year to come!

And the cookies are VERY yummy!

Hiking with the Dogs

My family decided to have a bit of a snow day yesterday. We drove out to Bragg Creek with the idea that we'd do some snow shoeing. Turns out that the snow wasn't all that deep out there and most of the trails had been groomed. We decided to hike with just our boots instead.

Again, I had the dilemma of which boots to bring. I decided to bring my old pair of hiking boots from the pre-minimalist footwear days. I don't have a pair of minimalist boots that would work well with snow shoes. I think it's one of those few times when you probably want a rigid sole beneath your foot.

It was the first walk I think I've done in conventional footwear in over three years! Here are some observations I made:

• I missed feeling the ground
• The boots were surprisingly wide enough for my feet
• My feet were warm the whole time
• They are so heavy!
• Walking on snow and soft ground wasn't so bad
• Walking on asphalt felt like I was walking on a wedge despite the miniscule heel rise the boots have
• There are times when a conventional shoe isn't a bad idea (ie, snow shoeing)

Here are some pics from the hike. Snow days are great! :)

Take 1: With dogs

Take 2: Without dogs

Icy Neo Trails

It's often a dilemma for me to pick which shoes to wear for a walk with the dogs (I know, such a rough dilemma to have but, believe me, I'm grateful at this point because it wasn't always this way). The other day, we went for a walk and it had snowed quite a bit and was icy on all the sidewalks and paths. I chose to wear the Neo Trails and am so grateful I did for this particular walk.

We ended up walking along the snow covered paths around our neighbourhood and it was beautiful. We decided to cut across the frozen creek to the other side instead of walking all the way down to the bridge and back. The creek is usually QUITE frozen by this time of year. Apparently, this is not the case this year.

Much to my surprise, one of my steps made my foot fall through the ice into the water below. Thankfully the creek is not deep this time of year and there was only enough water to go up to my ankle (the rest was frozen).

This post is about how grateful I am that the upper in the Neo Trail is hydrophobic. Most of the cold creek water beaded away from my foot and didn't soak it through. The only part of me that got wet was just above the throat of the shoe. Had I not been wearing water resistant footwear, I might have been in big trouble getting home in the cold and snow with a soaking wet foot. Because most of my foot was dry, I easily made it home before the cold set in too deep in my ankle.

In addition to their fantastic water repellant properties, they also have incredible grip in the snow and they're warm enough for temperatures down to -10C (with socks, of course).

Can you tell which shoe fell through the ice?