Running in socks

It turned a little colder again, so I stayed inside on the treadmill this morning. 20F (-7C) isn't so bad, but the wind chill was 9F (-13C), which is a little outside of my zone.

I've heard of people running in just socks, and decided to give that a try. I was a little concerned that it would be slippery on the treadmill, but that was countered by my fear that my treadmill might start smelling like feet if I run barefoot on it all the time!

It went pretty well. The socks I used* were a little thinner than average socks, but not so thin as my favorite Feetures Lights that I usually wear with shoes. It felt pretty good. I think my foot strike was close to what it is barefoot. I did slip a tiny bit, but no more that I do wearing shoes.

I'll probably try it outside some time when it's dry. I imagine wet socks wouldn't be fun to run in.

Here's an interesting thread about running in socks in the Runner's World forums. One runner describes making his own minimal shoes by applying some Shoe Goo to the bottom of his socks. I've thought while running in my Vibram FiveFingers that I'd like a version where the top is a sock -- it sounds like this guy had the same idea.

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*They're Starter brand, which is apparently owned by Nike. I'd link to them, but the Nike online store is a horrible Flash-based monstrosity, and I gave up after a frustrating and fruitless search.