Winter Traction

I was recently asked what I did about winter traction for my moccasins.  The short answer is absolutely nothing. The long answer is that the unhindered foot has several features to enhance traction without the use of a firm lugged sole.  There are of course limits, stiff soles and crampons were invented for a good reason, and are quite useful in managing slick slopes.  My friend that lives on the side of a mountain uses Yaktrax over sandals over warm wool socks, but I live in the city, in a flat part of the country, where my own badly shoveled front steps is the worst hazard I'll have to face.

My shod footprint

First of all, the foot is designed for decent traction in mud, wet grass, and wet rocks.  Despite not having any traction features on the sole of my shoe, it is flexible enough to telegraph some of the traction features of my own foot.  You can see in the footprint above the five little "cleats" in the front, and the larger one in the back.  That picture was taken with my shoes on, I'm not crazy enough to barefoot in the snow, although you might think it from my footprints.

A man climbs a tree barefoot with no harness or traction devices

Secondly, the more uneven the terrain, the more useful the flexible features of the foot.  Where a stiff soled shoe skates over the top of a bump or hole, the flexible foot wraps around that feature and uses the full surface of the foot for traction.  The flexible soled moccasin allows the foot to wrap around surface contours almost as well as if it was bare.

A sliding foot

The third feature of the moccasin is the flexible ankle.  Once you start sliding in a stiff boot, the angle of your leg quickly becomes steep enough to lift part of the boot off the ground, leaving you with only one edge of your shoe in contact with the ground, and most of the traction features of the shoe in the air, making it quite likely that the little slip will turn into a bigger one and possibly a fall.  This problem has also caused me a couple turned ankles in "sensible shoes" when that angle became severe enough to cause gravity to pull me down on the side of the foot instead of re-centering after the misstep.  When you start sliding in a shoe that allows natural function of the ankle, the foot can remain flat on the ground and all the traction features remain in effect, increasing your chances of stopping the slide, or buying you time to shift your weight to the other foot.

When I'm feeling like I have a little less traction than normal, I do something counter-intuitive.  I oil the leather.  Now when you hit a patch of oil on the ground, it's liquid and slippery, but that baked on sticky oil on your dirty dishes, that stuff is what I'm after.  About an hour or two after applying leather oil, the oil is all absorbed or wiped off, and the surface of the leather is slightly tacky.  This helps a great deal on surfaces like wet linoleum.  Note that the skin of my bare foot is producing a similar light coat of oil keeping my flexible traction surface in good condition and giving me a little bit of tackiness on smooth surfaces.

So in short, moccasins do absolutely nothing for my winter traction, but telegraph the natural traction features of the foot while keeping my toes warm.

Cigarettes may be useful for distance runners

...and here's the Canadian Medical Association Journal article to "prove" it.

http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/articles/PMC3001541/

Commentary:

Cigarettes may be useful for distance runners?!? (or, How to prove anything with a review article)

Stay skeptical folks, and that goes equally to wacky alternatives and conventional medicine.

Pucker Toe Mocs, Take 2

Last year's deerskin mocs took a beating, it's time for a new pair.

First, I improved the fit by starting with a mold of my feet, sliced according to the style I was aiming at.  I'm not real great at the pucker stitch, so I put the seam out close to the end of the toes.

Next, add necessary slices to flatten where the pucker stitching will go, transfer to paper, and average out the lines to match the historical pattern.

 Cut out draft 1, and fold in half.  Average out the two sides for draft two.

Check for irregularities, the pattern calles for wider sole pieces, so I narrowed up the tongue/vamp to match.

 Cuffs widened a lot.  Maybe next time will draw upper line straighter to come up more in the front.

The above pattern pieces cut and sewn. My whip stich is sloppy, so I don't turn the seam side in.  Most folks are too impressed with homemade footwear to know that it's not the authentic method.

November Update

Sometimes my calendar reminder goes off, reminding me to do a monthly update, and I just don't want to.  I've been hardly running lately, and that just does not look good in print.

First of all, I really paid for that harvest day, my shoulder and back were sore for several weeks.  On the good side, I bought a copy of the Trigger Point Therapy Workbook, and a lacross ball for each of my work/lounge areas.  This has really helped with short term relief, although I'm thinking again that I may want to recruit a professional to help me with this.

Mom died this month.  No, really, it's OK.  She loved the Lord and was in a lot of pain for a long time before she went home to see him.  But planning a major ceremony in three days, hosting four family events, and trying to cook with my sister are all stressful enough.  Fibromyalgia feeds on stress.  Thankfully I had a nice interstate drive with Dad, an old fashioned church service, great second cousins, and some pieces of nature to keep me on an even keel.  The shoulder was actually feeling pretty good by the time I got back home.

As a side note, Mom ate super-"healthy" her whole life since putting herself through nursing school, and was a big believer in conventional medicine.  She died of cancer that was inoperable because of heart disease.  This confirms what I believe about diet, which is that popular science still knows nothing, and I'm best off eating like my ancestors instead of like a lab rat.  There are plenty of under-publicized studies showing the problems with grains and veggie oils, I think in time the culture will catch up and affect the publishing bias.

My other compounding issue was that my running partner is in heat.  Hopefully this is her last one, we're planning to spay when she's two.  (Great Danes have enough growth issues without messing with their hormones before they're done growing.)  Being in heat means no leaving the yard, and definitely no walks.  Thankfully she's a bit more mature now than during the last one, and is pretty happy playing with her toys and not burning off energy, although she did go spastic when I moved the leash the other day.

I'm really annoyed at my low mileage lately, but I am encouraged that the few times I went out I did everything I wanted to do, didn't have to stop short because of aches and pains.  I could be making more major improvements if I got out a little more often.