Barefoot Running [Perfect Paperback]

Michael Sandler (Author), Jessica Lee (Author), Danny Dreyer (Foreword), Barefoot Ted (Foreword)

Book Description

Publication Date: May 2010

"Enjoy the insights this book has to offer -- It is about form, joy and the love of running. Run Free!" - Micah True, AKA Caballo Blanco.

As seen nationally on TV, radio and in print, Barefoot Running is the original, most comprehensive guide to barefoot running, written by best-selling author and running coach Michael Sandler, who has coached and inspired thousands of runners, walkers, and hikers nationwide.

After a near-death accident left him with a titanium femur and hip along with 10 knee operations, no ACL, and an inch leg-length discrepancy, former professional athlete and Olympic hopeful Michael Sandler was told he could never run again. It was only by going barefoot and feeling the ground, he began to heal as he learned how to run light and free. He now runs pain free 10-20 miles a day and in all conditions. His step-by-step method helps runners overcome injuries, find their natural form and rediscover the pure joy of running, no matter their age, history, or fitness level.

Co-Author Jessica Lee hated running and nagging knee pain and swore off running until the day she went barefoot. Now she helps women experience the joy of running barefoot (and pain free) nationwide.

Written to help people get into running, back into running, or run pain free and at your best at any age, Michael Sandler's inspirational book and step-by-step guide is an easy to read bible of information and a must read for any runner. Barefoot Running is the how-to-guide that picks up where Christopher McDougall's inspiring book Born to Run left off. If you liked Born to Run, you'll love Barefoot Running.

Topics include: Barefoot Running for Kids, for Seniors, choosing footwear, transitioning safely, cold-weather running and more.

"You are holding in your hands a book as exhaustive and accurate of a description of barefoot running as you could ever hope for." - Barefoot Ted

Michael Sandler is a best-selling author, and an internationally recognized barefoot running and walking coach, teaching thousands of runners, walkers, and hikers of all abilities. He has coached athletes professionally for nearly 20 years. After a near-death accident in 2006, he was told he was lucky to keep his leg and that he would never run again. With a titanium femur and hip, it was only through barefoot running and the lessons learned on the trails that he was able to heal and run again. With co-author Jessica Lee, they teach people how to rediscover the bliss of pain-free running. Together, they are cofounders of RunBare Company, a barefoot running school based out of Boulder, Colorado.

Editorial Reviews

About the Author

Michael Sandler is a best selling author, barefoot running and walking coach. He has coached professionally for nearly 20 years. After a nearl-fatal accident he was told that he would be lucky to keep functioning legs and that he would not run again. With an implanted titanium femur and hip, it was only through barefoot running, and lessons learned on the trails that he was able to heal and run again.

With coauthor Jessica Lee, they travel around the world, teaching people how to discover the joy of running.

Product Details

• Perfect Paperback: 298 pages
• Publisher: Run Bare Publishing; 1 edition (May 2010)
• Language: English
• ISBN-10: 0984382208
• ISBN-13: 978-0984382200
• Product Dimensions: 9.9 x 7 x 0.8 inches
• Shipping Weight: 1.4 pounds (View shipping rates and policies)
• Average Customer Review: 4.6 out of 5 stars  See all reviews (45 customer reviews)
• Amazon Best Sellers Rank: #501,941 in Books (See Top 100 in Books)

More About the Author

Michael Sandler is a national fitness and running coach, as well as the cofounder of RunBare Company (www.RunBare.com). Michael has coached world-class athletes to wins in cycling, running, and triathlons for over 20 years at the local, national, and international levels.

Among Michael's personal athletic achievements are training for the 1992 and 1996 Olympics in both cycling and speed skating at the Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs. While racing in Europe aiming for the Tour de France, an unexpected vehicle collision on a closed race-course dashed his chances for both international competitions.

Michael completed the California Ironman, and has a personal record for the 10K of 30:30 during the finishing leg of The Harvest Moon half-ironman. He went on to win a 2002 cycling state championship in Olympic sprints, beating the national team, and placed seventh in the master's national championships. In 2005, he garnered a sponsorship from Rollerblade for ultra-endurance inline speedskating. In 2009 he paced Barefoot Ted--a well-known, colorful figure in ultra-running--for the last leg of the Leadville 100, in which Ted shattered his own personal record by over an hour.

In 2004, Michael rode his bike in an entirely different direction. He completed a monumental bicycle trip across the U.S. by riding 5,000 miles in 40 days, solo and unsupported to raise awareness for children and adults with attention deficit disorder (ADD). He ended the ride in Washington, D.C., where he was invited to speak before the U.S. House and Senate on the Mental Health Parity Act, urging equal health coverage for psychological as well as physical health.

National and international media have interviewed him, including NPR, BBC, and America in the Morning. Michael has been featured on CNN, the CBS Early Morning Show in Chicago and New York for his athletic efforts to raise awareness of ADD.

He is also author of the best-selling book College Confidence with ADD and founder of The Creative Learning Institute, a national center for coaching students with ADD and learning disabilities.

In 2006, while training for a cross-country inline skating trip, Michael suffered a near-death accident, which left him with a shattered femur, hip, and arm. Michael surprised the medical community when he made a full recovery by running barefoot. Two months after the accident, he set the fastest record for the Bolder Boulder and Denver Half-Marathon by completing these popular races on crutches. He now runs barefoot 10 to 20 miles daily on rocky trails, hot asphalt, and even snow and ice, and sub-five minute miles barefoot all with his titanium femur and hip.

RunBare Company, based out of Boulder, holds clinics for barefoot running nationwide, and in Canada. Michael also conducts similar clinics for destination travel adventurists worldwide.

Customer Reviews

Most Helpful Customer Reviews

193 of 220 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Not sure what to think about this..., October 28, 2010

By 

Neil Gunton (Fortuna, CA) - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barefoot Running (Perfect Paperback)

I found this book by accident in one of my local outdoor stores. I had been interested in running barefoot for some time, ever since reading "Born to run". I had tried the Vibram Five Fingers, but had problems with a seam rubbing my arches, so that had put a damper on that experiment. When I saw this book, a little light went off in my head - hang on, maybe I can just ditch the VFF altogether and go completely barefoot! This book seemed to light the way. The endorsement by Barefoot Ted, who was featured heavily in Born to Run, clinched the deal in terms of apparent legitimacy.

The outdoor store has quite inflated prices, so I decided to look for the book on Amazon. I was a little mystified to find that Amazon doesn't sell it, even though it is a very recent publication. And when I called my local Borders, they couldn't even find it in their system by the ISBN. So I went back to the little store and bought the copy they had. I noticed that it seemed to be kind of self-published, so maybe that explains it.

The book has the usual fluff at the beginning - you know where they take 30 pages with lots of positive, vague, rah-rah motivational stuff. They do admit right up front that you don't even get to the running part until chapter 5. Ok, that's par for the course.

My first doubts surfaced when they started going on about being connected with the Earth, and how everything has a frequency, and how important it is to be "grounded". All of this is part of a justification, it seems, for why barefoot running is a Good Thing. Ok, I thought, fair enough - it's a bit much, but whatever.

Serious doubts began on page 19, when they started talking about something called the Schumann Resonance, which is apparently the frequency of the Earth's "heartbeat" (7.83 Hz). According to the book, "this number is important because it's the same frequency our brains use to survive and thrive. In other words, our vibrations are matched or we vibrate at the same frequency of the earth. Put another way, we evolved in sync with the frequency or heartbeat of the earth". Ok, again, whatever. But then there's this little gem: "NASA scientists have known this for years. In early space missions, astronauts became surprisingly weak and ill when they went into space and left the resonance of the earth behind. They now alleviate this process by having a vibrational device attached to the ships that resonates at the Schumann Resonance - by matching to the frequency of the earth, spacecraft help astronauts stay in sync".

Hmm. This was news to me, I was quite interested in space and NASA when I was younger, but I had never heard of this. As far as I know, astronauts become weak after periods in space because of the lack of gravity, which weakens their bones and muscles unless they take care to do resistance exercise. A quick search on a well known search engine pulled up as a top result for "Schumann frequency NASA" a thread that says this is bunk. I can find no official references to this at all. And what about airline pilots? They do long haul flights all the time where they are out of touch with the earth. Do they have these devices on airplanes? Why can't I find any reference to it anywhere, except on websites dedicated to debunking bad science?

Then, on page 20, referring to why people don't get hurt when lightning strikes their car, the authors call this the "Farridy Cage" effect. I laughed when I saw this (apparently) phonetic spelling of Michael Faraday's name.

They then go on a bit about things called "grounding pads", and how these keep us in touch with the earth, and how (surprise, surprise) they sell them at their website.

At this point I was having some serious doubts about the book. I mean, the authors are giving out some quite detailed advice on how to get into running barefoot, and if you do this wrong then you could end up with some quite serious injuries to your feet. If they are spouting nonsense about Schumann Frequency, "Farridy" cages and grounding sheets, then how can I take anything else they say seriously? Why couldn't they just stick to the barefoot running, without going off into cloud cuckoo land and thus throwing their entire credibility into doubt?

The book overall has the air of a somewhat breathlessly enthusiastic amateur. The biggest lesson to be taken away from it, really, is "take it slow, listen to your body". This can be conveyed in one single sentence, I don't really know why it needs to be fleshed out to a couple hundred pages, but I guess that's how people sell books.

I tried contacting the authors via their website contact form, telling them about the misspelling of Mr Faraday's name and asking for sources for their claims on the Schumann Frequency stuff, but I did not get any reply. Hmmm.

I thought this would be a straightforward book about barefoot running. However, given the ludicrous claims in the earlier parts of the book, I have to say it throws the whole idea into a cloud of doubt and uncertainty. When they talk about how Lance Armstrong's team uses these "grounding pads", how do I know I can believe it? How do I know I can believe one of the authors really cycled 5,000 miles across America in 2004 in 40 days, solo? It's a wonderful achievement (I've done this myself, but I took a lot longer, and trust me - averaging 125 miles a day for 40 days is quite a feat). The point is about credibility, and as far as I'm concerned, with the early parts of this book the authors really shoot themselves in the foot (sorry). My podiatrist says that running barefoot on concrete is a bad idea. This book says it's not. Who to believe?

52 of 58 people found the following review helpful:

5.0 out of 5 stars The definitive guide to barefoot running and running in general, May 11, 2010

By 

Zachary D. Bergen "Colorado Runner" (Boulder, CO USA) - See all my reviews
(REAL NAME)   

This review is from: Barefoot Running (Perfect Paperback)

I love this book! I have been running since high school and as I approach 50, I want to continue running. I am convinced that my switch from "shod" running in high tech running shoes with orthotics to a barefoot stride will insure running for years to come. This book is an exhaustive treatment of the subject in a great format. I found out many things I did not know that have helped me as I transitioned out of traditional shoes. Now I look at runners who are heel striking knowing for certain they could have a better running experience. The authors state that you should start slow. I could not emphasize this enough and by going slow it will pay off. Your feet have been trapped in shoes and need to learn how to be feet again and have the feedback with the brain and your kinesthetic awareness heightened. Since running barefoot and with the help of this book, I have gone through many phases of "healing" and have completely changed my attitude about feet and how tough they are.

I think even if you still buy the myth of running shoes, you should improve your stride by using this book and translate that new brain learned response back to your traditional running shoe regimen. Although I think you'll find your old running shoes to feel unnatural and clunky like I did. I can't go back. The neat thing is that there are plenty of minimalist shoes to choose from for all seasons and conditions.

This book will also serve as a reference. I often flip through the pages to learn more about something like their advice for difference surface types. It is a good companion for people who want to know if their experience of barefoot running is normal since there are not a lot of people out there to share experiences with (yet). I also joined the barefoot running group. It is an easy way to share experiences.

I know there is a lot of interest in barefoot running. I often get stopped and hit with questions about my experience. They have all been positive. It is not necessarily easy to transition and it is more than worth it. It has completely redefined my running game and brought more fun and another dimensions to my runs.

21 of 24 people found the following review helpful:

2.0 out of 5 stars Repetitive, January 28, 2011

By 

nickmiller23 - See all my reviews

This review is from: Barefoot Running: How to Run Light and Free by Getting in Touch with the Earth (Kindle Edition)

I found this book to be quite repetitive after say chapter 6 or so. I can appreciate the need to find a meaning in the reasons we do things, but some of the expamples in this book seem rather far fetched. For instance, running barefoot in the morning or in the evening to set our personal biological clocks to the clock of the earth, through our feet is a little excessive. I've read "Born To Run" by Chris McDougall, which was an excellent read. That book inspired me to the point where I went out and bought my own Vibrams and began running in them. I THOUGHT that "Barefoot Running" would inspire me further. To the contrary, I found myself nodding off at some rather "hippy" notions such as feeling all the nuances of my feet in the morning and taking what is described as nearly 30 minutes or so to mentally check out every molecule in my body and tune myself to how I feel. Personally, I work part-time, go to school full-time and then come home to my wife and son. I want to run, not get in touch with nature and find my personal aura/chi/inner-being every morning - I'll fall back asleep!!! I agree with some points, such as listening to yourself on the run and not overdoing it; but this point is repeated 3 to 4 times every chapter for the first 8. I advise you skip this book and move on to another.