[pct-l] footwear weight, was UL danger

[Diane at Santa Barbara Hikes dot com]

About all this footwear and evolution and optimal walking speed...  
Keep in mind we evolved to walk without any footwear at all.

I have some footwear that has very little weight: New Balance MT  
100s. I have some other footwear that also has very little weight:  
Feelmax Osmas.

The difference between the two are the New Balance has cushioning and  
a 10mm heel. The Feelmax Osma has no heel and no cushioning.

On a surface that does not require cushioning, such as a smooth flat  
surface with no painful rocks or anything to slow me down, I am  
unable to walk as fast in the Feelmax as the New Balance. To attempt  
to walk fast actually feels odd and unnatural. It seems that to go  
fast, one must begin to run.

In running shoes with maximum cushioning, it feels like more effort  
to walk fast than in the lesser cushioned shoes I have. I believe  
this is because it takes more effort to fold the shoe at the  
breakpoint at the ball of the foot. In some other shoes I have that  
are not cushioned and have a slight heel rise (I have several casual  
shoes like this) I can walk very fast with very little effort  
compared to the MT 100s and the other running shoes I have. So, no  
heel rise slows me down, too much cushioning slows me down, but a  
slight heel rise speeds me up.

My point is that even if they measured heavy boots and light boots,  
both kinds of boots had a heel rise. Whatever the optimal speed they  
arrived at for walking was probably influenced by the heel rise and  
possibly by other factors they forgot to add in such as the amount of  
cushioning or stiffness in the sole. Because they tested people in  
shoes, you really can't extrapolate from there exactly what is our  
evolutionary endowment. I believe that we evolved to walk slowly and  
to run when we need to go faster.

Diane



Books I've written:
~ Piper's Flight
~ Adventure and Magic
~ Santa Barbara Hikes
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