Thought of the Day - Injinji Socks

I love my Injinji socks, sure they may have worked out being the most expensive socks ever, after shipping and import duty (don't ask how much they cost me per pair) but damn they are good.

Not only do they work perfectly with my Five Fingers but they are also really comfortable with my other shoes too. My feet definitely feel cooler in them (great in the summer but might not be ideal in the winter) and my circulation seems better (my feet used to get numb if my laces were too tight) so all in all a good investment.

Now my only worry is how to get more, 5 pairs is fine in my current circumstances but i will need more if i go on holiday or things change. I just have to hope they get a UK supplier soon ... or go on holiday somewhere i can buy them.

Thought of the Day - Barefoot Shoes

Ok the title sounds like an oxymoron, how can you have bare feet and shoes at the same time? You can't, but you can come close and now that i have, i would never go back.

It has now been 1.5 months since i bought my Vibram Five Fingers shoes and i still think they are great. On Tuesday i had to wear regular shoes for a lot of the day and i was surprised by: 1) how much my feet hurt, 2) how narrow the shoes felt, 3) that not only did my feet hurt but so did my lower back. I must admit i was a little bit sceptical at first, but the more i read and thought about it, the more the theory made sense. Now after some experience the practice makes sense too.

My biggest worry now is if in a few years time, what i can't find barefoot shoes?

Thought of the Day - Cycling

A few observations since getting back on the bike for the first time in like 4 years:

1) Don't get cocky when you haven't used SPD's before. I always used to laugh at people who couldn't clip out and fell over onto their sides because they were attached to the bike. Sadly this happened to me, i'd been out on the bike a couple of times with no problems, so i thought i would bump up on the kerb at my flat, stop and then unclip. What i hadn't banked on was the difficulty of trying to clip out while stationary, the movement of trying to clip out meant i lost balance and slowly keeled over onto my side. All very embarrassing but a learning experience.

2) I've still got it when it comes to maintenance. I fitted a whole new groupset to my bike while i was home at the end of May with no problems. I guess fixing a bike is like riding a bike.

3) Damn i am unfit, i remember going out on my bike before i went to uni and doing rides with greater than 1000ft climbing and being fine. Now i go out and a short ride with 350ft of climbing just about kills me.

4) The reason i know the above is because there is a free tool called Bikely that allows you to input a route on google maps and it tells you the distance and gives you an elevation profile. Totally awesome for someone as geeky as me.

Thought of the Day - Limitations and Local Optima In Life

The strength of the human race is that we have adapted to survive, but now that survival is not really an issue for a lot of people, should we be questioning whether the adaptations are really the optimum?

The reason i bring this up is that i read an article on the benefits of 'barefoot' walking (see link at bottom), which blamed the 'features' of current shoes for various foot, ankle, leg and back issues. You can understand that in the past having a covering on your foot would be beneficial; less cuts, less chance of infection and a bit of protection. It then became even more critical as we moved to colder climates and didn't want our feet to freeze and fall off. Shoes allowed us to cope with conditions.

Of course it then became important that the sole of the shoe was durable and strong to prevent puncturing, which meant that stiffer, thicker materials had to be used. To make these stiff, thick soles more comfortable we added arch support, padding in the heel and rockered the sole to try to make the gait more natural but all we were doing was accommodating a limitation. Related to my notes on Beyond the Goal [coming soon] it seems that these local optima rules (padding, shaping etc) to accommodate the limitation were made so long ago that people no longer notice the rules or the limitation. With new advanced materials, a puncture-proof durable sole can be much thinner and more flexible, so why aren't they? One simple reason; people are used to what we have at the moment. Most people associate soft foam soles and thick padding with comfort, heightened heels are ubiquitous and hey if they are good enough for Olympic athletes they must be good enough for us, right?

Wrong. There is growing research which indicates that rather than making our feet more comfortable and protecting our joints from damage, that most current shoes actually cause these problems. So what is the solution? As with all good ideas it is very simple; use the millions of years of evolution in the human foot and interfere with it as little as possible. Provide protection without hindering the natural movement of the foot.


Recently i have had similar thoughts about a vegan/raw diet. That humans added cooked foods, dairy and meat so that we could overcome the limitation of seasonal fruits and vegetables. The only way to survive was to get calories any way we could and we adapted. But that adaptation is relatively recent and given that in the modern age we can get fresh fruit and vegetables year round is that adaptation the best decision or is it based on a local optima rule that helped us to survive in the past.


I am no Luddite, i love technology but i think we need to question the rules and assumptions of society to ensure that our choices are the optimum based on the current situation.


Idea from: http://nymag.com/health/features/46213/

Thought of the Day - Required Sleep

How much sleep is enough sleep and what determines how much you need? How do you optimise your sleep and more importantly (in a six-sigma-geeky kinda way) how do you measure how well rested you are?

On Monday got up at 5am after 4 hours sleep and felt fine all day till 10pm. Today got up at 7am after 8.5 hours sleep and been feeling a bit tired, not a lot but a bit. Twice as much sleep, two extra hours in bed in the morning but i don't feel much better.

Now i have improved my diet and i definitely need less sleep and feel less tired but is it optimised enough? I know i should exercise and a lot of people suggest that you will sleep better and feel more rested after that but then a lot of people also say that you need more sleep when you exercise to let your body recover. Again it is something i need to do in the long run (probably once the skin improves) but is it worth doing now to get more available time, energy and motivation for other things ...