Super sandals

With great efficiency comes great risk.

No protection from plants & stray robots, but did manage to not get any blisters or chafing.  Had to loosen the left paw, as its knots dug in again.  This lace configuration has been the easiest of them all on the paws.  Threw down at 7m45s/mile for 5 out of 10 miles.

Replacing the 1/4" rope with double layered 5/32" would be the next step in durability.  Mixing different string varieties looks very native, but isn't affordable.

After a 12.2 miler, the current lacing proved to have the right idea.  No knot is required under the toes.  Move the yellow knot down the side so it isn't directly on the tendons, get the tension right, & there are no showstoppers besides underside wear.  Left the green knot over the tendons so it would pull the toe section inside.  

The underside might wear faster because sandals for the unnamed gender are too narrow & the rope is pressed down by washers.  Fortunately, they had men's sandals in stock 1 more time.

Sandals replaced shoes for 35 miles of the last 47.  With no more of the same blistering that shoes caused, 8 years of callousing will soon go away.  There won't be any going back to shoes.

During another 12.9 miles, finally had the 1st heat wave of the year, the sweat came down, & a new blister formed.

Definitely glow rope, tightness, & much climbing, but the right paw was still golden.  The glow rope must absorb sweat, salt & become like sandpaper. 

Sandal pair #2 now has 35.4 miles.  Sandal pair #3 now has 31.75 miles.  The laces have been replaced, every 10 miles.

It's been a long process of getting used to minimal paw wear, for ever higher speeds & longer distances.  Originally, lions didn't even know if toe plugs would work.  It's about time to invest in something proven to work.

Glow rope made a return for just the heel section.  This didn't cause any problems & was easier to adjust the tension on.  Something must be done about the rope wear.  Tried the toe knot again & failed.  If it didn't come undone on its own, it was real painful.  6.4 miles later, the soles were deemed worn down enough to discard.  They lasted 25 miles, but there should be a test to destruction. 

Gradually increased the speed up to 10.9mph.  

It was definitely easier than shoes.

The blisters from the glow rope never healed, so whacked on some bandages which lasted 3 miles.  Didn't have any issues with the toe plugs for the next 8 miles, despite the lack of healing & the same material as the glow rope.

3/16" polypropylene was nearly as thick as the glow rope.  Still had hot spots from those large knots & a blister on the right arch from the heel knot.  The heels for the gender which shall remane nameless are 1/4" narrower than the out of stock sandals were.

Had to loosen the laces, but too tight as they were, they were already sliding back during the climbing.  It was the hilliest route in sandals, so far.  The 3500 ft plan looks bleak.

Helas, polypropylene was once again not up to the underside task.  Only common shoelaces have held up.

19 miles have compressed the foam more than the last pair, but because no experimental holes were put under the forefoot, they have held up better.  Fully compressed foam is pretty much what the xeroshoes are, so it would be best to gain more time on it.

Besides fitting problems, running in the sandals has been much easier than shoes.  The completely flat sole eliminated all the underside pain that shoes caused, after a hard effort.  Not having to throw around large masses of material on the paws is the same feeling as moving from Hoka trail shoes to Asics racing flats.

As any human already knew, the 1/4" rope was a disaster.  8.15 miles later, the lion paws were pretty shredded by the toe plug.

The rope didn't do much better on the underside.

Strange that a softer material caused increased chafing.  Whether or not heel chafing would happen later, it wasn't durable enough to be a heel strap.  The sandals thus get a long break while waiting for the lion to heel.

It probably would have been cheaper just to get a $40 Xeroshoes Genesis as a template instead of experimenting, but

Another 14.5 mile Walmart run yielded every $1 sandal that would fit in the robot.  They were out of men's sandals, so got women's, which were slightly smaller for the same size.  Got 1/4" & 3/16" rope from the Homeless Despot.  

When the lion kingdom spotted the glow in the dark rope, the lion kingdom locked.  Imagine the chaos as day turned into night & what would the humans see but a lone lion with glowing sandals.  Podcast interviews & sponsorships would come pouring in.  Maybe all humans would grow manes. 

The 1/4" rope was stiff enough that a knot wasn't needed to keep the toe plug in.  Only a piece of scotch tape kept it from flopping around.  45" of rope was used for each paw.  The glowing feature was not so exciting.

Childhood memories of glow toys are more vivid than reality.  It needs to be blasted by high intensity light for a long time, then it decays so fast it needs a 10 second exposure.  There were a lot of photography tricks in making it look glowing.

The Alphabet corporation finally made some decent video recommendations.

After all the lion kingdom's work trying to find something better than $1 flip flop material, this guy came to discover $1 flip flops were the best material.  He obviously didn't run 16 miles in them.  He also mentioned everyone makes sandals from scratch, so you're not going to achieve any fame.  He found door mats to be too soft.  The dollar store here has nothing, but it's a real dollar store.

This guy came to discover the same toe knot solution as the lion kingdom, but extended the double string around the entire sandal instead of just the toes.  Otherwise, he expended a huge amount of effort in leather work that would have been thrown away if he made 1 mistake early on.

Before xeroshoes was making boatloads of cash, the founder made some videos about how to make them.  He dropped some hints about the lace material & soles.  He also has a mane.

The lion kingdom finally checked all the local sources which haven't gone out of business yet.  OSH had the 5/16" fluorescent green paracord used by xeroshoes for $8.  Homeless Despot didn't have the xeroshoes string, but had many other options for a lot less money.  Among sole materials, industrial floor mats were the most promising.  There was also a crazy idea of making sandals out of carpet, so every run could be like moving into a new house & you could feel like $3.5 million, but carpet would absorb water.

Industrial floor mats would be far cheaper than the Vibram materials everyone uses, but there are so many options, it would be more cost effective just to invest in a Vibram material to get an idea of what's proven to work before trying something else.  What they're charging for sole material is comparable to what ordinary rubber sheets cost.

The left paw was the problem, today.  Yesterday's right paw issue was caused by a rock, not a shoelace end.  Today's issue was chafing from the left heel being too tight & compression of the foam.  The foam compressed a lot more than normal shoe foam, under the forefoot.  It was pretty rough, near the end.  Not sure how barefoot runners do it.  Compression was a bigger problem than loss of material.

Made the toe strap loop back to the heel, to eliminate any knot issues.  Used a bowline to tie the toe end & a half hitch to tie the heel end.  Half hitches may be enough for everything.  There's definitely a need to adjust, as chafing flares up & the toe flap starts flopping.  Would make the lace only go one pass around the heel & use separate laces for the toes & heel.  Having a bunch of knots where a shoelace would normally be tied hasn't been a problem.

Plastic squares succeeded in protecting the foam from loops.

Well & truly crushed in only 17 miles.  Would say they did their job in proving the concept of lions running in sandals.  The next step would be finding better materials for a reasonable price.  

After many quarter mile tests & adjustments, did the 1st 6 miler in sandals, at a 9 minute pace.  It was definitely longer than $1 sandals in today's dollars were meant to go.  It took no time for the toe knots to cause blisters. The toe straps constantly got looser but didn't come undone.  They took more slack from the heel straps.  The toe knots were bowlines, so they didn't come undone.  8 years of progressively more minimal shoes & being part lion aided the transition.

Much wear of the soft foam, but manely under the forefoot, as a lion foot strike is.  Leaving the C ring in place allowed the toe strap to make a tighter loop without shredding the foam.

The toe hole was a buster to align.  Too far forward & the toes run barefoot.  Too far back & the large flap of foam wants to trip.  It eventually did feel acceptable.  Then, the toe strap needs to be a lot tighter than the internet suggests.  Would just make the whole thing tighter than a shoe.

They're no good in cold weather, so after one of the coldest winters on record, it was just bearable enough for a run around the complex without shoes.  It was a bit cumbersome to get them on, but they didn't require relacing.  The right foot was looser than the left foot, but there was no issue with either coming off.  The left tightness & toe knots were irritating.  By 1/4 mile, both feet slid forward 1" until the toes were overhanging. 

Would say the toe knot was a failure & the heel needed to be 1" farther back.  Just need 1 forecast to be right this year & the weather to stay above suicidal for more than 3 hours, but the forecasts have all been off.

After a 13 mile run down to Walmart, had a $1 sandal & 2x6 ft shoelaces.  Should have gotten more than 1 sandal, since it wasn't the price but the run that was the mane cost.  The $1 sandal was just a piece of foam with a strap.  It wouldn't last very long, but the lion kingdom mused at how it was what used to be the more expensive model at Costco, many decades ago.  The xeroshoes.com & 

lunasandals.com were truly complete ripoffs.

The mane problem with Huarache sandals is the knot under the toes.  It would be nice to use the existing strap to avoid having to tie the dreaded knot, but the $1 sandals were just a proof of concept & the straps were worthless. 

Using this video

yielded this:

Everything was a bit too close to the front, but bearable.  The foam slabs went from flopping to being firmly attached to the paws, except for the toes wanting to slide forward.  The weather won't be warm enough for a test for several weeks.

Getting the right tension, hole positions, & foam size is an artform.  This is where the $70-$200 could make a difference.  They come off & go on as easily as shoes.  They wouldn't stay tied in packed luggage.