Running in Mukluks, Update!

Since I posted a few years ago about running in Mukluks, I have had thousands of hits on my blog from all over the world. Yes, that's right, I can see you and what you are reading. Big Brother aside, I would like to post an update to running in Mukluks in our cold, Alberta climate. I headed out this morning for an easy 5km around my neighbourhood. It was about -10C outside, or 14F for you American friends.

I borrowed a GoPro3 Silver for this photo shoot. I accidentally set it to take a photo every 0.5s, so I ended up with about 4800 photos at the end of the run which I had to sift through. Below are the photos from the run.

 Here I am, setting up the GoPro and getting the oblivious selfie of me wondering if I am doing this right. Well, I guess I was, sort of...

 There was cloud cover, so GPS was slow to pick up. It did eventually, but I couldn't wait to start running.

 Here I am, ready to go. Green toque, blue jacket, grey pants, tan shoes. No colour coordination or fashion points for this run. For the mukluks, I had to tie them up with hockey tape and tuck them under my ski pants. They do still bunch up around the ankle, but ground feel and contact still remains on par with VFFs or my NB Minimus.

 Running along and trying to get photos of your feet is tough. These mukluks provided great grip and feel on snow, but not so much on ice. It is what I expected, and if you are sure-footed, you should have no problems handling the icy conditions.

 My concern about soft-soled footwear is obviously warmth and true-to-feel ground contact. Here I am, still happy, so my feet weren't cold. The plush lining of the boots is really comfortable.My feet now, however, feel a little warm to the touch where my foot strikes the ground, a sign of chafing and potential blistering. It could be the sock I am wearing though (Wigwam foot liners).

 At the "apex" of the run you could see the beautiful Rockies. Yeah, I know it is a neighbourhood and not a wonderful trail, but from my front door, it is pretty decent.

 Feet still good, so I am happy :-) . My feet stayed warm throughout the entire run.

 My wife calls this my sad whale eyes. I was not in pain or anything, but I was more caught off guard at how hard it is to run at altitude (again). My home is at 4000 ft, and I had pretty much spent the last month at sea level. So my needs are to readjust.

 More beautiful mountains to the west. Gosh I love it here! My next run should be on a trail. You know, I may just do that.

 My run is complete! My feet were happy and body was sore. My lungs were a bit chilled from the winter running (and altitude), but I would call it a success.

5.23km in 36 mins. Not a blazing pace, but a run nonetheless. I was trying to figure out the GoPro and re-acclimatize to my area. Hey, at least I was out and running :-)

Overall, the Mukluks still perform as expected. I wish they would stay up and not need hockey tape every time. A lacing system would be ideal, like a corset with stretch lacing along the calves. The hockey tape holds at first, but as soon as your calf muscles start to work, the hockey tape loses it's function. I had to make sure to wrap the tape around my ankle to hold the boot on. The plush lining would likely cause blisters on anything longer than a 10km run, but given the right sock that may be avoidable. I have a 10km run on Tuesday to do, so I will see how they hold up then.

These are the mukluks here. http://store.manitobah.ca/collections/mukluks/products/hunter-tall. Their original design has leather laces at the cuff, but mine broke after a few uses. Pssst, I think they are decorative. Maybe these would work with a new lace. http://store.manitobah.ca/collections/mukluks/products/tracker-mukluk.Regardless, if you want barefoot feel and still want to run through winter, Manitobah Mukluks are the way to go.

:-)