Finally Have My Luna Sandals Dialed In

Almost perfect, but not quite

I think I have figured out the ideal, or nearly ideal, lacing position and pattern for my Luna Sandals, and it only took me about 530 miles to get there!

The first pair I ordered used the ATS lacing, which sounded like the best option, but I never could get them to fit perfectly. You can see them on the Luna Sandals site, as it is their default lace on all models. My left foot continually moved to the left of the shoe, with the toe lace portion moving under my big toe. That is painful after a while. I also didn't care for the underside of the buckle. It would generally either rub my foot raw or just scratch it.

Now my walking sandals

After about 250 miles of that, cut those off and replaced them with hemp laces. Those worked much better, but by now, the sandal footbeds had conformed to my feet, and my left foot was off center. I decided to get a new pair, which was a good decision. These have right at 490 miles on them now and are still in fantastic shape. I figure the footbed will last 1,500-2,000 miles. My hemp lace pair are now my casual sandals. I ordered another pair of the Luna Sandal Originals with the leather covering, and this time the 3/8" laces.

I've finally figured out the best way, for me at least, to lace them. First of all, as you can see in the top image, the toe lace comes straight up. This is close, but not perfect. I actually have it so that toe lace comes to the inside of my foot, so it is slightly tugging on my big toe. Contrast that to the hemp lace at left that is slightly tugging away from the big toe.

Shaved off the edge, making the laces
thinner and easier to tie

The other modification I made was to make the laces thinner at the top. A 3/8" strap of leather isn't easy to tie off. I went to the hardware store and picked up a few C-clamps and some thin strips of aluminum and shaved off about 1/8"-3/16" off of the last 16" of the laces. This made a world of difference in tying them off at the top. It may not look like much in the picture, but trust me, it is night and day.

I am wondering what a full set of 1/4" laces would be like though. I like the feel of the 3/8" laces on my foot. I need to order a set of trail sandals, and I may go with the 1/4" lace system.

I am still slightly tweaking as I go. Unlike shoes, sandal laces are in constant need of adjustment. You cannot just slip them on, tie them off and go. I spend about 2-3 minutes each morning I run putting them on, and may adjust slightly in longer runs, though I've run for 15 miles with no adjustments needed at all.

After having run in classic running shoes for 800 miles, Vibram Five Fingers for almost 3,500 miles and now sandals for just over 500 miles, the sandals have been the most comfortable and least annoying thing to wear. I would like to run barefoot more, but I get into areas where there are rocks and debris, which takes a significant chunk of joy out of running. And just running barefoot around the neighborhood 10-15 times just gets boring.

And yes, I'll admit, I enjoy the looks I get from people as I run by them in my sandals. They think I am some sort of hippie. But I know my feet are far better for it instead of being in a shoe put together by someone in marketing and then sold as the ultimate running shoe, until they dream up the next model.

Sometimes Technology Gets In The Way

I wanted to run some intervals on Tuesday so gathered up my normal running gear and my interval timer and headed out. I didn't even make it to the driveway before the tech conspired against me.

Somehow the last time I used my GymBoss interval timer I left it in single timer mode instead of dual timer mode. I messed with it for a few minutes and almost left it behind. However, I really

wanted needed to run intervals, so I headed back in and went to my laptop upstairs and reviewed the PDF instruction sheet I scanned into Evernote. Tap tap press-hold-tap and spin counterclockwise on my left heel, and done. Dual timers. Good to go.

I get outside and turn on my GPS watch so I can capture my distance. It hooks up in about a minute and off I go. 30 seconds later, my 6th generation iPod Nano starts talking to me, and not in a good way. I usually listen to the Wall Street Journal from Audible during weekday runs. The Nano kept insisting on lowering the volume and speaking over the narrator to tell me the program title and chapter number. I finally got the Nano to reboot and that fixed it. It does that about every 3-4 months and drives me nuts.

Sort of makes me want to run with no tech at all. Still, 99.5% of the time it works just fine. After all of that, I felt better after my run than I have in weeks though, so maybe getting my blood pressure up before I finally took off was a good thing.

Maybe not.

Soleus GPS 2.0 Watch Only $95 Through Groupon

New Soleus GPS 2.0 Watch

If you have been considering getting a GPS watch but haven't taken the plunge, now might be the right time. Groupon's latest offer is Soleus GPS 2.0 watch, which hasn't been released yet. Unlike most Groupons, this one is only valid for a few days. It expires March 5, 2012, so you'd need to use it pretty much as soon as you printed it.

I've had the GPS 1.0 watch for a few months and really like it. The biggest gripe I hear about it is the lack of being able to upload data to your PC. The GPS 2.0 watch adds that feature, as well as an interval timer.

I like mine and don't really miss the features the 2.0 watch adds, but if I was in the market for one, this would be on my short list. It appears to be the same dimensions as my 1.0 watch, and it is the first GPS watch I've seen that can be worn as a regular watch without looking goofy. It does take a while to lock on, up to two minutes, but once it finds the GPS satellites, it doesn't lose them. I've used mine for about 350 miles on roads, forests, mountains and valleys and it has never lost signal.

The only thing that irritates me is I paid $89 for my 1.0 version just 2 months ago. Now for $6 more, I could have had the latest version. Oh well, all of technology is like that.