September

[El Gordo]

Good question(s). In short, yes, I plan to run once a week in the Barefoots, possibly no further than five miles. If nothing else this should help maintain better posture and mid-foot striking, although my Mizunos, hopefully rescued by now, have little enough padding on them.

Have you put trainers through the washing machine before?

Of course, I have heard of this practice, and I even tried it once with an old pair that had been retired to gardening duties. But a couple of points

-- I was always advised to put them in a pillow case first to avoid the laces getting dragged into the mechanism (sounds like this may have happened here).

-- They should be on a very cool and quick-wash setting.

-- And even with the above, the practice is likely to seriously weaken the rubber compounds and damage the structure of the shoe, so not to do it with real running shoes that you want to use for actual running as it could affect your gait and lead to injury.

I should have included washing machine guidelines to the remit of this website long before now. I apologise.

Edited to add -- but at least you have a great excuse to go out and buy a couple of pairs of brand new runners, y'crafty dog...