The end of my 11th week no shoes had me walking 6 miles through Golden Gate Park and out Lands End toward China Beach in San Francisco.

I had brought shoes along “just in case”, as it was advertised an 8-mile hike and I didn’t want to burden the group should I find some unforgiving trails. I pulled them out at one point, but didn’t need them after all!

However, my lower calves were achey and locking up after about 4 miles, as I believe my arches are just not strong enough yet to take their fair share of the load.

I am thinking I may have to do calf raises to condition my arches to take more work. Simply walking around the cities isn’t doing it for me anymore.

My feet are becoming more flexible on tops due to my stretching them more often, but after Sunday’s hike the feet are quite sore and stiff again. The soles of the feet have become super-sensitive again too after that hike. I was kind of getting used to my reduced pain levels but now they’re back again after that long walk. Perhaps the cold weather had been blissfully numbing my feet all along and now that spring is here (in California!) it is back to usual? I suppose I’ll know better in a week or so as my feet recover from those rocky trails.