When transitioning from running with shoes to running without shoes, there are a few things you want to do to better prepare your feet. First off, do you ever go barefoot? If not, this is where you need to start before you go out and pound the ground. Start by walking in your bare feet around the house for about an hour each day. Slowly build that up to where you can go barefoot all day without any problems around the house. Slowly start taking short walks in your bare feet from there. The whole point is that you need to EASE or MICRO-PROGRESS your way into running barefoot. This is where most people go wrong and end up with a common overuse injury, i.e. plantar fasciitis, achilles tendonitis, stress fractures, etc. Another simple thing to do to help prepare your feet to go naked is with a couple simple strengthening exercises. First one, start drawing the alphabet with your big toe on each foot. Draw uppercase, lowercase, cursive, etc. to help improve your range of motion in the foot and ankle while building up strength in the muscles that control the motion of your foot. Second exercise, place a hand towel on the kitchen floor or a smooth surface and draw the towel towards you using your toes to "scrunch" the towel. This is help build the tiny intrinsic muscles of the feet. When that gets easy, put the towel on the carpet for increased resistance. These two exercises alone, along with conditioning your feet to go bare foot will really help transition your foot from running in shoes to running barefoot. Stay tuned for future tips on how to stay injury free while running barefoot.