Last Friday night was Halloween Eve. Without coincidence, I found myself running away from demons on the trail in pitch dark. It turned out to be good practice for exorcising the demons that play havoc on your mind while you run near exhaustion. At least that’s what I’m writing it off as. Let me explain how this dance with the devil on Halloween Eve came about.

If you saw a strange, motley looking crew running in Palo Alto Saturday with naked feet, that was us. Contrary to what surely was the conclusion of most passersby, we are not the latest new age cult to hit California. We're merely fans of natural running. Brought together by a common interest in running without shoes, we had gathered with Barefoot Ted (of Born to Run fame) to learn, practice, and improve our running form and have a good time. Both goals were met.

There are many tips out there on how to run barefoot, with more being offered up on a daily basis. Some of these tips can be confusing or downright contradictory to one another, though, which can kill curiosity and interest in giving it a try. Or worse yet, people end up injuring themselves and giving up. The confusion can make putting a barefoot running program together for yourself rather difficult. Here's the training plan I put together for myself to run barefoot.

Scratch everything you’ve heard from me about barefoot running. I had it all wrong. I have just found infallible proof that – this is huge, folks – running backwards is better! Recent studies have shown that you can save more energy and run faster with less injuries if you run backwards.