Running

For sure, I'm glad to help!

tldr: yes! haha,

Longerrr: Thin-soles are comfy on coarse travel, it can actually feel like a bit of a massage after the soles of your feet toughen up. Like I always thought that was just something barefoot runners said to sound badass, but then I experienced it and it is pretty cool, haha.

Gravel might feel tricky in the beginning if you're used to thick soles and thick ankle support, where we're kind of tricking our feet into believing they're on a flat stable platform each step regardless of the actual stability or safety of that step, but your ankle muscles and the bottoms of your feet will get tough very quickly running in thinner soles.

I prefer thin soles on gravel, and I've run on a lot of gravel, actually on every surface. I even climb mountains in thin-soled shoes because the feedback from the bottom of my feet is so much quicker and very accurate, so I'm able to adjust to loose gravel or use the muscles of my foot to stabilize myself in a way that I just can't with thicker soles because a thick sole won't conform to the muscles of my foot and padded ankle support won't let me adjust the angle and position of my foot on the fly with full mobility when I'm running or hiking like I need to in order to avoid injury if I step on a loose rock or overstep or something.

With thick soles it's difficult to tell if the ground underneath you is unstable or dangerously slanted until the ankle support has already twisted your ankle too far in the wrong direction.

Thin soles, I feel the direction and stability of the ground instantly, and at this point my foot adjusts correctly by itself, and that definitely started by jogging slowly and safely first, and letting my feet get used to actually feeling the ground underneath my feet. Your feet and ankles will get noticeably tougher over probably 2 weeks, and once those muscles are stronger, you'll feel more stable and naturally start moving faster, although as fast as you run, that foundation of running comfortably should always be there.

Comfortably as in running at a speed that you can maintain while only breathing through your nose. It's going to feel super slow in the beginning, but many people can walk breathing through their nose fine, so can probably go a little faster still breathing through your nose, and it'll get easier as your feet get tougher, ankles get stronger and your breathing control improves.

Man you know I've been walking a lot but actually haven't run now in maybe 6 months and talking about it is making me want to get out there.

By running comfortably and building up the muscles you use to run, you'll find your minimum pace that you can maintain for hours at a time. I also just made friends with a runner here, so maybe it's time.

In the beginning you might only be able to maintain that breathing-through-your-nose pace for 10 minutes, but your endurance should go up by at least a few minutes every time you're running at your comfortable pace.

And none of this is strict die by the nose-breathing code, haha. Every time you run in thin-soled shoes, your feet will get a little stronger and tougher, and every time you practice breathing through your nose, your breathing control will get a little better, so it's fine if you have to stop and pant occasionally, just means you have to dial back your pace a bit.

I didn't run fast marathons(usually ~6 hours), I just set up routes for myself so I could explore the towns near where I was living over the course of 26 and a half miles, but I also wasn't panting or dying by the end of the marathons.

I was enjoying the feeling of running(or jogging slowly) and then I had gone through a marathon and I got some food and beer and then taught English the next day at school.

I have been running for a very long time and have helped other people start running comfortably this exact same way. Another teacher in my school absolutely hated running his whole life, and he was like 38 when I met him, I think.

But he asked me how I was running marathons but was fine the next day, and I explained the above, so he started running comfortably and in thin-soled shoes and started doing half marathons within a couple of months.

In my experience this comfortable running method works really well and is safe and makes our feet and ankles stronger, so I hope it helps.