ChromeDome

Went to a barefoot running clinic this A.M. ... it was fun.  We jogged around the park on the grass, practicing technique and form. I doubt it all totaled 1/2 mile, so being conservative I put it at 1/4.

Achilles was "clicking" again today ... I tried rolling my lower leg/achilles area on the foam roller and it *was* actually sore a bit higher at the base of my calf muscle. Doing the barefoot stuff taxed the calves too though, so I'm sure that contributed.  I also iced/rolled the achilles before bedtime... so we'll see how I feel tomorrow. Wife and I have already decided to scale back the "long run" and will play it by ear to avoid injury.

 On another positive note we scored Vibrams today ... we tried several models on in the store and although I liked the Sprint model, I thought the Classic was just fine too, but liked the color better (black). My wife got Sprints due to the shape of  her heel not working well with the Classic. Looking forward to working on the stride mechanics and getting the "barefoot" benefits of running in the five fingers.  So exciting!

So!  Not quite a "long run" day huh!

After much reading, and some continued nagging clicks and clacks from my left achilles area, I decided I needed to rest, and to change gears and incorporate some barefoot training into my regimen. Bought some Vibram five finger classics, and am going to start using them. My wife is too!

 We went for a walk barefoot (man I am a tenderfoot in the truest sense!)  wowee zowee was that more of a chore than I expected!  And then we jogged/ran about a mile in the Vibrams. I should say first that we got some barefoot running instruction on form first, before trying this.

 I also discovered that I should stop taking Ibuprofen or any pain killers whilst I try to recover from my achilles/lower calf (not sure where the problem is) condition. Various articles I read said that pain killers can actually make overuse injuries worse (surprise) by blunting the pain and allowing you to overtrain even further. Also there's some evidence (maybe not set in stone, but worrisome anyway) that NSAID drugs can inhibit healthy healing.  Not sure I buy that 100% but for the pain-masking fact alone, I am stopping any medicinal intake period, and will save that for when I am *truly* ill with cold/flu/etc.

Rested today -- no running, but did try to walk around barefoot all day.

I think all the rest over the last few days is helping, however taking up barefoot activities is taxing to my feet/calf muscles in different ways!

Good news is that the achilles is not "clicking" going down stairs anymore, and I have not taken any Ibuprofen for a few days. Yay.

I returned my Vibram FF Classics to the store and exchanged them for Sprints that are one size larger. I developed two blisters very fast, and one nasty long one on the ball joint of my right foot, basically due to the shoe being too small and the sole bending in an odd place and jabbing me. 

On the upside the Sprints seem to be the proper fit, and I was able to run 1 mile in them without blisters. I had to stop at one mile though because I felt the soles of my feet "heating up" with blister potential. ... but this was just due to running in the heat and on cement/asphalt/cinder rocks, and not the shoes themselves. Looking forward to being able to build up the mileage again.

Wow, a surprisingly good run today even in the 80-degree heat w/ humidity.

 I decided to wear the Asics and just go out and see how I felt, focusing on applying some of my barefoot techniques while wearing the shoes. In a nutshell:

 1) Shorten the stride to help land toward the forefoot. Keep trying for faster cadence/turnover.

2) Keep the forward lean (at the ankles), avoid leaning back and heel striking

3) Keep upright form, but relax, relax, relax!

 I turned in 3 miles at an average 8:30 pace, so in effect this became a tempo run of sorts for me, but it felt great and I had no odd clicks or clacks in my achilles.

 A weird sensation is that after spending so much time this week either barefoot or in the VFFs that the Asics felt clunky. When I first purchased them they seemed "light".  They sure do provide great cushion though!  They're very new still, and now I'm feeling I may have made a mistake getting them instead of a lighter racing flat or something that would be easier to transition between barefoot/VFF.  Sigh.

2 miles in VFFs  at about 11:00 pace, not too bad, but I'm still getting used to the mechanics of running barefoot so I just can't seem to go that fast. I was just starting to get into it when I had to stop because the VFFs were cutting into the top of my foot. GRR. So, I took the shoes off and went barefoot back home.

Barefoot ... just under a mile at about 13:00 mile pace over a mix of asphalt, grass, cinder bike path and sidewalks.

Had a lot going on today so I couldn't squeeze in a run at all. Had a good night's sleep but still feel occasional soreness and whatnot in the achilles area, so another rest day won't hurt me. Trying to recover enough to do a long run this Sunday and get things back to normal.

Ran half a mile (possibly a little longer, but erring on the short side) barefoot on a cement bike path.

 Felt very good, no hot spots or blisters, feet were doing a good job cushioning, etc.  Very nice experience and beautiful weather.  Spent all day on my feet in VFFs, on assorted surfaces and pavement/cement for at least 2-3 hours.

 Attempted to do more VFF running in the afternoon -- I still felt fresh but after one block my feet told me to stop ... felt bruise-like soreness on the balls of my feet, so I guess I got a more intense morning run than I thought, or else the combination w/all day in VFFs was about the maximum the feet could handle.

Nothing like going for my "long" run on a nice blazing hot sunny day... at noon!

It wasn't that bad, really, in fact this was a great run around the "big lake" ... it is 8.8 miles around but wife and I did an extra 1 mile prior to starting -- she in bare feet, me just getting used to wearing the Asics again... I found I was able to implement my barefooting technique pretty well, and the shoes felt nice and cushiony soft.

I tied my shoelaces differently this time ... tight around the arch and near the ankle, but looser near the toe box. I definitely felt a difference with my toes being able to "spread apart" more on contact. I think it helped me stay mentally in touch with forefoot striking/barefoot technique, so that was a plus.

Even with the pre-run mile, when we hit the lake trail we ran well beyond the point where we stopped to drink water on the last run. (I intended to run as long as possible without stopping, but I just can't seem to do it in the heat). I think we took our first little water break/breather at about the 6 mile mark, and our pace was consistently around 9:30 or 9:45 ... we were even hitting in the 8's a couple of times on gradual downslopes and we were both feeling pretty strong. I felt we were doing really really well, especially for running on a mixture of dirt/gravel/single-track trail, etc. through the weeds.  About 4 miles in though, we were both torched by a trail-running dude wearing a camelback, and flying along at like 7:00 pace.  Dang!  I want to be that fast one of these days!

Anyway I think we paused twice more between miles 7 and 9, once when my shoe came untied, and once because I just needed to regroup in the heat before tackling the final 2 miles. We stopped too long (ate some orange slices) that last time, and both our legs felt like lead and it was hard to get going again. Still, I had a kick left at the end (not much of one) and got my pace back down to about 9:30 for the last quarter mile.

 After having such a low-mileage week last week, I was happy to have a successful jaunt of near 10 miles. We both remarked that we actually felt better after this 10 mile run than we did a couple of weeks ago after the 8-mile run.  My running technique felt very different now, and our speed was better overall as well (I think the entire run was 10:15 average pace, but that was skewed a bit by the first barefoot/warmup mile which was quite slow, about 12:00).

Made my first attempt at a pair of huarache sandals, following the instructions on barefoot ted's website: http://barefootted.com/

 Ran a mile in them right off the bat, and I have to say it was a fast, comfortable mile. Remember though what's "fast" for me is slow for other people.  :-)  Also running with barefoot technique (at least for me so far) it is harder to achieve the same pace as when wearing running shoes. But that said, I think I ran faster in the huraraches than in my VFFs. They felt quite nice!  I didn't have the GPS with me but I would guess my pace was 10:00 or slightly even less.

 I then changed to my Asics and ran back to the lake, and in doing so logged 3 miles at an average pace of 9:33. I was pleased with this, as I spent the entire run focusing very hard on my form, and trying to emulate barefoot technique in my shoes.  I tried "pawing" the ground much more this time, and the following morning my hamstrings were quite sore, so I think I hit them pretty good, and must have been working the technique correctly.

 It was very interesting to note that two times during this run, my "too fast" alarm went off on my Garmin -- this alarm is set at 7:30 pace. I hit that a couple of times on downhills or when I was thinking about my stride mechanics or cadence. 

 All in all, a very good tempo-ish type of running today even though I just set out to do what felt good and wasn't thinking much about pacing, but rather form.

Oops, I entered today's info on Monday, which was actually a rest day.

So Monday's entry happened in this space ... 

Started out with sore muscles, but ran anyway ... My calves were especially sore from my first run in the huaraches. I think I overdid it a little, speed-wise, on that run and am feeling the effects. My ankles didn't hurt but my right one crackled and popped a lot during the run.

I ran 3.1 miles in 30 minutes ... this seems to be a consistent workout speed for me lately. This is great, since a few years ago I had to work hard just to try to hit a 5K in 30 minutes, and the first time I ever did it I was totally sucking wind.

When I was 1 mile from home I took the shoes off and went barefoot the rest of the way. This time the cinder path was slightly less painful, so I think my feet are getting tougher after just a couple of weeks of barefoot practice. I just held my shoes like handweights as I ran, as holding them up high helps keep an upright running form.  People gave me some stares, but I just ran right by ;-)   I managed a peppier pace barefoot this time also, and hit a 10:20 pace on the sidewalk going downhill. It got intense after about 200 yards though, so I had to cool it and go slower the rest of the way.

Nothing major to report ... had to make this an "active recovery" sort of day.  I only did "2.4 miles" according to the elliptical machine -- this workout was at the health club. No running today.

 The barefoot work of late has toasted my legs and I was really sore, from my hamstrings on down. It is so easy to overdo it when barefooting, I'm afraid of a setback or injury. If I take it slow today I should still get between 20 and 30 miles this week, especially if I feel better tomorrow. Theoretically I should be ready to rock and roll... :-)

Not much sleep last night ... 5 hours might be optimistic. Baby not happy.

 Very tired all day and still sore. Had little energy when returning home from work. Had intentions to go for a run but I think my body is not ready or willing.

Today Barefoot Ted  (barefootted.com) spoke (and spoke, and spoke ...!) at our weekly barefoot running club. Suffice it to say it was interesting, and we picked up some barefooting tips/ideas/theory and got an earful of his stories.

 Someone made the mistake of giving him too much "talk juice" (coffee) before starting the meeting.

We probably did a quarter-mile's worth of barefoot running exercises/drills on cement and grass. Nothing crazy, but I had a little tiny bit of soreness in the ball of my right foot which kept me from pushing very hard.

Worked around the house all day doing chores, and was barefoot the whole time. So, spending the day shoeless was a good activity as well, but it isn't necessarily running mileage and I don't know how to tally that.

Got a little more sleep last night so was feeling a little more human. Not much more sleep though. I feel I need to save up some more energy for the long run tomorrow, and for logging more consistent mileage next week.

Ran 10.5 miles -- I was just trying to make sure I logged my distance and wasn't worried about pace. I still ran 10:30 miles, basically, with a few 11:00s in there when I started to fade at the end.

Went the whole run without gels or sports drink -- tried not to stop/walk etc either, but took breaks at 4, 7, 8, and 9 mile markers. I could've skipped mile 4, but wife needed a drink. I usually take a gel after 45 minutes to 1 hour of running, but having nothing but water, I got super tired as evidenced at the multiple breaks after mile 7. Lately I've been feeling strong at mile 7, so I attribute that to the gels. Maybe next week if I go back to the gel I can log a whole run without stopping, we'll see.

I need to try to log all the appropriate mileage this week -- get back to the 30's.

Yesterday I could hardly stand up from the effects of the long run the day prior, but today the soreness was much less. I rolled on the foam roller last night though, targeting my calves (Ow!) and quads/IT band.  Maybe that did the trick?

 Set out to try to log 6 miles with my Vibrams only. Ended up running 3.1 miles and stopping, as a blister started to flare on my right foot, in the usual place where the shoe's inner seam bothers me. I made the 5K distance in 33:35, which I was happy with, considering I had to work through early stiffness and transition to running in the VFFs.

I then took the shoes off and ran the rest of the way home barefoot, mostly on cement sidewalk, which was actually quite nice. At one point I hit 11:20 pace on a slight downhill, so I was doing OK even though my ankles/calves were starting to twinge, and I was being careful to dodge rocks and debris.

When running barefoot I can tell I go much slower because I am concentrating on "landing" every stride, and this seems to take all my energy. I don't have much "push off" quite yet...

No running today.  ARG!

 Foot pain in metatarsals of both feet, likely due to "overdoing" something barefoot yesterday. Too fast with Vibrams, or something.

 This is depressing, just when I think I'm feeling good... oh well, another rest day.

Feet still hurt today, but seems to be getting a little better.

"ran" ... ok hobbled slowly barefoot over a distance of 1.3 miles according to the garmin. Mostly sidewalk, some asphalt, about 50 feet of grass...

 Hopefully this will help me work out some of the aches in the top of my feet ... the right foot is worse than the left, but it wasn't quite bad enough to make me unable to locomote.

 Unfortunately I had to run over some hot pavement/cement and it looks like I have some blistering on the pads of my feet near the big toe. I hope I just didn't do something stupid... :-)

No running today ... feet still hurt. 

No running today -- feet still hurting. This is depressing.

Tried going for a run in shoes, as feet were mildly sore.

 Got half a mile before pain returned and I walked home.  This is a major bummer.

 I really overdid it, apparently, with the barefoot running. It is taking me a week to get over this, and I am in a foul mood.

Rest day anyway today -- not that I could have done anything.  

 Feet still sore even when walking. I really hope this is just a sprain or something and not indicative of a stress fracture.  I am in a grumpy mood!

Nothing much to report ... went to the gym and managed 30 minutes on the stationary bike ... feet felt less sore today, but not good enough to run on.  I have no idea how these bicycles calculate effort and distance, but all I did was break a slight sweat, so no big woop.

 Still very bummed out about this whole affair.

Hooray!

 Two whole miles, and without pain!  OK, my feet were starting to throb at the end of it... but nothing "serious".

 My feet are finally starting to feel normal. I went out and ran in my old and pretty worn out adidas, with the insoles removed. This puts my foot lower to the ground and also helps me avoid premature heel striking. Unfortunately my nice Asics Gel Kayanos tempt me to hit my heel, and their very thick cushioning dulls the sensation of running perhaps too much.  I might try removing the insoles on those and giving them another shot.

 I was able to run comfortably, practicing my new running form and cadence, and it felt quite good.

 I have to go back to trying to log 2 miles per day and work my mileage up again. We will see how it goes, but my wife and I don't think we will be able to train up in time for Las Vegas in Dec. She has altered her running form also, and feels the effects of "starting over" almost, with a new running style. She has continued to run and is doing OK, managing to avoid my foot problems.

Hooray!  2.1 miles finished, running relatively pain-free.

 Today I ran in my old Adidas trainers, which I have removed the manufacturer's insole from. These didn't seem to prevent me from landing on the forefoot and implementing my "new and improved" running form. 

My laps were faster than I expected, and I averaged  9:05 per mile!  However, I was gasping for air, so that wasn't too good... but I think I am expending a lot of energy trying to maintain my form. It will be awhile before I can relax into it, but the speed is encouraging right out of the gate.

 I am trying to log a week or so of 2-ish miles, and if I can do that without re-injuring something I will proceed to increase the miles.