AK's writings on running, biking, and other stuff I like to do
22.01.2010
Warmest barefoot run yet…
categories: Barefoot Runs, Running Logs
tags:

50 Degrees, sunny, clear skies.  Gorgeous day to be out running.

Started out SUPER slow, like…12:30 miles, because my right ankle was feeling stiff.  It was feeling better and better about a half mile in so I kept going.

I just cruised with really fast cadence and slow speed for minimal impact on my ankle and I felt pretty good after the ankle warmed up.  I don’t know what happened to it, but it feels like its getting better each day.  I LOVED the feel of the warm sidewalk barefoot.  It was nice not to have to warm my feet up for the first half mile.

4 miles – 42 minutes – 10:30/mile – HR 131

16.01.2010
Finally did more than 13.1
categories: Barefoot Runs, FiveFinger Runs, Running Logs
tags:

Total:  17 Miles – Pace:  ~9:42 – Time: ~2:45 – HR – 136 avg – Ascent/Descent: 1900 ft.

I met some of the guys from Your Castle Real Estate (the brokerage I have my license with) down at City Park to run this morning.  I got there about an hour early to get some additional time in.

I ran barefoot for a slow 4 miles or so.  It was pretty good most of the time, but there were sections of the path that were super rocky and painful.

I changed into my FiveFingers when I got back to the car for more comfort, and I met up with Charles Roberts, Drew Shope, and Pat Shamblin – and we ran a comfortable and easy 10 miles in various loops around the park.   I had a good time.  It’s nice to have good company to run with occasionally.  I almost always run by myself (which I also love because I really enjoy doing my own thing and going my own pace a lot).

Then they left and I wanted to keep going a little longer because:

  1. I felt great
  2. I wanted to check the mileage on the smaller (3 mile) loop we did because I stopped my watch earlier on accident and
  3. I wanted to test out my new ‘New Balance 790′s’ that came in the mail yesterday.

I liked the 790′s a lot.  Thanks jun and twinkies for the recommendation.  And what a deal, they are only $40! at Nordstrom right now.  Get them while they last (since they are not making them anymore)

I would still prefer that the soles were a little more flat, but they are pretty close.  I also have pretty wide feet, and even though they are D width, I think they would be more comfortable wider.  I guess I’m just too accustomed to free roaming toes.

On my last 3 mile loop I averaged 7:30 pace and it felt great!   It felt good to pick up the pace and go faster for a while after just cruising super easy for 2.5 hours at 10 min pace.  All of it was fun though.  I noticed it felt easier to go faster in the shoes.  They have good traction which helps on the snow sections.

14.01.2010
“I shed my common sense, in exchgange for newer skin” – The impossibles – Plan B
categories: Barefoot Runs, Running Logs
tags:

7.5 Miles – 1:01:05 – 8:08/mi. – HR: 155 avg – Elevation gain/loss: 912 Ft

That headline was a quote from the second song I listened to on the run and it just felt like such a fitting line for me that I couldn’t get it out of my head.  I just kept thinking that’s just what it feels like I do each time I go out for a barefoot run.

I usually run a lot faster when I listen to music.  Today that was definitely the case.  Tuesday I ran basically the same route but I did it 2 min/mile slower.  Today I just felt like going at a stronger pace the whole time.  I’m sure the music had a lot to do with that.

What a beautiful run!!  I feel so grateful for having a healthy body and being able to go run for an hour.  Just blasting some great music and cruising along on perfectly smooth sidewalks and streets barefoot, in 40 degree weather, which was a fantastic temperature.  It feels like summer compared to last month.  My feet only took 3-4 minutes to get warm today.

12.01.2010
A slow and easy barefoot run to start the day off right.
categories: Barefoot Runs, Running Logs
tags:

7 Miles – 1:10 – Pace: 10 min/mile – Avg HR – 126 – Elevation: 700 ft

Wow, that was slow.  I started out slow because I was warming up and my feet felt a bit stiff.

Then I stayed slow…

Also the ground felt really cold for the first 5-10 minutes since my feet were bare and it was in the 30′s initially.  I was really focused on making this run as comfortable on my bare feet as possible as compared with the 5K I did on New Years which resulted in pain because I pushed the pace too hard.

That resulted in a really slow pace today because that’s what felt best on my feet.  Really quick light steps, but not pushing the pace at all.

The result is that my feet feel great and other than the warm up, and a few sections of  really gravelly road, my feet were comfortable the whole time.

It wasn’t a cardiovascular challenge at all today as shown by the 126 Avg HR.  It was really enjoyable, and that’s what I run for.  Some days for me it is really enjoyable to push the pace hard and push the limits of my heart rate (enjoyable in a painful sort of way though).  But not today.

31.12.2009
Race Report: Beat the New Year 5K – Sugarhouse Park, Salt Lake City Utah
categories: Barefoot Runs, Featured, Race Reports, Running Logs
tags:

Tonight I did a 5K road race barefoot at 11:30 in 20 degree weather…there’s a first time for everything right? Maybe…not.

Total 5K time: 19:39  - total mileage for the day:  5 miles.

My wife Nan, myself, my sisters Emily and Ashley, Emily’s husband Adam and my friend Steve Wilson went out to run. It was a fun way to end the year. Nan and I warmed up taking a 1.5 mile loop around the course and I was wearing a lot of clothes and gloves and my fiveFingers with socks.

Then I stripped off all my clothes except for my really short shorts. It felt great actually, It was annoyingly hot with all the clothes on. It was in the 20′s I think but it felt good. The weather was really calm and the course roads were really clear.

We got to the start line after almost everyone and I was really surprised to notice that I was the only one around in bare feet. I mean come on, where was the competition? There were plenty of bikini sporting ladies and speedo wearing guys, but they all seemed to forget to take their shoes off for the coldest runner competition.

Needless to say, and skipping to the end here, I won the award for the ‘coldest runner’! A plaque! Hurray, it was so worth it. Mmmmm, ok , maybe not so much, the jury is still out actually, we’ll see how the bottoms of my feet feel tomorrow…but here are our amazing plaques and trophies that we need to find a place to throw away or donate now.

Anyway, the race was really enjoyable. I didn’t wear a watch or heart rate monitor or anything which was kind of cool for a change. I just tried to not go out too fast. I ended up falling in about 50 feet behind Dane the 52 marathons in 52 weeks guy who wrote a book about that. I didn’t know it was that guy until I chatted with him after. I couldn’t quite catch him, but he said he had a slight advantage on me because he had done a 50 mile warmup run earlier that day. Advantage?!? I guess you could say that. Or that was his not so subtle way of saying he can totally kick my butt. But probably he was just using it as an excuse to share his running accomplishment, which is pretty amazing in my opinion, that he can run a 19 something 5K after a 50 mile run in the 8 min pace range. I thought that was pretty cool and kind of inspiring. He was dressed in short compression shorts and racing flats I think. I ran behind him the whole time and just tried to keep him in my sights and reel him in but I never could catch him.

But I felt great. My legs felt fantastic, my heart felt great, and my feet felt great until the very end. And I didn’t go out too fast. The whole time I could tell I was getting faster. Until the end which is uphill, and my left ball and toe were starting to get sore. I was definitely not used to running that fast barefoot. And because the ground was cold and I was racing I had a harder time keeping my feet from rubbing weird. I have never attempted to go that fast barefoot before, I’m pretty sure 20 degree weather wasn’t the ideal weather to be testing out new barefoot speeds.

As I finished the 5K I felt great, my time ended up at 19:39 which I was really pleased with. I thought I would be a minute or so slower than that being barefoot, I didn’t know what to expect. And I know I could have gone faster if I had worn my FiveFingers. I couldn’t really push the pace any more at the end because of the couple sore spots I was getting in my feet.

Nan finished a couple minutes ahead, first for women in 17:48 I think.  She snapped some pictures of me for the history books since I’ll probably never do that again, but this is the best we could do with my fancy camera and all its settings at night with limited time to set the shutter speed and aperture beforehand, just makes me look like I’m going really fast though right?

Now in the aftermath my feet are pretty tender. They felt fine until the end of the race but it was about an hour afterthat they started to feel really tender on the pads and big toes. We’ll see how fast they can recover from that one I guess. They are getting a lot better now. I think I’ll stick with the FiveFingers in that cold of race conditions in the future. The race felt great, but my feet had a pretty painful spell about an hour afterward.

***next morning***

Ouch! Here’s my plan from now on when I run barefoot: listen to my body.

My feet aren’t very happy with me right now, because I didn’t listen to the small hints of pain signals my body was sending me.

The pads around the balls are really sensitive and I have a blister on each of my big toes. When I ran 8 miles and then 10 miles barefoot over 2 days recently, my feet were slightly sensitive after day 2, but I didn’t get blisters and they didn’t hurt to walk on. This time after 3.1 miles they are SUPER sensitive.

Remind me to listen to my body when I run from now on. To me, the pain and potential injury of not listening to my body is not worth getting a faster time. I’d rather stick with proving to myself what I can do without hurting myself.

I’m pretty sure my feet will feel better pretty quickly, but I still don’t think its in my best interest to run faster than my feet are ready for.

It was a fun race though. And now I have more experience and understand my body and current fitness level better.

***Later on at night***

My feet feel pretty good now and my blisters have died down so I’m good to go for a run with jun and scott tomorrow in the ff’s

***Next day***

My Feet felt great, and I went for a 6 mile trail run in the snow with no problem and no sensitivity. I guess the sensitivity was just from a bunch of my skin that I wore off my pushing too hard and my feet recovered within a day. I’m feeling pretty pleased with that.

22.12.2009
A nice workout at the gym tonight
categories: Barefoot Runs, Uncategorized
tags:

I tried to run in the shoes I was wearing to the gym tonight to try to remember what all the shoe hype was about. After 2 laps around the track I had to kick them off and go in my socks…ahhhhh, that was better. My knee was already getting annoyed after 2 laps with those shoes, even though I was trying to run just like if I was barefoot. If I ever feel the need to run in shoes, they are going to have to be light, flat, flexible and have little to no padding I think.  I just enjoy the feel of barefoot running too much.

I just did 3 miles super easy tonight at about 8:15 pace to loosen up my legs and feet.

They’re feeling almost totally recovered from Saturday’s beatdown.  Tomorrow I think I’ll feel like going for a little longer again.

I also lifted light weights for 30 minutes tonight.

Now I’m just about done with a 30 minute spin on the bike in the gym that went by almost instantly since I was reading people’s blog entries the whole time.

By the way…anyone in salt lake on new years should come finish 2009 running with Nan and I and do the new years eve sugarhouse 5K. I’m working up the guts to run it in my shorts only. I’m not worried about my feet getting cold, but my hands…I don’t know if I’ll wuss out and wear gloves or not…you’ll have to come do it to find out.

15.12.2009
A sloooooow and enjoyable barefoot run
categories: Barefoot Runs, Running Logs
tags:

10.3 Miles – Barefoot – 1:45:00 – 10:17/mile – HR: 129 avg – Ascent/Descent: 1097 FT

I used to always feel like if I wasn’t running fast it was just a waste of a run.

I felt like I was training my body to go slow if I ran a slow pace.  Well…I don’t know if that’s the case or not, but at this point I DON’T CARE!  And it’s a beautiful thing.

Why should I really care how fast or slow I run?  The point is I enjoy myself and I feel great.

I guess I used to really care how fast I did races, and wanted to win, or be the best in my age group, etc. etc.  But I also used to be injured a lot and very limited in my ability to race at all.  And I got burned out very easily.  And what was I really getting out of caring that much about beating other people?  Not much really, it wasn’t a good enough reason to keep me into it for very long.

These days I can’t seem to get enough running.   I am pretty sure that if I listen to my body, and enjoy myself, and run a lot, I will naturally get faster and stronger over time, but it doesn’t matter to me like it used to.  I like the thrill of racing, and I will be happy and feel good to race faster.  But I don’t need to prove anything to anyone  like I used to.  I hope to keep the new attitude, because my old one was pretty lame I realize now.

Some days I feel really rested and recovered and I naturally and easily go much faster.  Today was not one of those days.  Last night I only slept 5 hours because I got distracted working on projects until about 2:30 am.  Plus I ran 8 miles yesterday at a decent pace for me, so today my body was not feeling fast.   But I loved the run.

I didn’t know how far I would go, but I was listening to a good book on my ipod and pretty soon I was 5 miles away from home and I happened to be at the far point of a 10 mile loop, so I just kept going rather than turning back.

The run had a lot of hills, which I also enjoyed quite a bit.  The temp. was in the high 30′s, it was sunny, the roads were dry.  I am really grateful that my body feels so good and that I can run for multiple hours and not feel like I’m hurting my body, but helping it.

Afterward I worked on my hips, gluts and legs with a roller to really relax and loosen the muscles and that felt great.   Then I spent about 20 minutes working on my feet with my hands.  There were multiple little tender areas in both feet, and after working on them, most of the tender areas were significantly less tender both feet felt loose and happy.  I am so glad I learned the technique of how to help my feet heal so fast and feel great.  It has been VERY VERY helpful in transitioning to barefoot running because the feet are so integral.  My feet are feeling much more stronger and more healthy than ever before in my life.

It feels really empowering to be able to run comfortably outside barefoot I have found out.  There’s something about it…I’m not sure what it is exactly.

14.12.2009
Running barefoot is feeling great
categories: Barefoot Runs, Running Logs
tags:

It was an absolutely beautiful day to run barefoot.  About 35-40 degrees and sunny.

I did a loop around my neighborhood and then up a 1.5 mile hill climb.  I LOVED the barefoot hill climb and descent.  I wanted to do it again, but I felt like I should get home and get going on my work for the day.  I can foresee more hill runs in my immediate future.  This week I think I’m going to go barefoot for every run, my feet and legs felt fantastic today and I didn’t feel like any tenderness anywhere was holding me back.

8.1 miles – 1:10:38 –  Pace: 8:43/mile –  HR 149 avg – Ascent/Descent: 1064 FT

05.12.2009
6.56 Miles – 9:09/mile – barefoot in the snow
categories: Barefoot Runs, Running Logs
tags:

It was about 30 degrees outside so I bundled up. Beanie, under armour tights and shirt, another long sleeve shirt and running pants, 2 pairs of gloves.  It was sunny but cold out.  It was a beautiful and very enjoyable run, most of it on snow packed trails, with a couple miles on the roads to and from the trails.

Ran for exactly 1 hour.  9:09/mile.

Just took it easy, enjoying a fun barefoot run in the snow.  In general everyone at the dog park I was running through either looked at me incredulously or made some comment that I didn’t hear because my ipod was turned way up as I was really enjoying running, and singing along to my favorite songs.  I just smiled and waved.  I was running at sing-able pace, and just really enjoying being out.  I noticed that not ONE of their dogs were wearing shoes, and they all seemed to be having a great time running around too.  Apparently you only need shoes to keep your feet warm if you’re just standing or walking around.

28.11.2009
Change your knowledge and beliefs to change your experience.
categories: Barefoot Runs, Featured, Running Logs
tags:

5.61 Miles – 9:13/mile.

About two weeks ago I tried to run barefoot on a dirt path around the pond by my house.  I went about twenty feet and stopped because it was too painful on my feet.

I’ve since read about people who are perfectly comfortable running barefoot on dirt trails, and even in the snow, without pain or freezing their feet.  Before reading about other people’s experiences my belief was that if it was cold outside my feet would surely freeze running barefoot.  And I had experienced for myself the pain of running barefoot on a dirt path, so I KNEW that was painful.

Then I read accounts from people who enjoy running outside barefoot in all conditions, and it caused me to question my beliefs.  Then I remembered that the last time I tried running barefoot on the dirt was before I learned how to run light with a quicker cadence and less pushing off my feet.  So I began to open my mind to the possibility that maybe I was wrong or was missing something.

I went out to try out some new beliefs this morning, and I can report that I have successfully installed a new version of beliefs that I like better than the old version.  I just returned from a 5.61 mile barefoot run around my neighborhood.  Over half of it was on gravel/dirt trails, the other half was streets or sidewalks.  It was thoroughly enjoyable and I was perfectly comfortable running over the dirt and the concrete.  At first I was really surprised when I took my first few steps on a dirt path and off the cement.  I kept wondering when it would start to hurt.  Then I was back on the sidewalk again.  Ok I thought, that was just a fluke.  That must have been a softer than normal, no rock, dirt trail.  Then came the bigger test, a 1 mile stretch of hard pack dirt and gravel trail through the golf course.  As I got on the gravel I noticed my steps become a little lighter, my arms swing a little higher, but no pain.  I ran on, in a sense of wonder, at the fact that I was running barefoot on a rocky path and it was actually enjoyable.  I passed a guy who gave me a strange look as I smiled and waved at him.

After about a mile I was back in the neighborhood.  Soon I was running on another dirt trail, this time I was really looking forward to it because I found it more fun to run on the dirt than on the road.  This trail went up a hill and I was running through some wet spots, some ice patches, some snow patches.  It didn’t ever feel uncomfortable on my feet.

Then at about mile 4 I was at the pond where I initially didn’t want to run more than 20 feet on the dirt path a couple weeks ago.  I jumped on the path and it felt just the same as all the other paths I had been running on, no problem at all.   There were many walkers whose conversations seemed to reach uncomfortable silent lulls as I passed and they stared.  WEIRD!  Why did it hurt so bad two weeks ago?  I haven’t been running barefoot outside at all since then.  My only logical explanation is that my form is much different than it was two weeks ago, much lighter, quicker, and more smooth.  In any case, my belief about running barefoot is much different today.

But, it wasn’t ALL fun and games it turns out.  As I crossed the dam of the pond, the trail was a lot more dry and hard, with significantly larger marble sized gravel very thinly spread.  It was impossible to dodge the rocks, and no matter how quick my steps were, the steps were pretty painful for a couple hundred yards.  I walked for a few feet, and ran quite a bit slower through this section.  Then it was back to normal trail and it felt fine again.

During the run I decided that this loop is going to be my barefoot benchmark loop.  I was running a pretty slow pace, I averaged 9:13/mile.  I’m interested to compare how I feel in the future weeks/months and how my ‘comfortable barefoot pace’ changes.  My finishing assessment today is that I didn’t get any blisters and in general my feet feel fantastic.  The skin feels slightly tender on the pads of my forefeet, but it doesn’t hurt to walk on.

I feel great that I have broken through the barefoot mental barrier, I’m going to start doing more and more running barefoot.  It was very enjoyable.

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