AK's writings on running, biking, and other stuff I like to do
26.05.2010
Shoe shopping
category: Uncategorized
tags:

Well, after stubbing my left pinky toe REPEATEDLY in an EXCRUCIATINGLY painful way the last 2 weeks while mountain running, I have decided I need to do something to protect my toes better on certain types of runs.

So I’m in the market for some flat soled shoes that give my feet as much room to perform naturally as possible.

Zappos.com folks…WOW! If you want fast service, go there.  Free overnight shipping, both ways, and no tax?!?  Who needs a shoe store?  Last night at 8:00 pm I placed an order online for 3 new pairs of inov-8′s so I could try them on, and the package was on my door step tonight at 6:30 pm…with ZERO shipping charge.

Now I just need to decide on a pair and ship the rest back for free.  But its a tough decision because I appear to have 3 great shoes to choose from.

Here’s what I got:

From left to right, the roclite 295, mudroc 290, and the X-Talon 212.

All of them would work fine I think.  I like them all for different reasons.

This is the roclite 295, it is by far the roomiest and most comfortable.  I was very surprised and pleased with how much space there is in the toe box.  But its also the most bulky (not that its even bulky at all by the normal trail shoe standards)

This is the X-Talon.  It’s only comfortable for me if I remove the insole, otherwise its too tight.  But I found while running around the house that this one is by far the lightest and lowest profile, with the flattest sole and most flexibility.  This one definitely gives the foot the most natural flexing ability.  But its pretty narrow and doesn’t give the toes much room to move around inside.  It feels good enough though, and I’m leaning toward this one because I’m so accustomed to my soles being right on the ground, and this one gets me closest to that out of the options I’m faced with.

How do I decide??  Or maybe I keep them both and try them both out.  But that’s an extra hundred bucks I have to drop to do that and I don’t think that’s necessary because I only really would use 1 pair, the one I liked more.

02.05.2010
Life’s lessons
category: Uncategorized
tags:

Sometimes I do things I’m not proud of.  At all.  On April 17 I did numerous things I am not proud of.  As a result of those things, I have been able to reflect a lot on who I am, what I stand for, and on who and how I want to be.

But first and foremost I feel it is appropriate to apologize publicly to Mark Reddinger and Eric Knopinski and all the Rangers at the Standley Lake Park in Westminster.  Also I have expressed an apology in person to Bill and Ken, The director and manager of the parks for Westminster, and I want to publicly apologize to the community in general for a selfish action.

Here’s briefly what I did:  I ran along the Shore of Standley Lake in the no trespassing Eagle Habitat area which is on the north side of the Lake even though I knew that I was not allowed to be in there.  Upon discovering that the Rangers were waiting to talk with me, instead of doing the responsible thing, I ran away thinking I could just run home a different way and avoid them.  I then posted a story of the experience on my blogs and to a list of other runners.  In the moments after running away and posting a story, I found relief in not being caught, and some humor in the situation.  I didn’t intend it as a slap in the face to those that serve to protect our community and parks.  But by doing what I did, and by posting about it online, it was a slap in their face and really the entire community.  And I’m very ashamed of that.

I have removed the posting of that experience because I don’t want anyone else to read it and suppose that I condone or support running away from law enforcement officers, or running through no trespassing areas, or disrespecting their community in any other way.  I made stupid decisions that day and anybody reading this now should know that for what it was.  The last thing I want is to cause problems for the parks or community or somehow encourage others to run where I did.

As a consequence of doing that I have been banned from the use of all Westminster city parks, trails, and facilities for 1 year.  I have also been charged with Trespassing and obstructing a police officer/ranger.  I don’t know the consequence of those charges because my court date is not until June 7.   No, I am not proud of either of those in any way, and I am ashamed to admit that.

I will share some of my thoughts and things I have learned as a result of this situation for anyone interested in reading further.

It was made very clear to me that I was acting selfishly and disrespectfully.  I was only thinking of myself when I was running and running away.  I wasn’t thinking of my duties as a father of 3 young children.   My duties to provide for them, and equally important, to set a good example for them.   In my mind those are among my greatest responsibilities.  I wasn’t thinking about the well being of my amazing wife and how my actions may affect her.  I wasn’t thinking about the safety or protection of the nesting eagles who I very possibly could have scared or disturbed by running through the area.  Fortunately they are monitored very close and I am told that no damage was caused to the young Eagles by my running through the area.  But had I scared them and caused any of the babies to leave the nest, they would not have been able to return and could have died.  I was not thinking about the fact that the park rangers are there to serve me and everyone else and that I owe it to them to respect them and give them my attention.  I was not thinking about the rest of the community who also enjoys using the park and the trails and how selfish it was of me to take it upon myself to use areas that nobody else is allowed to use for good reason.  And lastly, I wasn’t thinking about all those who enjoy running in parks and on trails everywhere, and who I gave a bad name to.  What I did has the potential to create a negative view on all runners and possibly reduce or limit running opportunities and cooperation with parks and cities.

This situation for me has been eye opening.

I wonder how I allowed myself to do such stupid things?  As a supposedly mature adult who definitely didn’t see himself as selfish and disrespectful, it was humbling indeed to see my actions for what they were.  It is clear to me now that  pride/arrogance was the root cause of my action.  And it is definitely not an easy process being humbled.  But I can say that I’m grateful that I am brought to humility on occasion.  Because I imagine if I wasn’t brought low periodically, perhaps I might have a much more painful crash and burn if my pride went unchecked for too long.

I’m brought to reflect upon those people I know and know of who are examples of strength and confidence but also humility.  Leaders and examples to others who are strong, but not arrogant.  People who have the utmost confidence in themselves, but whose primary aim is the service of others.  My Dad is one.  I have many friends who I look up to like that.  And there are some famous examples like George Washington and Abraham Lincoln who, in my opinion, were amazing individuals, whose primary concern was not them self, as evidenced by their words and deeds.  Its hard for me to picture George Washington as arrogant when he was very clear that the last thing he wanted was the burden of responsibility of leading the country.  But he did it because he could, and he was the one for the job, and he was not going to shirk a feeling of duty to his community and country.  But yet he was so strong, confident and capable.

Those are the people I hope to be more like in the future.  I realize I have to be humbled at times so that I remember to be more concerned about my family, friends, and community members and less caught up in myself.

27.01.2010
Harvard Study published on Barefoot Running
category: Uncategorized
tags:

A study was just barely published in “NATURE”, one of the world’s premier scientific journals for publication of breakthrough discoveries.  There’s a corresponding website detailing the study that is well done in my opinion.  It is based on the findings of their research and pretty clearly states what things there are not enough evidence or research for.

Check it out!…

http://barefootrunning.fas.harvard.edu/index.html

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.

18.11.2009
0 Miles today – Lifted and Swam
category: Uncategorized
tags:

I didn’t run today.  I lifted weights at the gym.  2 sets of 25 with pretty light weight on about 15 different positions.  I like the way endurance style lifting 2 days/week has made me feel over the past year.  My body is a lot more toned and I feel strong, but not bulky.  I look at the rock star heavy lifters in the gym with upper bodies 3 times my width and calves 1/3 the width of mine, and I keep watching to see if they will tip over if they lean wrong.  Its funny how different we all are.  They probably look at me lifting my 80 pound bench press and just fear for my life if I were to ever get in a fight.  Fortunately I don’t have to be strong if I can run fast right?

I also swam for about 20 minutes.  Lifting and swimming feels really great to do a couple times a week.

16.11.2009
6 Miles – Indoor track – Breakthrough today!
categories: Barefoot Runs, Uncategorized
tags:

Today felt like a huge breakthrough for me.  Here was the result:

The roads were icy and snowy and it was 18 degrees outside so I did 6 miles of running around a 1/13th of a mile Gym indoor rubber track at about 7:35 pace.  It was so enjoyable I didn’t want to stop.  Again I didn’t have an ipod.  I was just really happy to be running and working on my form.  And it made WORLDS of difference today.  I was very, very pleasantly surprised.

Last night I read up on barefoot running tactics from Barefoot Ken Bob at runningbarefoot.org.  So today I was really looking forward to trying to apply his advice (since he ran 4 marathons in may of this year without getting injured I can assume he is doing something right.)  I can’t believe what a difference it made in how it felt to run.

I thought I felt great on Saturday when I ran six miles, and I did.  But later on Saturday the left upper outside of my calf and my lower lateral quad were kind of tight and sore.  I didn’t feel pain when I was running to really speak of, but I felt I definitely needed a day off on Sunday to let that recover.

But today I felt REALLY great.  The major change that I made was with my cadence.  That was the missing piece that I didn’t understand before last night, and it makes a HUGE difference I found out.  Ken Bob recommends running at a minimum of 180 steps per minute or preferably more.  If you care to know why, which I think is very helpful and legitimate information after trying it today, read his blog.  In any case, I did it today.  I periodically calculated my cadence by counting my steps for 6 seconds and multiplying it by 10 (much easier than initially when I tried to count to 180 in a minute while running…don’t even bother trying that, believe me it sucks).  Every time I counted I was going between 200-220 steps per minute.

I played around with running faster speeds and slower speeds, raising my heart rate to the 170′s for a quarter mile and timing it (doing around 6 min/mile pace), then scaling back to a heart rate of mid to low 150′s and cruising at a 7:30-7:45 pace.

Regardless of how fast I was going, or how high my heart rate was, I was surprised to note that my cadence stayed pretty much the same.  When I was going slower, I kept my cadence high, and I just wasn’t leaned forward into it as much.  When I went at 6 min. pace my cadence was the same but I was just falling into it more.

I let my whole body relax and I focused on that, and it felt great.  For the first time I think I’ve ever done, I let my hips relax and focused on allowed them to freely rotate forward and backward with my legs, instead of staying rigid while my lower legs did all the work.  I kept my upper body upright over my hips and thought about keeping my butt under me and leaned forward from the ankles with my hips forward.

The time flew by, and I when it had been 45 minutes I was tempted to keep going so I could keep playing around with it.  But I also felt I should be moderate with my mileage as I work into a new form.

The thing that was the greatest though about the faster cadence and improved form, is that my legs never seemed to feel tired at all.  My calves and feet felt relaxed, like they were hardly working and all, as compared to when I first started barefooting my calves were screaming at me the whole time.  I realize now that was due to 2 things.  1 – the muscles needed to adjust, but 2 (and more importantly) I was doing it wrong.  I was still taking big strides with a low cadence and that forced my calves and feet to do way more work than they really need to be doing.  I could feel a very stark contrast today in the six miles I did compared to Saturday.  My calves and feet feel very fresh and almost unused as compared to Saturday afterward.  My inner/upper thighs and my upper hamstrings I’m noticing got more of a workout today with the adjusted form, but they don’t feel painful.

And this goes without saying at this point, but the left knee pain that basically debilitated me 3 weeks ago from even running 1 mile, is non-existent now.

Now here’s the bad news…there was 1 minor set-back that happened today.  The Gym Manager Nazi.  At about 30 minutes into my run I noticed the Gym manager ‘Todd’ walking around the track very casually looking down at the gym below appearing to be inspecting how things were going.  Conveniently (or cowardly, whichever) about 3-4 minutes later one of the trainers Jerry came up and stopped me, informing me that I was not allowed to run barefoot at the gym.   I was really happy until then, because I thought it was completely ridiculous, and I kind of challenged him on it for a minute or two until I realized he had been sent by Todd.  So I went down and nicely approached Todd about how he might be able to “help me out”.  He sadly said there was “nothing he can do”  and “its corporate policy” and I think I heard a “blah blah blah” in there a few times…and a “you can try those ‘aqua socks’” which I thought was kind of funny but didn’t laugh out loud.  But I politely thanked him for trying and went back and apologized to Jerry for challenging him (I’m pretty sure I wasn’t overly nice to him initially).  Then, although I wasn’t stoked that I couldn’t run barefoot anymore because I was really enjoying it, I was stoked that I had brought my FiveFingers.  And I was happy to be able to slip them on and continue to run.  I was really glad I had them with me.

But I was also really glad I had about 5 miles to test out running fully barefoot because I think it really helped me improve my form immensely.

I wonder why I didn’t ever try to learn “how” to run before now?  I just kept getting injured, all the time, and I don’t remember ever thinking to ask anyone “how” to run properly so that I could stop getting injured. I just looked to better shoes to solve my problems.  Until I actually had given up and written off running for some day in the future when something miraculous would happen and my body could all-of-a-sudden run far without getting hurt.  Nan kept saying I should run a marathon with her (because we had always talked about doing it since we met, and I wanted to), but I just felt defeated and lacking hope that I ever would really.  But not anymore…I feel very grateful for this new found knowledge of how to run, because now I believe I can run a marathon with Nan next year, and do it without getting injured and love it.

Better Tag Cloud