2.75 miles around the waterfront BAREFOOT! It was no coincidence that I ended my run at the Salmon St. fountain! And I'm pretty sure the strangers' words, "barefoot", "OMG", and "dangerous" were for me!
Are we all supposed to report our weight now, too??? Actually, I haven't weighed myself in months now and it is probably for the best.My weigh in this morning was 143.6 lbs.
Sounds like you should just swing on over to Idaho for a run. Pretty much have those conditions in the morning right now.Easy 3 miler this morn at 5am 78 deg. A few bun buns here and there otherwise uneventful. Humidity still in the tropical zone makeing me gulp air in an unbecoming manner. Dreaming of my fantasy cocktail of conditions of 60 with 30% humidity. I thing I might be able to run like a prize filly then.
All parts good
Great story, especially the comment on age-grading.2.5 miles yesterday in mugginess, and 5 miles today with 1/2 mile cool/stretch walk at end for 5.5 miles today. Today at the end of my run, the last mile, I caught up to the grade 4-6 running club from the elementary school in my neighborhood. Damn those grade 6'ers are fast. They kicked my butt, the fast bunch had great form and ran like gazelles, no heel strikers in that bunch. I did manage to pass a good portion of them though and heard a lot of "did you see that guy, no shoes", "wow, that's neat", and a lot of quiet whispers, also heard their teacher comment as to how there are not to many barefoot runners here in Manitoba. I would like to have been a fly on the wall when that group got back to their gym. But I am not mad that I got poned by those grade sixers, if I use Dama's age handicaping system I would have kicked their butt and come in first to win the cash like she did. All in all a great day running on a cool day for change, tomorrow a quick fast run and back to chasing golf balls in the afternoon.
Only if one is making progress. Judging from your new avatar, I'd say you're all set. I'm renewing my push towards 200 lbs/34 waist. Another goal on my fitness bucket list I suppose.Are we all supposed to report our weight now, too??? .
It's funny, I've recently made 30mpw my goal. Something new to obsess about I guess. So I know what you're talking about; I missed Sunday and Monday, but after yesterday's run and this morning's 1-mile run-commute, I only have 10 miles to complete this aft and tomorrow, so I can relax a bit.So I've got my forty in already, that means I can kick back the rest of the week.
I've been a casual barefooter my whole adult life. I always think about how much everyone shod is missing out on, although I wear shoes too. Today my feet are a bit sore from yesterday's run on mild chipseal and a good dose of gravel, but in a good kinda way.Yeah, I don't think weigh-ins are a required feature, I just saw that Lee posted his weight yesterday and since I weigh myself every morning and put it in my log of blood sugars, insulin, weight, and number of steps counted by the pedometer, I just thought I'd add mine in. I'm back on the skinny side of things again. There was a time in 2010 when I was up to near 165 lbs with most that being muscle, and a tiny bit of extra padding.
Had another running dream last night, and people were asking me why I was running barefoot. I said it felt good. They said, "What do you mean?" I thought about it and said, "Well, it's hard to describe, it's like trying to describe colors to a blind person. I feel a whole bunch of good sensations that you don't because your feet are trapped in shoes and blindfolded. You don't know about the colors under your feet."
I combed through the running log last night and found out that yesterday's easy run of that out-and-back is the fastest I've ever run that. I've almost always run that run easy, but I did have one entry tagged as a fartlek, but it was still 12 seconds slower than yesterday's.
Last bit of random stuff is that last week I came across a Youtube video showing a cat which had been outfitted with some shoes on its feet. The cat was thrown way off kilter, you would see it lift its feet and put them down and realize that it just didn't feel right. It made me wonder if every day that people wear shoes they aren't getting a similar sort of subtle psychological effect. We have all those nerves down in the soles of our feet, but they aren't getting the information and feedback they maybe expect. And maybe that's subtly adding to the rate of depression or other psychological difficulties we see in our times and culture. That's very speculative though. And I'm certainly not going to say that taking off our shoes can cure depression. Depression is a wicked beast to wrestle and it's probably not any one simple feature of our physiologies and culture.
I've been a casual barefooter my whole adult life. I always think about how much everyone shod is missing out on, although I wear shoes too. Today my feet are a bit sore from yesterday's run on mild chipseal and a good dose of gravel, but in a good kinda way.
The only times in my life I've ever felt depressed are when I don't exercise. After two or three years of graduate school and no exercise, I began to feel depressed and got insomnia. A doc prescribed Paxil. I tried it for three days and felt horribly numb. So I ditched that and started getting back in shape. Problem solved--good mood, good sleep, good energy, good concentration. The fact that running takes you outside into the elements and barefooting brings you in touch with the ground, enhances the benefits of exercise, I think.
Well-put!I definitely agree about activity and exercise. I'm at my best when I get physical activity in. But what I've been experiencing with barefoot running has been making me think a lot. So far I've observed that a runner's high comes on quicker and much more intensely when I run barefoot. The only couple of runner's highs I've had in my shod past which were comparably strong happened when I was reaching the end of my first half-marathon and when I had an impromptu 10-miler in February 2008. Yesterday when I ran barefoot, at around the 15 minute mark I began to experience the surroundings of me with a weird clarity. It felt like I was hearing everything around me, my feet were caressing the asphalt and that even though it was dreadfully hot and humid, I was still capable of gliding along.
I've never had a gliding feel run in heat and humidity before. But it happened yesterday.
I guess my feeling is that it may be much harder for shod runners to connect into those sorts of feelings, because of their soles not getting all the feedback and information that evolution gave us the nervous system to experience. It can still happen, but it takes longer. Just like a shod runner can get a sense of the spring that Dr. Mark Cucuzzella talks about, but it's harder to feel. I have to pay close attention to feel the spring when I use the Xeros, it's just not nearly as strong and obvious.
Maybe feeling that is a nearly necessary part of us feeling full and human. Our feet got wired to expect input and pass that along to our brains. Our brains grew in response to that to make us into hunters, trackers, and communicators. Running barefoot may have help drive the development of language in us. With language, we have a tool to construct our identities and ponder those, and share them with friends, family and lovers. Just how much has our modern culture lost in the development of demanding people be shod? Just how much have we all lost as individuals?
Take it easy, especially in the early miles, and make sure you are not pushing off and all should be well.Ok, just checked our weather report and it looks like we may have rain during a 10k on the 21st. We are in a level 8 drought here in Dallas. Chances for rain runnung are very rare.I need some advice please from you seasoned veterans of running. Coz even though I'm a summer chicken, I'm fairly new to running. Never have run more then 3 in rain. Should 6 be any different?
Take it easy, especially in the early miles, and make sure you are not pushing off and all should be well.
I find warm rain runs really refreshing and I'm not unduly troubled by softening skin - so long as I'm moving all the time. If it's raining while you wait to start it is probably worth having some shoes you can discard - or someone to hand them off to - to avoid softening your plantar skin.
Have fun!