2014 Year end milage, 2015 New year goals

Good stuff Mr. President.

My running has tapered as winter has arrived.

2015 Goals:

More HIIT exercises mixed with my longer runs.

More barefooting as spring rolls around!

And acquire some minimalist shoes for work (finally).

I'm going to try attempting a half-marathon this year too, see how that feels.

 

i got in about 1450mi last year. i guess i'd like to get more in this year.

maybe also encourage some of you other illinois people to put some significant mileage into the winter challenge (ohio is killing us). and maybe get people together for a race somewhere so we could have a little crowd of normal feet....

 

i just looked because i thought there was supposed to be a slow plunge this afternoon. but, i guess that is scheduled for tomorrow. and then a high of 2F for wednesday. awesome! i don't think there will be any snow and any ice should be gone by then, so i'm thinking at least one trip around the block with massively preheated feet and some backup socks just in case... but tomorrow should still be ok for me despite one of those fun days where the low temperature is higher than the high.

EDIT: uh-oh, i looked more closely. one-to-three inches monday night. maybe the moccasins will get a workout.

 

I would attempt the barefoot winter challenge, but it all seems like such a hassle for only a mile or two tops. What with the whole "pre-warming" routine and the slathering your feet with nonsensical jellies. When I run, I want to run more than just a mile before the feeling in my feet disappears and I instead get the impression of running on two bloody, footless stumps.

Minimalist footwear in the wintertime just makes sense. Especially in this current technological zeitgeist, what with all the accommodating footwear we have for the choosing.

I admit I haven't researched the topic thoroughly, but--off the top of my head--I can't even think of any particular wintertime culture throughout history that would ever willingly move around barefoot. I could be wrong, but the entire idea seems antithetical to common sense.

Unless, of course, that's the whole idea: The craziness itself is the allure.

*shrug*

Not worth the risk of frostbite, in my opinion.

 

How many miles, in one session, can you run barefoot in 20 degree weather?

 

Then again, I just saw an amazing video on people performing parkour all over the place. So I guess for some humans, the risk is intimately tied with the reward.

Man, ... how did I get so boring. LOL

 

as it happens, the warm feet happen after mile 7. so, it is a pretty intense good feeling after a while to feel like you are heating up the world. and, it is an adaptation/exploration thing. i've only done the vasoline thing once this year. it is mainly for snow protection. a couple days ago, i ran for like 1:08 in 17F with some wind and was "fine" (loosely defined). what i recommend trying is to just go out barefoot, but carry your goodies along (maybe oversized wool socks where you will get serious insulation with minimal compression) and/or stay close to your warm haven (house/car/whatever). then just go and pay attention to how it feels and see what happens knowing that you aren't in any danger since you can sit down and put on your socks any time you want and can limp home from there. i would bet a small sum of money that you'll be pretty surprised at how far you can go.

as for wintertime cultures going barefoot, from what i've read, the old-school original "superior men" for whom the state is named used to go naked year-round (sorry: too lazy to search for a reference at the moment). and as we are about to experience, it's not exactly toasty for all 365.24 days each year...

ok fine, here is something from the state museum:

http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/post/htmls/id_app.html [man up and honor the running tradition of those who lived here before us!]

http://www.museum.state.il.us/muslink/nat_amer/post/htmls/id_clothing.html [ok, they talk about moccasins, but i'm skeptical; see the picture on the page]

so maybe they wore some clothes, but apparently weren't terribly attached to them.

 

Uhm, where's the trail? Heheheh.

 

Ah! I have actually visited and read a lot of information on that site! I like to search for information relating to how our ancestors lived in this area. That particular website was more a tease than anything else. The Field Museum really helped paint the picture. I enjoy outdoor living and, at the time I found that webpage, I was interested in seeing how the Native Americans dealt with mosquitoes! (FIE ON YOU MOSQUITOES!). I worked on developing a tolerance to the antihistamine effects of their bites earlier in the year--because I had read that due to their incessant exposure, they had built up more of an immunity to the itching--but towards the middle of summer, it just became madness to go into the deep woods without any protection whatsoever.

Anyway, sorry to go off on a tangent. I wanted to say one thing, from the very webpage that you cited: In winter, the Illinois warmed themselves in leather cloaks or robes that retained the animal's fur.

It also stated on the webpage that even in the warmest months they wore very little, with the exception of still wearing their moccasins.

I have a deep admiration for the way those ancestors lived (I don't even think they had a word for waste or garbage), but, my gut tells me they lived a very pragmatic life, and thusly, they didn't mess around when it came to common sense protection. They didn't necessarily have indoor heated homes to run back into to warm up in the winter months. Yes, of course they had bark wigwams and/or other similar shelters with fires in them, but something tells me they didn't make a habit of trekking out into the wilderness without proper protection for all their extremities.