Hello from Tenerife! Hola from Tenerife!

Hello from Tenerife! Hola from Tenerife! I am originally from Indiana, but have spent my last 15 years in Spain and most of that time on the Island of Tenerife in the Canary Islands. I am a marathoner, an olympic style race walker, Nordic walker & runner. I do 5-7 marathons a season. I have thrown in bare footing at the beach & "bare footing" with VFFs into my workouts over the last year or so, but I want to transition to only run in some "barefoot form." I met the famous Barefoot Rick during the Kansas City Marathon last season and I am inspired to methodically make a complete transition. We have great weather all year round for bare footing.

I like most made many visits to the website, before joining, but it is obvious that the Barefoot Runners Society is great community! Great work to all who have invested into this great site for bare footers.

The Island of Tenerife.
tenerife.jpg
 
Gorgeous photo, gorgeous home! Looks like a storybook setting. Welcome! :barefoot:
 
Welcome, CIB. Two great quotes there in your signature block. We're glad you've joined us. Slow and steady transition will save you lots of grief. Best of luck to you if you follow that advice, see you here later asking about injuries if you don't (I didn't believe us either and started off with a stress fracture 3 months into what should have been a smooth transition). Enjoy!
 
Phil,

THANK YOU for the good advice & reminder. I have thrown in barefoot beach runs over the years of 5-7 kms when training, but it is not the same as concrete or asphalt, etc.

I train & race by sensation, not by my watch. So I assume I will feel a problem before it happens with bare footing assuming I am slowly progressing with good biomechanics? I barefoot everywhere that I can and I train "minimalist," just 4 days a week - no junk kilometers ... tempo run, intervals (fartleks) and long run and have stayed in marathon shape and injury free for a number of season doing 5-7 marathons.

I have 8 marathons scheduled this season, 1 each month and finishing up in April. I have primarily race walked my training, racewalk and/or run my races (3:30 - 4:30 marathons) and Nordic walk for the week or so following each race. Racewalking is "biomechanics focused" (mentally very tiring), so it is a good sport for bare footing as you are technique focused. I want to increment my bare footing running each week and doing it in my warm up so far, not in intervals, etc. I am up to 2kms each workout.

My goal is to switch to bare footing versus shoe running some of my marathons, but won't look at that until the end of the season or next season.

Enjoy the nice Carolina beaches for me,

Canary Island Barefooter
 
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CIB:

Great plan, and you're very welcome. You've got the right idea - if something starts hurting, watch it; if it keeps hurting, stop and figure out why. Fahrtlek/speedwork/sprints/interval training is a great cardio fitness builder. I first ran into it at an Army school back in the 1990s. Our lead instructor asked us to do nothing but fahrtlek sprint/cool-down runs for 2 months; I thought he was crazy, but I cut almost 90 seconds out of my 2-mile run time in just 2 months.

Of course, I now also mix it up with regular runs so I don't die of boredom doing the same thing every day, as you do.