Winter Challenge - 2012

Probably logged my last subfreezing run yesterday. Not much contribution lately from me. I was going for 600 km total, but going to come up short. It will be a good goal for next year.

Impressive numbers on the spreadsheet. Good work fellow cold tolerant BRSers!
Yes indeed!

I'm more than ready for supra-freezing running, although I'm hating the slush, that's for sure. Looking forward to challenging you for the general classification next year Rick. Hopefully we'll both have a nice injury-free season. How's your foot doing by the way? Miss your reports on the mileage forum.
 
Yes indeed!

I'm more than ready for supra-freezing running, although I'm hating the slush, that's for sure. Looking forward to challenging you for the general classification next year Rick. Hopefully we'll both have a nice injury-free season. How's your foot doing by the way? Miss your reports on the mileage forum.

As the season progressed I was able to drop my cold temp. boundary a little, but I still haven't been able to run in snow and slush. Not just the cold toes, but the ice daggers into the calves.

Foot is doing better with some expensive PT and cross training. I miss the running mileage though. I'll still try to be active in the mileage thread even though I'm not logging too many. Also, my post count goes down quite a bit during the summer. Looks like Scedastic and Pirate will overtake me there.:) (I'm seriously not that competitive)
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bare Lee
As the season progressed I was able to drop my cold temp. boundary a little, but I still haven't been able to run in snow and slush. Not just the cold toes, but the ice daggers into the calves.

Foot is doing better with some expensive PT and cross training. I miss the running mileage though. I'll still try to be active in the mileage thread even though I'm not logging too many. Also, my post count goes down quite a bit during the summer. Looks like Scedastic and Pirate will overtake me there.:) (I'm seriously not that competitive)
Yah, it's amazing how many factors are involved with slush. The temp obviously can't be too cold or else there wouldn't be slush to begin with, but time of day, height of sun in the season, wind, depth, and constancy all play a part in determining whether I can deal with slush or not. On Saturday's run there even seemed to be a difference between puddles and slush on top of concrete and puddles and slush on top of asphalt. I guess the asphalt was able to radiate the sun's heat better, so it didn't feel as bad. I got on one long section of slushy sidewalks and had to tap out after about a quarter mile and warm up my feet with socks and shoes while I stretched out. I was just about to enter a mile and half of very moist lake path and knew my feet had gone too far to be able to recover on that. Once they had warmed up though, they were fine with the thin layer of moisture on top of the lake path's mild chipseal asphalt.

Overall, my tolerances seem to have improved this winter by about 10 F/5 C below what I could handle last winter, and I've become much better at gauging when conditions are bareable. I should be able to get in two or three more qualifying runs this week, then we're supposed to be up in the 50s early next week. Yahwee! I can hardly wait.

Glad to hear your foot is doing better. Seems like my nagging injuries of last fall and early winter have pretty much cleared up. The secret for me has been better prep and more patience. If we have an average winter again next year, I should be able to at least double my barefoot winter mileage.

Competitive commentary, I hadn't thought of that one before . . . I can sell you some of my old messages if you're interested.
 
Got a icy 2km in tonight. Will see what I can do over the next few days. The ice is pretty bad up here right now.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bare Lee
Six more days to go!! Temperatures have been great for making maple syrup. Sub-freezing at night and a little above freezing during the day. Still have 2.5 feet of snow in the yard. We've had a typical winter, not like last years warm one. That and a calf injury have limited me to 3 km barefoot since Dec 21. Normally I'm good for another 100+ km in March. It has been great to see so many members participating in the challenge. I really thought Rick would make 600 km.
 
As the season progressed I was able to drop my cold temp. boundary a little, but I still haven't been able to run in snow and slush. Not just the cold toes, but the ice daggers into the calves.

Foot is doing better with some expensive PT and cross training. I miss the running mileage though. I'll still try to be active in the mileage thread even though I'm not logging too many. Also, my post count goes down quite a bit during the summer. Looks like Scedastic and Pirate will overtake me there.:) (I'm seriously not that competitive)

Hope you get back to the milage you want soon! My post count has grealty suffered as a result of shifting job responsabilities....luckily my post count is not reflective of my overall milage :D
 
  • Like
Reactions: Bare Lee
Just looked at my total for the year, I passed my initial goal of 250km, woohoo. Not sure I am going to be getting to much more by the end of the month, but still very happy. :D
 
Just looked at my total for the year, I passed my initial goal of 250km, woohoo. Not sure I am going to be getting to much more by the end of the month, but still very happy. :D
You guys in Winnipeg have it very tough. There just aren't that many bareable opportunities for you winter pagans, unlike in places like Minnesota, Michigan, and eastern Canada. You guys run about 5-6 C / 10 F colder than us, and seem to get more snow too, right?

It was a good season for me too, although I wish I could've gotten more supra-freezing runs in last fall. It took forever to shake free of my running niggles.

Probably had my last subfreezing run today, here's a copy of my report from the mileage forum:

Thursday morning
8.4 mi / 13.5 km
21 F / - 6 C
slight windchill, not sure how much

I had to go in early to get an abdominal ultrasound. My father had an abdominal aorta aneurysm in 2011, and they want to make sure it's not something that's been passed on to his sons. Most likely, my dad got it because he used to smoke, but doesn't hurt to make sure. I had woken up around midnight to guzzle some water before my fasting officially began, then had trouble getting back to sleep, so went to work, then finally got back to sleep for an hour or so before it was time to head out.

The appointment was at 6:45, by 7am we were finished. I had brought along my running clothes so that I could check out a route I had been thinking about for quite some time. First I had a muffin and a Starbucks cappuccino in the lobby to break my fast, while reading the sports page of the newspaper there, and then changed clothes in one of the specialty clinic's roomy shitters. After stowing away my street clothes in the car, round 7:30, I ran out of the parking lot, up a wide boulevard with one of those sandpaper-like bike/walking/running paths. The sun was up over the horizon, and traffic was starting to pick up. I had forgotten my Garmin but at least I remembered my sunglasses. I was running east right into the rising sun, up a gradual incline about 2 miles long.

On the path there were lots of ice patches that nearly did in my feet within the first mile or so. Ouch! Then after another mile I turned onto a nice, smooth, dry asphalt path towards Phalen Lake, the place where I sprained my MCL last October. I was planing on running up the western shore of Phalen Lake, but when I got close to the lake I saw a sign for the one of those bike/walking/running paths built on top of an old disused railroad line. This path seemed to parallel the lake's eastern shore, built up high on the old railroad embankment, so I headed up that for something different, a better view, and a little extra mileage. This path ended up diverting quite a bit away from the lake, however, heading straight north, so I ended up running about a mile and a half more than I was planning to. Since I had forgotten my Garmin, I was wondering if perhaps I was going to total close to 9 or 10 miles, and was marveling at the possibility that my first 10-miler might be totally unplanned, until I got home and checked Google Maps, and saw that that day had not yet arrived, I was a good mile and half short. Oh well.

Further up the path I hit another converted railroad line that runs perpendicular to the path I was on. This is the bike path I was intending to connect with after running up the western shore of Phalen Lake. Now I was connecting with it a little less than a mile east of that spot. Turning right it goes all the way over to the St. Croix River, 14-15 miles to the east, which is the border between Minnesota and Wisconsin, connecting to a town called Stillwater. I turned left on it, heading west by southwest, through another pretty, thin strip of trees with people's backyards, a golf course, and a cemetery close by and the bustle of rush hour traffic often within earshot. Some of the path became medium grade chipseal, which slowed me down, and there were a few longish ice patches as well, which weren't quite long enough to cause serious discomfort, but close, as by this time my feet were fairly numb anyway. Other than that, it was a nice, easy run, with 3-4 stretching breaks mixed in. The path eventually curves back around, under a major freeway, thru a kind of warehouse-y area, and ends in the neighborhood behind the specialty clinic. On the final hill just before returning to the clinic, I felt a slight twinge in my left ITB, so I walked up the rest of the hill, and then ran down it into the parking lot.

It was nice to run a totally new route for a change, have a little adventure. This will probably be my last sub-freezing run of the season, unless I get up early for Saturday's run too. It's nice to run so early in the morning, but I'm already getting the drowsies now, so I guess I better stick to my late afternoon schedule for running and lifting. Seems to fit best with my biorhythms.
 
  • Like
Reactions: rickwhitelaw
Hope you get back to the milage you want soon! My post count has grealty suffered as a result of shifting job responsabilities....luckily my post count is not reflective of my overall milage :D

Thanks Zetti. Yeah, missing the humorous video clips from you, but I understand being busy. I had a great hike the other day and haven't yet typed a word on it. I become a binge poster in the spring and summer. Nothing for days and then a flurry of activity. Also hard to post when you are injured, every post mentions it (d**n, did it again).:)
 
its quite cold here today...so I will be able to log some more miles today too....just to make sure we're good ;)
 
Winter Challenge is now closed. We covered 2323 miles or 3739 km. Congrats to all participants.

rickwhitelaw is this years winner for most distance. Each participant should feel like a winner, for expanding their barefoot experience. I will be writing up a summary. Please email me your comments/photos. [email protected]

Thank you all that followed and participated.
 
Winter Challenge is now closed. We covered 2323 miles or 3739 km. Congrats to all participants.

rickwhitelaw is this years winner for most distance. Each participant should feel like a winner, for expanding their barefoot experience. I will be writing up a summary. Please email me you comments/photos. [email protected]

Thank you all that followed and participated.
Thanks for hosting BF-YOW! I had a lot of fun.

And congrats Rick! I'll try to get you next year . . .
 
  • Like
Reactions: rickwhitelaw
Indeed...thanks BF-YOW!
I didn't get much mileage in, but did expand my tolerance...
Good stuff :)
 
YOW, it was great to see people surpassing their goals and temperature tolerances from the previous year. But it seem that most of the US and Canada are still experiencing winter challenge conditions at present. Again thank you for all the work you put into this.
 
... But it seem that most of the US and Canada are still experiencing winter challenge conditions at present. Again thank you for all the work you put into this.

I hear you dutchie. We still got qualifying temps for at least the 14 day forecast. I still think it is appropriate that Barefoot Winter Challenge ends on April Fool's Day.

Thanks for the shout outs, but I only make the spreadsheet. It is each and every participant that makes the challenge fun.
 
  • Like
Reactions: Zetti

Support Your Club

Forum statistics

Threads
19,094
Messages
183,434
Members
8,688
Latest member
Jojo9090