Barefooting: The Essentials.

(And remember, I am not a trained anything, just simply someone who is teaching herself to run barefoot)

So, you have decided you want to try running barefoot, did you?  Well, don’t expect to run any super long distances any time soon  Over the past few months, I have learned that this is one time when slow and steady prevents stress fractures!  (Or other injuries you could cause yourself).

The first thing I did after deciding to try to run in a way that I thought would be less stressful to my legs and feet was to start running in my traditional running shoes, in the form that is more often associated with barefoot running.  The way I read this in a few places online and also in Born to Run, was making quick, small steps and aiming to land more on the ball of your foot versus the heel of your foot.  Sounds easy but let me tell you, muscle memory=better than my real memory!!  This took me some time to get used to and I actually ended up feeling quite a bit of soreness in my calves for the first few weeks or so.

Once this soreness died down a bit and I became more serious about re-training myself in my running technique, I decided to pick up a pair of Vibrams Five Fingers.  I now realize that this jump was a little more drastic then is best to do as my current running shoes had a drop of 12ish mm (difference between the height of your heel and height of your forefoot) and Five Fingers have zero.  BUT, even though I have not been able to put a ton of miles on running in the Five Fingers yet, I have been able to walk in them alot and train my foot to be able to put them on.  Let me tell you, you have ZERO control over your toes and trying to get them in those little spots was impossible at first!  But now, I can put these on so much easier, it is kind of surprising really.

Yes, they are pink, yes, they are ridiculous and yes, I love them so no talkin' bad 'bout my Five Fingers!

When I first started training to run Barefoot, I actually just started by taking my dog for a 1/2 mile Block Walk barefoot.  This really helped my feet get less sensitive and able to tolerate the feeling of walking on the ground barefoot.  After a few weeks of walking, and when my legs had stopped feeling sore after, I started to take the same loop (minus the pup) at a running pace.  Again, I felt a bit of soreness with this for the first few weeks but as my legs got stronger and more used to the use of unused muscles, the soreness went away.

My current distance is up to about 1 mile round trip, to and from the gym, for Body Pump class.  I am finding just how different Body Pump feels without shoes on and am kind of surprised how much harder squats and lunges are this way!  I have not been feeling any soreness at this distance so that is a positive, I think!  Provided I am feeling better next week, I might start to run slightly over 1 mile of my training runs with these on and then switch to my regular shoes.

Another item I can recommend when training to run Barefoot, is to search out a place you can take a Barefoot Running clinic.  A new store opened up near my house called Revolution Natural Running and Walking Center.  If you are in the Milwaukee area, definitely check them out!  The clinic was only $10 and gave a good overview of the form modifications you need to make to run unshod.  At the class we got to watch ourselves on a slow motion camera to see the difference when running in shoes versus running without shoes and it was quite eye opening for some people.  This is where I also learned that the easiest way to transition from 12mm to barefoot, is to work in 3mm steps (12mm to 9mm, 9mm to 6mm, etc.) so with each new pair of shoes, you make just the slightest adjustment.

A final recommendation would be to check out videos of barefoot running form online and study those.  I found them helpful to see what your ideal form would look like and then keeping them in mind for your first few runs. (Here are a few I found but Google and YouTube have plenty of other options if you want to look around Video 1, Video 2, and Video 3).

All this talk of Barefooting makes me want to take a little loop around the neighborhood in lieu of my stomachache prohibited long run

Happy Barefooting! (And remember, me=not a trained professional, so please use your best judgement when trying this at home.  It’s not my fault if you are a wee over enthusiastic and hurt yourself )

Monday, Monday.

Today is Monday!  Duh, right?  But this is the first Monday in a really long time that I wanted to end that statement with a “!” instead of a “.” This is also the first Monday in quite a few months that I did not feel myself becoming ridiculously crabby and snarling at everyone I walked by in the halls at work! It is amazing what I can do if I put my mind to it.  I was actually pleasantly surprised by how quickly the day went and how painless it really was when I didn’t have myself psyched up to hate today!!!  Positive thinking is really more powerful than I was giving it credit

Love this!

I started out the morning with a short 2 mile run, per my half marathon training schedule, that I finished in about 18 minutes despite the crazy humidity today, and then came home and did a short Carrots N’ Weights weight session in the basement.  I have been doing Body Pump at my gym for the past year or so but I forgot how much I missed using actual real heavy dumbbells!!  But the push up/plank combos in this were killer!  I only made it through about 16 of them total – weak!!  LOL!!

After work Sister and I took our little pup, Croz for a barefoot walk around the block and then dropped him at home and did another 1/2 mile barefoot run around the block.  After my barefoot run on Saturday, I felt absolutley ZERO pain so I think it is finally save to move up to try .75 or 1 mile soon!!  So excited to be barefoot!  My sis and I were also talking on our walk about how we can really tell the difference in how sensitive our feet are on the our walks.  It used to be quite painful almost for them to hit the ground but now it just feels so free and good!! (I am very easily entertained today, if you couldn’t tell )

After our little barefoot excursion, we came back and I made a super tasty dinner.  Probably one of the best in quite some time and that is saying something because I can’t remember the last meal I didn’t love!!  (I really love food )

More, please?!?!

And now, I sit here, mourning the completion of this meal and doing by blogging therapy for the day  I am officially excited once again for something kind of lame and boring but, oh well!  I am not trying to impress anyone with my exciting life –  So anyways, today’s topic of the self-acceptance series I started the other day from Faith, Fitness, Fun, is Intrinsic Beauty.  I was not really sure what to do for this one but then I realized that my ability to shift towards positive thinking and actually not dreading showing up for work today is probably my most powerful inner beauty.  I am betting it is probably related to how stubborn I am but even stubbornness can be a beautiful internal quality when used for good!   I could have woken up this morning crabby and snappy and grumbled my way to work but instead I took a few minutes and put my mind to being thankful it is another Monday I have a job, a Monday I could take a run with shorts and a tank top on (instead of three thermal pants, four shirts, two pairs of sock, gloves, and a headband!), a Monday where the sun was shining, a Monday a cute little pup was so cozy and comfy in bed that he didn’t want to get up and a Monday where I had a really tasty breakfast in my tummy before leaving for work!  By taking a few minutes to switch my focus for the day from dreading what the day held for me, I was able to be happy and thankful for the things that were good today!  I am sure if I think about this topic a bit longer, I will come up with even more things about myself that are intrinsically beautiful but I feel like this is an important one for me.  I know if I put my mind to something, I can make it happen!

So, now I switch from talking and thinking about deep, inner beauty to getting back to watching Pride and Prejudice to get a dose of Mr. Darcy – an excellent example of a physical manifestation of outward beauty – bahaha!!!

I love this movie!

Is there anything you can think of that you put your mind to that you achieved just because you were too stubborn to give up?

Confidence.

My (semi-modified/squashedintofitafter my Summerfest Half Marathon) training plan for my upcoming half marathon had me scheduled to run 7 miles this morning.  I had slept well, the sun was shining and the temps were finally not in the Unbearable Range.  Everything was cooperating perfectly… except my stomach!  I have been super stressed lately and my stomach seems to be bearing the brunt of the symptoms – weak!  But anyways, relaxing for a bit in the morning after I had a little pre-run breakfast (bread, PB2 and banana) and some water gave me time to find a new to me blog and a not new on that blog but new to me 30 day series that I am hopeful will help me reduce my (self-imposed) stress and be a little kinder to myself   The post for the first day of the challenge is Confidence.  Now, I wish just being confident my stomach would not start making flips while I am running would be enough to really not make it do so!!  But oh well… I set out for my run a little later than normal for me, 9:00am, and took the 70+ minutes of my 7ish mile run to reflect on what I can be confident in.

My running fuel of late, 1Tish of agave and my homemade sports drink.

I came up with the following list of items that were heavily influenced by the song that happened to come on my iPod at the start of each mile:

• Beauty will Rise.  I am confident in the fact that regardless of how bad I might feel about something or how dim the outlook is, in the end the Beauty will Rise and I will realize that there was a reason for the bad and that the “bad” eventually is replaced by something good.
• I am confident that God loves me.  Not much to add to this one but I know it’s true and therefore, I know it’s gonna be OK.
• I am confident that I am strong.  A few years ago, it took everything I had to do a few pushups on my knees and run a mile or so.  Today, I can do 30+ pushups ON MY TOES, and run a half marathon.  That’s saying something!
• I am confident that anything longer than 3-4 miles will never be an “easy” run and I should stop telling myself it will be
• I am confident that I am the one who holds the power to make changes in my life.  I have lived the majority of my life very passively.  Things have always just randomly landed in my lap.  But recently I have felt very trapped and confined by these circumstances and I now know that I am the one who is going to need to make changes happen.  Not sure what these will be yet but eventually I will!
• I am confident that I do not run because I am good at it, I run because I WANT to!  I will never be the one breaking records or winning awards at races, but that is OK.  I am confident I will keep running though because for some reason, I really like it
• I am confident that my body sometimes knows better than me what I need and I should therefore listen to it!  It was really hot this morning on my run and my stomach was still being a little sassy so I had to take it easy and take LOTS of walking breaks but I did and you know what, I still finished my distance for the day and feel fine now!  Something that would not have happened if I would have just tried to muscle through and run too fast for the situation.

Two other random confidences I decided on today are : 1) it is not OK to tuck your water bottle in your pants – gross!!! and 2) I will always have a minor heart attack when a dog comes running up to me without a leash on (I was attacked by a dog while running back in 2008)!

My run today really did not go that spectacularly.  Waiting until a little later in the morning gave the sun lots of time to heat up the pavement on the trail I decided to run on and there is no shade on it!  I used to run on this trail a lot last spring and now remember why I bailed on using that course during the hot summer runs!  OOOO eee!!  Next week I will stick to my shady neighborhood route!  I also just felt a little nauseous the whole time so I really did not feel like trying to break any land speed records today.  I also had to cut the run short at about 6.5 miles to stop home but then finished up the last .5 miles barefoot.  I really do love running without my shoes on, especially after how hot and sweaty they got this am!  In all, I finished in about 75 minutes or so.  Approx 10:20 pace for when I was moving.

Once I got back, I sucked down a protein enhanced smoothie and did some ab exercises and this Carrots and Weight workout that I have been using the last three weeks or so – man, now my arms AND legs are shot for the day!!  Time to go tackle the lawn that has gotten a little too “wild” looking and maybe make a trip to my Mecca, Whole Foods, later!  Happy Saturday!

Random backyard shot…

In the Beginning.

I have no recollection of what made me want to run in the first place, over five years ago.  Too bad I didn’t have a blog yet to keep track of what in the world I was thinking!  But whatever made me think I should start running, I guess it was a good thing.  Since I started running in the summer of 2006, I have logged quite a few miles on my feet and wouldn’t want it any other way .  According to my Nike+ online account, I have logged about 2,700 miles on there but for some reason I lost 11 months of my miles from 2008 and 3 months from 2009, so I am guessing the true total is a bit higher than that.  Plus I don’t ALWAYS run with my Nike+, but for the most part I like that it keeps track of my distance, pace, etc.  I have also logged a fair number of miles walking with my Nike+ so it’s not all purely running either… but oh well, it’s still a lot of miles on my legs in the last five years.

I am a rather slow runner (10:00ish minute miles) but this is also something I am hoping to work on and improve in the coming years.  Somewhere recently I read something that said, it really doesn’t matter if you run 5:00 miles or 20:00 miles, It’s still a MILE!  And that is really true.  Although I often beat myself up about my “slow” pace, I just need to keep reminding myself that a few slow miles are still better than not being able to run at all!  So I guess I have to take what I’ve got and work with what I have to be the best runner I can be, not the best runner in the world.  I also tend to slip into always comparing myself to other, better, faster runners, but hopefully this blog will help me just be proud of my accomplishments and not be so concerned with what “other people” can/are doing!

So why barefoot?  Well, a few months ago, I read Born to Run by Christoper McDougall and it pretty much changed my life – .  (In fact I think I need to read this again, soon!)  The stories told and studies referenced in this book made so much sense to me that I had to give it some more thought.  Add to that the fact that I had purchased my first “real” running shoes from a running store a few months previous and was experiencing new aches and pains in my knees, feet and legs that I have never had in the previous 4 years of running… so I figured it couldn’t hurt to experiment with my running form to mimic the barefoot style and see what happens.  Well despite being still shod in my hardcore sneaks, I was able to see my aches and pains diminish significantly and my pace quickened a bit!  So I decided to start to make the slooooowwwww transition to minimalism.  At this point, my shoes were about at the 500 mile mark, which seems to be my breaking point for needing new shoes, so I decided to give the Saucony Kinvara shoes a try.  My first run in them felt soooo much better!  The shear difference in weight between my old shoes and new shoes made my legs significantly faster!  The first week with my new shoes, my pace picked up about 45sec/mile!  This has slowed down a bit now with the summer heat but I am hopeful that come fall, my pace picks up a bit again!  Besides running my long distance miles in my Kinvara’s, I also take about 1-2 SHORT jogs per week with my Vibrams or completely barefoot.  Right now I am at about 1/2 mile per run and am at the point I can start to think about inching this up slowly but surely!  I also take nightly block walks around the neighborhood with my pup completely barefoot to help build up the unused muscles and ligaments in my feet.

So why a blog?  Well… because my sister has one?  And I can’t let her have all the fun??  And really, I tend to always forget the lessons I learn and end up remaking the same mistakes so hopefully if I have the ability to consult my blog, I can avoid redoing one or two of these lessons I learn while training barefoot .

So I guess here goes nothing and I don’t plan for this blog to be entirely about running, but do want to journal about my current training plan and upcoming races so I am guessing that will be a majority of my entries.  I guess only time will tell!