Oh my I was on Run Barefoot Girl

Awesome self portrait while running. 

Hey guys, I'm on vacation in the mountains but I had to stop by and tell you that I was featured on Run Barefoot Girl's Yay for me. I have listened to this podcast since I started running in Vibrams last year. Caity is awesome and she has brought together so many wonderful women and men to provide information and inspiration to the barefoot running world. I wanted to thank Caity for including me. I feel like a 'real' barefooted now. Maybe I'll have to change my name to Barefoot something. Lol. Anyways go check out her podcast if you haven't already I am sure you'll love it.

The view. 

And just because I can't help myself, here are some pictures of my first run out here. It was hilly, think running in the Rocky Mountains, and beautiful. I am challenging myself to run the hills, I have gotten lazy. I used to be so good at hills but I have started dreaded them or walking. This run was sweet, I pushed hard on the climbs and I did it. I seriously felt amazing afterwards, so proud of myself and energized. Now if I can only find a way to get out on the trails and run, that would be perfect.

- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Kyle's Millarville Half Marathon Race Report

Why hello everyone. Yes, this post is late by about a week. Robbie did a great write up of the half marathon from her perspective and I wanted to make sure that I did one also. It just apparently takes me a lot longer before I get in the writing mood to do one. I should really get better about that. Ah well.

Anyways so like Robbie said, we started off the day by getting up at Zero Dark Idiotic as our friend Kelly would say, or in actual time 4 in the morning. We got up, got all our stuff on, ate some food and then headed down to the Millarville Race Track to catch a shuttle bus. I was a little worried before we got down there that there would be tons of people arriving early and that there wouldn't be enough room on the shuttle buses to take us over. When we got to the race track just before the first bus was scheduled to leave there was almost no one there. I guess we had nothing to worry about.

Robbie and I on the bus.

We got on the bus and waited to head out. Our friend Barefoot Neil joined us on the bus and we headed to Black Diamond to start the race. There we did the usual pre-race activities. Potty time!!! Laff. Neil and I got the usual stares and scoffing from people. Robbie was in the washroom line just behind one lady who was scoffing so she made a point to call me hot stuff and to mention us being barefoot. Love it. Funny how being barefoot, or almost barefoot gives you thicker skin. Really I don't care because I'm passing most of the people who are scoffing at me. ;)

Met up with our other minimalist friend Maria and chatted with her about her lovely Hattori's. As Robbie mentioned she was in her Stems and I was in Robbie's pair of Invisible Shoes with the beautiful bright pink laces.

The technical T from the race, which of course we did not wear to the race. Standards, people!!!

I had originally intended on running the race in my Stems also, but a week or two before the race I was feeling like I would prefer something a little more roomy and airy. Granted the Stems are super wide and lovely, but I think I really wanted to be barefoot. However I knew that my feet weren't quite ready for a half marathon distance and so I wanted to save them a bit. So I went with a pair of huaraches instead. I know they say not to do anything new for a race, so I put like 5 miles on the huaraches, then relaced them for my feet, put another 7 miles in them and then ran the race. That's totally fine, right? Laff

Once again this picture from the lovely Maria showing off our great footwear.

So back to the start of the race. We lined up at the front of the back third with Barefoot Neil and off we went. There were 3 little sections of gravel on this run. The first one was right at the beginning for a very short distance. However the rocks were big and on a very hard surface. Of course I managed to catch one rock on the arch of my foot. Ouch. Thankfully that was the only real problem with rocks that I had that day. I ran with Robbie for the first little bit. While I was still running with her one of my shoes wasn't fitting nicely. I felt like my foot had moved over to the edge of the shoe and the laces weren't tight enough. Crud. Maybe I should have spent a little more time making sure they were fitting properly. However, since I'm stubborn I decided I would wait it out and see if the problem would fix itself. I said goodbye to my lovely wife and started to ramp up the speed. I was aiming to average about an 8 minute mile the whole time and so I started going in between 8 and 8:30 minute miles for the first little bit. The first 2.75 miles are all uphill so I kept that pace the whole time. Thankfully my shoes did work themselves out and I was a happy flying man.

I should probably pace myself better. I have heard that you should go slower at first and then aim for negative splits. Apparently that's not my style. I try to aim for one pace and then keep roughly around that pace the whole time. So far it has worked okay, but maybe I should try it the other way. Either way I have to say I love the first little bit of a race when you start closer to the back and then get to pass lots of people. Helps the ego. :)

From there my pace sped up a bit so that it was more in the 7:30 to 8:00 minute mile. As I passed one group of guys I heard them all start to mention 'that book', and that Caballo guy. Cool. Once I started running I don't think I heard a single negative thing about my Huaraches. I think the people who were the most amazed by them were the Volunteers. Always good to wave and thank them and to interact with them as I run by. I found it funny when one person called them Flip Flops. Other than that struck up a couple conversation with people as I passed or they passed me. Other than Robbie, Neil and Maria I saw a couple of people in Vibrams, a guy in New Balance Mininus and a girl in New Balance Minimus shoes as well.

I so wish my phone was set to video when I tried to take this. This dude when he passed me had his arms in the air conducting an orchestra. He almost did a jig or some fancy step to his run. It was hilarious.

The race was supposed to be a Net downhill course and I guess technically it was. I will contend that really, they lied. Net downhill but still lots of big hills. That and a long long stretch between Black Diamond and the Millarville Race Track made it a big mental game. I sucked it up, kept my pace and chugged on. I played leap frog with a couple of runners. They would pass me, keep going for a while and then peter out a bit and I would pass them and leave them behind. I had a bit of a mental game near the end. I had about 2 miles left to run. I knew from checking out my garmin that I was running around 8 minute mile average. I had two miles to go and was feeling tired. It would be nice to PR, but I wasn't really pushing for it. However with the distance remaining and the current time I knew that if I just pushed out two more 8 minute miles I might be able to just manage a new Personal Record. So even though I wanted to slow down, I made myself continue going the current pace. Chug, chug chug, Ugh. Then the end was in sight. I entered into the Millarville Race Track grounds and then came across the gravel at the end. Ugh. Really sucks when you want to give it a final push, but then you hit gravel. Got past the worst of the gravel and put on the speed. The girl just behind me did the same. I tried my best to get in before her but she had just a little more push than me and so she finished like .2 seconds before me (I took comfort later that my chip time was a good 15 seconds faster....Laff). Race done! I finished in a time of 1:45:20. Woot!!! New Personal Record! Beat the last one by about a minute and a half. And I would say that this was the harder course. Very pleased. Glad to get another half marathon done and I had a really good time.

The hand fired clay finisher medals. Note the iPhone for scale. Big medals and very heavy.

Taking a look at the final times I ended up finishing 40th overall out of 263 people. Not bad. 33 out of 99 guys and in my division (Males between 30-39) I came in 12th out of 28. Nice. I never really considered myself a speedy person and I certainly don't think I'll finish first ever (unless everyone else stays home... Laff), but I guess I am pretty speedy.

Well I'm tired now so I should wrap up this post and head to bed. I'm looking forward to more running. Running for the fun of it and enjoying running. I love to run and I really love to run barefoot. Thankful to have other barefooters to run with downtown and I'm looking forward to my first actual barefoot race, like my rockstar wife just did. I'm also interested in trying another type of Huaraches. Robbie and I have our eyes on a pair of Unshoes Wokova Feathers. We have heard good things about them and we love the look of them. If anyone at Unshoes wants us to review them, we would love to. Otherwise we will just suck it up and buy a pair each. ;)

Until later, have a great night everyone and happy running.


Kyle

Barefoot 10K

Oh my goodness I am so excited to write this post. If you are friends with me on Facebook I am sure you've seen all of my postings about this weekend's awesome run. I don't have many photos of the race so you'll have to look at the same ones again (Sorry, have to figure out how to run and take pictures at the same time).

So Saturday Kyle and I woke the kids up at the crack of dawn and piled them into the van. It was pouring rain and coldish. I was running my first 10k and Rebekah and Abi were running a girls 1k. It was the Starbucks Run For Women. This was a run totally on pathways and what we thought would be a easy course (note it was NOT). After the Millarville Half I was really aching to get out of my shoes and do a race barefoot. I have been running some barefoot and I spend all my time barefoot around the house and the yard. My furthest distance before the race was 4.5 miles. I figured I'd carry the invisible shoes if it got to be too much or if the course was just too rough.












The rain stopped just as the festivities got under way. One of the race officials came over to me and asked if I would be on camera saying why I was running and that he wanted me to get my picture with Catriona Le May Doan, the Olympic Medalist for Speed Skating who was the special guest there. I guess the tutu caught his eye. I was really out to have a good time. It seems to me that so many people take races so seriously and I know that I'm not going to win. The tutu helps me remember that this is fun. Really I pay good money so that I can run these races so I should really enjoy it. We listened to a great speech by Catriona and then did a short warm up.

I did all of this barefoot standing in the soaking wet grass. Oh man it felt so good. I got a number of weird looks and some questions about if I was actually running the race barefoot. Overall I think that being barefoot actually kept people away more than caused them to be curious, either that or the tutu made me look crazy.

We walked over to the start and bunched up with our estimated finish time. I have never run a 10K but I was hoping for 60 minutes or less, given that I thought it was a pretty easy course. The only worries I had really was the start. So many people in clunky shoes and my defenseless feet. I was worried someone would stomp on my toes and I'd be hurt before things even got started. Things turned out great and I didn't even get a nudge. When I was standing at the start line a couple of ladies standing beside me asked me about my feet. I told them that I often run barefoot but that this was my first race barefoot. They mentioned that they saw a guy running downtown barefoot even through the winter. This made me laugh because I am sure that it is our friend Paul, or one of the other barefoot runners that Kyle runs with. It seems that the group of barefooters running around downtown are starting to get people's attention.

Anyways the run was great, the pathways were wet and covered in puddles, and worms I must add. The puddles were amazingly warm, it felt so great to run through them. Stepping on the worms was an interesting experience. The race had a number of big hills. Running up was good and running down was ok. I found it challenging to get my feet turning over fast enough as well as dodge the many people putting on the brakes as they ran down. I played leap frog with a couple of ladies up and down a couple hills. They would get in front of me on the up hill and I would zoom past on the down hill. It was fun and we chatted for a bit on the straight away. They commented that it was amazing to watch me run down hill with no shoes.

I was not prepared for the hills, oh man.  I haven't been running much. I am dealing with a number of chronic conditions and pretty much chronic pain so I have been taking way more rest days. I will post soon about my new diagnosis and what on earth I am going to do to keep running. To keep it short, I have trouble eating and digesting foods of all sorts, and I have constant GI pain. Good times I know. Anyways with all of the troubles I have been having I wasn't really running my best race. The beauty of it was that I could just enjoy being barefoot. Seriously there is no rush or crazy push to be the fastest, I was out finally running bare and enjoying the sensations. The only problem I encountered was after the turn around. There are some pretty big hills to get down and by this time the 5Kers were heading back some of them walking 3-4 across the path. I had to break often  on the downhill when no one would move over. Seriously there are no brakes on bare feet running down crazy steep hills. I am pretty sure that the last 1.5 miles of down hills braking and weaving caused me my blisters. The last stretch was hard. My feet were done and I was getting so tired. I finished in 1:01, really not bad after all. Run Keeper Race info. I finished 24th out of 122 in my age group, and as Kyle says I was first in the barefoot division.

I had some blisters on my feet and they were pretty sore afterwards. But now on Sunday they are super happy and looking to get out again. I had Kyle take a picture of my feet after the race, I am almost embarrassed to post it because of the blisters, I know barefooters aren't supposed to get blisters, but hey I guess I can only get better.





There you have it, my feet post 10K on wet pathways, up and down crazy hills. All in all I am super pleased.

I had a nice surprise at the end of the race, while I was waiting to cheer my friend across the line I saw Maria!! I didn't know that she was running this race and I cannot tell you how excited I was to see her. We grabbed a quick picture of our beautiful faces and our feet, cause that's how we roll. Maria has been such an encouragement to me. She is relentless in her running and seriously puts me to shame with the miles she runs. It is super sweet to have another minimalist/barefoot women as my friend. Thanks Maria for all the encouragement. You Rock!!!












Thank you all for the messages on Facebook and the comments of the blog, I cannot believe how supportive you all are. I am a happy happy barefooter, and I am looking forward to many more miles run and maybe even a few more races run barefoot.

Robbie


-Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Barefoot running for kids.

As most of you know Kyle and I have a rather large herd of children. 7 to be exact. There are only 6 in the picture because we can't post pictures of our foster baby until we adopt her. As we have gotten healthier our children have too. They are now starting to show an interest in running. Often they practice their running and ask us to check their 'form'. It is so cute to hear a 4 year old yell "look at my form" as they run past you. Seeing as we run barefoot or minimalist we had a hard time allowing our children to wear the traditional boxy cushioning shoes that are "good" for kids. So far our kids much prefer to be barefoot than anything else. A couple of weeks ago Kyle and I were out for a walk with all of the kids. It was a mile there and a mile back. Our oldest son Matthew (8) was dragging his feet and whining about how tired he was. Now this poor kid has shoes that his grandma bought him, they are clunky and 2 sizes too big and really looked like his skinny ankles couldn't lift them. We told him to ditch his shoes. The results were amazing. He was running and happy. He had tons of energy and actually ran the mile home. Because of this Kyle went out and bought the older 3 kids each a pair of Vibram KSOs. Rebekah our oldest and Matthew our second oldest love them. Rebekah even wears them to church. Sam doesn't love them because they gave him a blister. Because the Vibrams only came in bigger sizes we couldn't buy them for the younger kids, that and the high price tag. Instead of Vibrams we bought them all water shoes, we were thinking that they were what we ran in all winter long so they should work well for the kids. They all love them. I am so happy to watch my kids run and play knowing that they aren't ruining their feet by getting used to shoe coffins.

Last weekend we participated in the Hope Classic it was a 1, 5, 8K run and a family run. It was very low key but very well organized. Kyle and the older kids signed up for the 1K run. It was an out and back on park paths with 3 different turn around points. The park was beautiful and the weather was holding out, there was rain forecasted. Kyle, Sam and Abi all ran barefoot and Matthew and Rebekah wore their vibrams. It was great. As Rebekah came speeding in for 2nd place a guy commented that she was super fast and that she really didn't have much on her feet. She said that her Dad and siblings were barefoot.

Kyle, Abi (5), Rebekah (9), Matthew (8), and Sam (6)

Getting started.

Sarah didn't officially run the race but she ran about 200m and crossed the finish line.
You can see her water shoes here.

Joseph (2) needed to run across the finish line too.

Here is Rebekah she finished 2nd with a time of 5:05. Not bad for her first 1K

Matthew finished 3rd with a time of 5:55

Abi came in 4th with at time of 6:07

Sam and Kyle came in 5th and 6th. Sam ran the entire way. 

Kids with their finishing medals and faces painted. 

Overall for our kids first race this was amazing. I really don't think it could have gone better. They have all caught the racing bug now. Matthew was asking when they can race again. Rebekah and Abigail and I are running in the Starbucks Run for Women at the end of the month. Now I just need to find more races for the boys. If you are in calgary and you know of races with 1Ks or even 5Ks that are on a Saturday let me know please. We are all infected with the racing bug.

Updates

It has been so long since I last posted. So many things have been happening. The kids are finished their school for the year so we have had a lot more free time. They have filled it with lots of computer time, board game time and outside time. With all of that I have been distracted from posting. Amazing how hard it can be to find time to blog with 7 kids demanding your attention.

In the last 2 months I have been running way less than ever before. It has been a mix of sickness, pain from my ongoing issues and a new trail injury to my knee. Even with less running I was able to complete my third half marathon in May. I guess that's where I'll start.
I ran the Rocky Mountain Soap Co. Women's Half Marathon on May 12th. I knew this was going to be a tough race and wanted to make sure I didn't take it too seriously. I ran in a Glamrunner tutu to make it more fun and keep my attitude fun and playful.

Finished!!

What a great plan. It was silly and fun and crazy hard. The elevation gain overall was over 1100ft. I finished with a time of 2:08 a full 6 minutes slower than my first half. Runkeeper entry for the race. Considering the elevation, I feel like I did great. I feel like I am getting stronger and running stronger all the time. Right after the race my asthma started rearing its ugly head again. I have had no trouble in 6 months but now with all of the pollen in the air I am dying. My Dr added another preventative medication and double my other meds. It feels awful to be so full of drugs, but without them I can't breath at all. Right now every run is much harder than it needs to be, partly why I haven't been running as much. I am hoping the pollen goes away soon.







2 weeks after the half I went to visit my parents in Sundre with my kids. We had a great time. I found a sweet trail to run right in town and I was excited to run on trails all week instead of the road. Unfortunately on my first run I was foggy from being glutened and I tripped and fell. I fell so hard I bounced off the river rocks. I hit my knee hard!

I seriously considered going to have my knee x-rayed it was all bumped out weirdly. The photos really didn't catch how bad it was. I could barely walk and couldn't do stairs at all. I was pretty worried that I wouldn't be able to run my next race at all. As of Friday my knee was still hurting and running just hurt too much. Today it feels better and I am going to try a run tonight if my lungs cooperate. If I still can't run I am going to make an appointment with my sports med dr. My next race is the Millarville Half on June 16th.

There are so many other things to tell you that I will have to write another post right away.

--- Kyle and I ran the trails in Sundre again and came in-between 2 young moose calves. Scary!!!

--- The 4 oldest kids all ran their first race, 2 wore vibrams and 2 went barefoot

--- more updates on how living gluten free is going, including the part where I was glutened at a restaurant when they place a noodle under my veggies just because.

Things have been exciting and boring around here. Lots of days of doing the same things mixed with moments of chaos and fun.

Thanks for reading if you're still here. It feels great to be blogging again. I have to give a shout out to my lovely daughter for entertaining the babies and younger kids so that I could write this. Thank Rebekah you are a rock star!!

Robbie



- Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Running is more fun barefoot.

I did this post before but never got around to actually posting it. So this is from March 16th.

Today was crazy beautiful out. It was 10ºC and the sun was shining when I left for my run. This is my first long run in training for my first full marathon. Kyle and I have our sights set on the Edmonton Derby Marathon in August. It should be fun. We are hoping to make a weekend of it and leave the kids with my parents. Looking forward to the Expo and watching my cousin run the 5K.

This will be a short post because I left it way to long and now I forget a lot of the details, having 7 kids does bad things to your memory.

Anyways first off I dressed like Rainbow Bright.  Super colourful and happy to run. I love that it was so warm that I could wear my shorts and that I could wear my Lemings (Stems) without socks. I ran my favourite bike path run, that goes along two man made lakes and through some natural areas. It is super sweet to have such nice paths right out my back door. Kyle and I have looked at moving a number of times and now that we run, running paths have a big sway in where we go. We are super blessed to have lots of options to run around our neighbourhood, even if every run is a hill run.

Sunny face and weird smile. Pictures of the sweet path. The path here was bare and dry and super smooth so I couldn't resist taking my shoes off and running bare. Sweet! The only downside to my Lemings is that they don't fit well in my fuel belt, so I had to carry them in my hands. Super weird look I am sure. There were lots of people around the lakes and a  number of elderly ladies shook their heads at me as I ran past. There was water to run in and mud to muck it. So much fun. At one point I had to hop off of the path on to the grass beside because there was a huge puddle of toxic looking water full of who knows what, that I didn't want to run through. The result ...

Super muddy legs. Actually the mud from the wet grass splashed up and even got my shirt muddy. This picture was after I had tried to clean the mud off with some snow. I decided to put my shoes back on because this side of the path was in the shade and covered with slush and snow. Finished my run, 8 miles total and 2 barefoot. It was great. I got home and hopped into the bath with some warm tea. The tub was covered in mud after my bath. I am so happy to run. I felt like a kid running through puddles and mud. It was great. I am hoping for lots more warm weather and many more mile run barefoot.


 Oh yeah I forgot that this was the anniversary of when I first started running. I started the Couch 2 5K program on March 16th 2011. My first run. I am amazed at how far I've come in a year. Comparing stats: last year I weighed 210lbs, I was 5 months into losing weight and had lost 50lbs already. I was dead scared to run outside incase anyone saw me. I stuck to my treadmill. I thought that the 30 second intervals of running were torture and couldn't imagine ever running for a full 30 mins. Now in 2012 I am down to 140lbs, I have run 2 half marathons and I run 5K easily without even really thinking about it. I run outside without shoes, in bright colours, covered in mud basically demanding that people look at me. I am no longer scared to be seen running. Even though I am still not the fastest lady around I am getting faster and I am loving every second of my runs. (maybe not every second but most) I am so grateful and blessed to have found this new life. It has given me the energy and drive that I have need to get through the other hard things in my life. I am thankful to God that He has given me a body that can bounce back after 6 pregnancies and a decade of unhealthy living, not without some reminders of where I've been but with a sense that I have been to the other side and this life is so much sweeter.

Robbie-Lynn

Long run in the sun

Crazy Medusa Hair

We have been having the best weather ever. Saturday was warm, like shorts and t-shirt warm, which in Calgary is really anything over 10°C. The kids had choir in the morning so I had planned to run home from church on Sunday, but the weather was calling my name. It was too beautiful. I couldn't waste the day. I packed up my things and I was heading out the door the second Kyle got home. I decided to run along the river towards downtown. I have longed since last summer to run from Edworthy park to downtown.

I decided that I was going to try and get in some barefoot miles but I wanted a light backup shoe to put on in the places where the path is very rough. I packed my invisible shoes, and Kyle's KSOs. I was going to hook the shoes into my fuel belt. At the last moment I decided to ditch the KSOs because they were weighing my belt down and I didn't want to be that heavy. I tucked my invisible shoes into my belt and headed off barefoot and feeling very light.

I ran towards Edworthy Park first and encountered lovely smooth pavement for the first while. It was great fun, there were so many people out enjoying the beautiful weather. The paths were quite packed and at times I had to run along the grass you get around large groups. My feet felt great, I am amazed at how much more I love to run without shoes, even minimalist shoes. The downside to beautiful weather this early in the year is that the paths aren't cleared of the tiny painful rocks that the city uses as traction during the winter. I encountered small sections of these tiny rocks (pea gravel I think) again and again. At first I thought about stopping and putting on my invisible shoes but then my pride overruled me and I ran on. I didn't want to have everyone see that I had to use shoes just to get past some silly rocks. The first section was intense. I told myself to relax and let my foot spread out so that I had the most surface area spread out. With each section I felt less pain and I really started to get a hang of the technique of running over the sharp little rocks. I got to the park and had to turn around to head back towards downtown. I ran over the sharp rocks and felt like a stinking rock star.

2 miles barefoot

I continued towards downtown and the path changed. It went from smooth new pavement to old worn down broken up chip seal. I haven't run on this kind of path yet without my shoes. I didn't think that today was the day to do so. I grabbed out my invisible shoes and slipped them on. I had pre-tied them so it was simple and easy to get them on. Automatically I felt the protection for my feet but I also noticed that they felt floppy. It almost felt like I had to scrunch my toes to keep the shoes on. I had them tied on quite tight and the strap was bugging me a bit. Not much at the start of the run but by the time I was done running oh man my feet felt that strap. I ran another 2 miles felling great. I saw lots of different runners and noticed that most looked in pain, like they were training really hard. Now I don't train hard, in my opinion. I run for fun and don't like to be uncomfortable while I do it. I think that is something that drew me to barefoot running. I was smiling from ear to ear just taking in the beautiful day and feeling so grateful to be running. I took my shoes off again as I got closer to downtown and the path changed to smooth new pavement again. I ran across the new peace bridge. It was so crowded that running on the sidewalk was nearly impossible. I had to run in the bike lane. The sidewalk was super smooth and felt amazing to my bare feet and the bike path was rough but not unpleasant. I ran across and just past and then I turned around and headed back to my car. As I ran back a group of teen boys were skateboarding on the path and they high fived me and asked where my shoe were. I pointed to my invisible shoe tucked into my belt and kept running.

2 miles barefoot again.

I put my invisible shoes back on and started running down the beat up path again. Nothing really interesting to tell except that I really wanted to take my shoes off. The toe strap was starting to hurt and the tops of my second and third toes were hurting from scrunching my toes to keep my shoes on. By the end of my run my feet were sore and I wondered what I was thinking. I ended up with some pretty intense blisters right where the toe strap is on the bottom of the shoe. I also ended my run with the bottom of my foot covered in blood. The strap had dug into the space between my toes and cut it open. Ouch!! So now I am on the look out for a very light pair of shoes to pack with me when I run barefoot. I picked up a pair of Vibram Seeyas earlier this week but I haven't run in them yet. They are definitely light enough and they feel good on so I am hopeful that they may work.


Here's a lovely picture of my feet post run. The first foot had no problems, the second is my bloodied foot. Yikes.

So there you have. I cannot tell you how much I enjoyed this run. I am hopeful that I may be able to run the Harvest Half barefoot. I would love to do it barefoot. I am going to make sure to be careful and not over do it because I really really love running barefoot.

Robbie-Lynn


Posted using BlogPress from my iPad

Enjoying the warm weather while it lasts

Today was another nice warm day here in Calgary. I believe at lunch time it was 10ºC out and so I decided to make the best of it. I put on a t-shirt (wicking of course as I'm a sweaty beast), shorts, compression sleeves. I grabbed my Stems and out the door I went. Very quickly after I started I decided that the shoes should come off, and so they did. It was beautiful weather for going barefoot. A couple of cool puddles of water here and there, but almost no snow on the pathway. There was one small section by the zoo that was snowy (and had lots of gravel on the pathway) and so my shoes went back on for that. It's so nice to have the freedom to slip shoes on and off whenever I felt like it and I'm certainly not complaining about the weather.

This was the path by the zoo on Monday. Today there was almost no snow. Woot!

I managed to get just under 5 miles in. My feet were doing pretty good. The old areas that were blistered basically had that old dead skin scraped off from the wet pathways. That was totally cool by me except the new skin underneath was still a little sensitive. I managed to get another small blood blister on the pad of my foot where the new skin was but otherwise my feet came out fantastic.

Small blister (underneath old big blister). Small price to pay.

I can tell you about one really interesting thing that I saw on my run. I was heading back to work and while I was running I saw two guys running towards me holding hands. This seemed very strange to me. I have never seen anyone running while holding hands with someone else. At first I thought it was two 'very proud' guys if you know what I mean. However as I got closer I realized that I had seen one of the guys before. I have taken the bus with him and he usually needs help from people to know what stop it is and he walks tapping a cane in front of him. This was a blind gentlemen who either had a friend or an aide who was helping him to run. How cool is that!!! I have never really thought about that before and so I thought that it was really awesome to see that blindness doesn't have to mean that this guy couldn't run.

Yes, I'm still alive

Wow. It has been far too long since I last posted. We have been busy with so many thing and unfortunately I just never made time to write. So while I'm currently waiting for a bus to arrive I thought I would start a blog post.

Since I last posted my knee has gotten much better. It no longer hurts when I run!!! Woot!! Loving that. Getting into a good groove running has been hard though. With our DNS of the Hypothermic Half there was really no huge momentum in training. Combine that with cold snowy weather and I just wasn't feeling it. However we now have a couple races in mind for the year including the Edmonton marathon in 23 weeks. Which means marathon training starts now. Looking forward to getting back into the swing of things for that.

Other things of note since I last wrote.... Let's see. Oh yeah. There was the one time that I was running in my water shoes around the neighborhood. It was a little icy out and I was running in the dark. Going along at a good clip when all of a sudden I kicked something with my foot and almost went down. Turns out there was a huge chunk of ice on the ground that was frozen to the sidewalk. When I kicked it, it didn't move. Ouch. Pretty sure that I broke my toe with that one. Thankfully it wasn't hurt bad enough to stop running. Laff

Nice big hard ice chunk. My water shoes offered me no protection.

Another warm day I went for a barefoot run and overdid it a little. Managed to get in 8 miles barefoot. Felt fantastic. However it was still a little cold out and so my feet were a little more numb than they should have been. This led to a little sloppy form and a huge blood blister across my right foot. Silly me, however I had so much fun going barefoot.

Mmmmm, blisters.

Had them for a little bit. Ah well

Other than that in terms of new shoes there hasn't been too much change. I got my pair of Neo Trails that I was lusting after but then returned them after realizing that I wouldn't really use them enough to justify having them. Instead I got a pair of Stem Footwear (now Leming Footwear). My Lemings are now my absolutely favorite pair of shoes ever. Great casual shoe, fun running shoe. I will post a review of them shortly.

My new favorite shoes. Sooo nice.

So there is a mini update on what is going on. Getting back on a running training plan and hopefully with it getting back into blogging more.

Natural Running Coaching

I am sure by now if you are following the barefoot movement, you have heard the debate and commentary for and against barefoot running coaching. There are those who say that to run barefoot without injury all you need to do is ditch the shoes and listen to your body. Others say that while ditching your shoes can be good, it is more important to learn to run with proper form with a coach. Both schools believe that form is important. Trust me if you have ever heel striked in bare feet you know that form is important. Ouch! When I first began to run without shoes I really felt like all I ever needed was me and my feet and the information that the ground gave me to help me run injury free. Unfortunately I live in a climate that really only allows for complete barefoot running about 5 months of the year. At least for me this is true. I know there are some hardcore barefooters out there who would run all through our nasty winters without shoes, but I just don't see me doing this. So after a few weeks of blissful barefoot running I had to put on some shoes to keep my feet warm and safe. For me keeping my feet warm is crucial as I have Raynaud's phenomenon so when my fingers and toes get cold I experience a lot of pain. Not so good for running without shoes in Canada. So I started running in minimalist shoes, first vibrams then in water shoes. The difference in my running form was slight but significant. I began to experience tightness in my calfs and running became less fun. If you look back here you can see that I was less than thrilled about running. It seemed like so much work, trying to get my form right and dealing with pain when I couldn't. This is when Kyle and I decided that a Natural Running Coaching session could really help. See it is quite hard to get the feedback from your feet when your feet are covered by thick wool socks and shoes, no matter how thin those shoes are.

So after that long introduction about why we chose to get coaching, let me tell you about my experience with it. Tina sent us a video of the basic mechanics of running. It detailed that there are 3 main running forms. Heel striking over strider, Forefoot striking over strider, and the elusive Natural running form.

The heel striking over-strider is the form most shod runners, and some minimalist runners use. The heel hits the ground first way out in front of the body and then the trail leg follows. There is a large distance between the front and back leg. 

The forefoot striking over-strider is where most barefoot and minimalist newbies fall. This is where I was. basically I was landing on my forefoot but reaching to far forward with my feet thus not landing under my body.  As you can see in my video I was leaning way back. I was my way of being sure I was leaning forward but like with many things I took it too far. The coaching helped fix somethings immediately but I was very disconnected with my body and I had a hard time adjusting and doing the things Tina told me. I couldn't for the life of me tip my hips in the right direction. I was disappointed after the session, not with Tina or the coaching but with my inability to 'fix' my running form. I may or may not have a problem with not being perfect at the things I do. I wanted to be a natural runner without needing to change anything.

Thankfully, Tina sent me home with so exercises to do and some ideas about how I can get my hips and feet under me. In the next weeks I practiced and practiced and I noticed my running form was getting better. I could figure out where my hips should be and I was able to shorten my stride. I still have to work on my cadence, I am a little slow. Every time I up my cadence it feels like hard work and I stop doing it. I really love running but I don't like running to feel like hard work.

Kyle and I met up with Tina at Martin Parnell's Right to Play run in Cochrane on Dec 31st. She offered to tape us running again. I was so surprised at how much better my form was.

My feet were under my body, I wasn't leaning and my cadence was getting better. I am so thrilled!!!

I now understand that Natural Running Coaching isn't a one stop fix it. It is a lesson, a tool to use in this journey to natural and barefoot running. I would do it again and probably I will check in with Tina every now and then to tune up any sloppiness that I am sure will come. I recommend getting a coaching session at some point in your journey. It is amazing how great running feels now. I am injury free and I feel like I am flying again when I run. An added bonus, I am faster now too, without really any added effort. How cool is that?

I highly recommend Tina and her coaching. She is offering coaching in person right now and I have heard a rumour that she may be adding some online coaching as well. Check her out, you will love her, I know that I am thrilled and so happy that we jumped in and had our coaching session. If you have had natural running coaching, did you like it? Did your form change? If you get a hold of Tina for coaching I'd love to hear how it went for you.

Take care,
Robbie

Almost Barefoot Running in January

Well the snow finally hit again this morning. I am so thankful that we have had such a dry and mild winter so far. When I first started running barefoot I was sure that my time was limited with the winter approaching but I have been pleasantly surprised.

I wanted to comment on my run last night. Run Here I started out for a 5 miles run. I cannot believe that my next race is just over a month away. I began in my water shoes and felt good. I was being sure to pull myself back and keep my pace slow and easy. I have been working on my form (I'll post soon about my coaching session with Tina) and as my form has been improving I have been getting faster. It is quite hard to go slow now but I know that it important for my health that I have some easy runs. A mile in I was feeling quite warm and I saw that there was very minimal ice on the sidewalks, so I took off my shoe and ran the rest of my run in my wool socks. Ah Freedom. It was wonderful. Of course the ground feel in just my socks was great, I even noticed that I could run over the tiny rocks that they use to sand our streets, without feeling pain. I felt them and knew that I was running on rocks but somehow it didn't register as pain. I ran over some ice and it wasn't a big deal, I slipped a little once but I didn't fall or even really have to catch myself. I did run on what I thought was ice but it turned out to be a small puddle my toes were immediately wet but somehow dried very fast and I was never cold. My only complaint of the whole run had nothing to do with my shoes or socks. The Running Room has a run clinic on Monday evenings in my neighbourhood. I have often seen them out running and have run past them on a number of occasions. Last night I ran past the group twice in the opposite direction (face to face). I was annoyed. Twice as I ran past these women they were running 3 wide and THEY DIDN'T MOVE! Yes I am yelling. Both times I had to jump into the grass and run (somewhat dangerous in my socks and in the dark, there could have been anything in the grass and I wouldn't have seen it). Seriously it seems like they think that because they pay for this run and are running with the Running Room that they own the sidewalk. This isn't even the first time I have noticed this with Running Room groups. In the past I have encountered groups that run 2-3 across the sidewalk, groups that run on the wrong side of the path, and every time they DON'T MOVE.  Not sure what they teach in those clinics but I would think that basic running etiquette would be nice. Seriously, who does that? Next time it happens I am going to stand still and let them smack into me if they decide not to move. Really it's so maddening. (sorry vent over)

When I got home from my run, I checked out my socks and my feet and I am super happy that my wear patterns were right where they should be. Between my first and second toe and on my heel (from when you put your heel down after the initial contact with your forefoot).

See the darker spots between my 1st and 2nd toes.

I have been very guilty of not letting my heel touch the ground ever. This has lead to sore calves. After this run I was pain free and feeling good. IF only the snow hadn't come today. I was looking forward to getting out in just my socks again. I am noticing that after being in just my socks my watershoes feel tight. I have wide feet and even a bunion on my left foot and really need a super wide shoe. Kyle and I are looking into ordering Stems soon. Oh and I won a pair of Invisible shoes from Jeff over at http://barefootinclined.blogspot.com/. Thanks again Jeff. I am crazy excited to get these, I never win anything so this is so sweet. I think I will be ordering a pair of custom shoes, I just have to decide what colour of laces I want.

My sweet wool socks from Marks Work Warehouse.

So that is what I've been up to lately. I will be posting about my experience with Natural Running Coaching right away. It was so awesome. A little birdie told me that very soon Tina will be offering online coaching as well as in person coaching. I cannot express how wonderful and helpful the coaching session was. I recommend it to anyone and really everyone who wants to run naturally, it is like a fast forward button to learning how to run without shoes. But I'll save my full review for my next post.

Take care,
Robbie