More winter training and Christmas drawings

In preparation for our upcoming Half-marathons at the end of December and in February I have been trying to run outside as much as possible. Even when it is not very nice out. Chances are the half marathons won't feature great weather with snow free condition so I better get used to it. Especially since this is our first winter running. I have to say though I'm still quite enjoying it. Running in my water shoes (at least until I get my precious Neo Trails. I know, I know. I'm still going on about it, but it's my blog so there. I'm totally looking forward to new shoes in the new year). I'm really digging the water shoes. The grip isn't super great on ice, but that's also a good thing as it helps with form. :)

Anyways so I have been running outside lots. Long runs on the weekend and shorter runs downtown during the week. On Monday I had a 5 mile run outside and it was wonderful. Still having some issues with the knee, but stretching it out first seems to be helping a whole lot. Need to make sure that I'm doing it all the time and I think that would make things even better.

Snowy paths. Packed snow and ice can be challenging

While I was running outside I was struck with a thought. It has seemed really hard lately. 5 miles seems like a whole lot more work than it did in the summer and fall. In the summer I was wearing just shorts and a t-shirt and maybe Vibrams. Now in the winter I'm wearing several full length layers. I'm not sure how much extra weight there is, but considering how much more work it feels like while wearing normal shoes, I can imagine the extra weight of base layers, track pants, extra shirt, jacket, two pairs of socks, etc, can be more draining. That said I still love it when on long runs that when you get past the first 5 miles I still feel that I can keep going on forever. Well I could go on forever except for my knee. Sigh. Stupid knee.

Beautiful

More things that Robbie and I have noticed. Running on packed snow and ice can be really challenging. The packed snow can be very bumpy and uneven. We find this to be much harder on the joints when your feet aren't landing flat every time. I can imagine it can be the same way with trail running, except with snow it can be hard to anticipate what angle the ground is going to be.

I ran another 4 miles today, but I couldn't do it outside. I forgot to wash my outside running clothes and I didn't want to kill everyone around me with the smell. I'm sure people appreciated that. I just ran 4 miles on a treadmill at work. 2 miles in my Neos, however my toes felt a little cramped today, so I changed into my Bikilas for the last 2 miles.

Our kids are getting super excited for Christmas. Come home today and my daughter Rebekah was so excited to show me the pictures that she drew. I thought they were really cool and inventive so I wanted to share them.

Lucky me, I've been here before, only with Castle Lego for the boys

Gecky is our Crocodile Gecko

Apparently the boys are not dreaming of sugar plums, but of presents.

I've informed them that this drawing will not be happening. ;)

Classic sisters teasing their brothers about the mistletoe

My duck feet and runner's knee

So as you may know I have been sidelined recently with a case of runner's knee. After my long run where I had to run with a sore knee for 2 miles so that I could get back to the van and pick up the boys my knee has been bugging me. I knew that I should just rest and so I have. Last friday (Nov 11th), my knee was feeling good and the weather was great out. A little warm, still no snow and my wonderful wife agreed to let me go out and run for a bit. I knew I wasn't going to go far, so I just chose to run around the lake close to our house. I wore my new Vibram Bikilas, which I love. I now wear either them or my KSO's all day long when I'm at home. I'd go barefoot at home but with 7 kids there are a lot of crumbs on the ground so that's not the best option. :)

Anyways it's about half a mile from our house to the lake. I ran there in my Bikilas and then took off my shoes.

Narrowly avoided getting pooped on by a flock of geese right after I took my shoes off. Yuck.

The path around the lake. Not a sunny day, but it was warm enough for barefoot running.

The path around the lake is just shy of 1 mile, so I was hoping to run around the lake twice and then head home. 3 miles still seems short, but good. About halfway around the lake though my left knee starts to hurt. Crap. My knee still isn't good. Resigned I put on my Bikilas and slowly headed back home as I didn't want to make things worse. Really getting frustrated at not being able to run more, but I can't force my knee to get better so I just have to rest more.

Then last night Robbie and I were talking about running. Figuring out what our next race should be, what our plans are for the upcoming year, etc. She then asked about my knee. I showed her where the pain was and she said that it sounded like Runner's Knee. And then we had an 'Aha!' moment. When I stand normally my feet are not parallel. My feet point out in a V. I always have done that and I'm sure that it's kinda like that when I run too.

Relaxed stance. I might point my toes out even more normally, I'm not sure.

I have heard that running barefoot will help your body to correct issues like that. I can imagine that trying to run barefoot with my feet turned out like that would make landing on my forefoot more dangerous. With my feet turned out landing on my forefoot would probably make me land a little harder on the little 4th and 5th metatarsals in my feet. These are not really designed for high impact and can lead to stress fractures. Going barefoot probably naturally causes me to correct for this and run with my feet more parallel. Maybe this is the cause of my pain. I'm going to be more mindful of how I sit, stand, walk and run to see if this helps my knee to feel better. I'm also going to do some Runner's knee stretches that we had found on Youtube.

I'll document how it goes. Hopefully the pain will go away and my relaxed standing posture will improve.

Kyle

My last run in my VFF for the season

Today was a stressful, tiring day. I do not know who thought that daylight savings was a good idea, but I doubt they had kids. My kids have not adjusted to the time change and I really haven't either. We were all awake before 6:30 this morning. After finishing school late and dealing with a sick baby and a clingy toddler, I was done by the time Kyle came home from work. I texted him and asked if I could get out and run as soon as he got home. Being the loving and very smart man that he is he was very supportive of me getting out and getting in a run. It was about 2C and falling as I left and it was getting pretty dark. I started out in my VFFs and my Injinji socks. I dressed warm in a t-shirt, base layer, vest, thermal tights, mitts, and my bondi band ponytail hat. I was warm and feeling good. I noticed two things about running in my Bikilas. First, when I ran on soft unpacked snow the snow stuck to the bottom of my shoes and I could feel very noticeable chunks of ice/snow under my feet. I had to stop and scrape it off. I also noticed that after about 1.5 miles my toes were getting numb. It actually felt like I was running on bricks of ice. I couldn't flex or wiggle my toes anymore. I headed home because frozen toes isn't my idea of a good time. I hit 2 miles by the time I got home and I was feeling great except for my frozen, and now thawing painfully, toes. I decided to do quick shoe change and head back out. I grabbed my new Deep See Beach Walkers, a pair of sock liners and a pair of running socks. All warmed up I headed out for some more. The shoes were great. Light and flexible but nice and warm. I could still feel the ground under my feet but I no longer felt like I was running on bricks of ice. I ran another 2 miles. I ran in ankle deep snow, over ice and along the path around the pond where I live. I was perfect. (not my running, I still need work), but the shoes did everything that I wanted them too. Me feet were warm and snug and I could still feel what I was running on. They worked very well in the snow and my socks didn't get wet. I slipped on the ice with them any time I pushed off instead of lifting my feet but anything short of spikes on ice is a recipe for slipping without great form I'm sure.  I was quite surprised at how little slipping I did when I remembered to lift my feet. I am looking forward to many more miles in my Beach Walkers. I am sad to say that my VFF will now be stuck inside the house to be saved for chinook days and spring time.

Barefoot running in the cold

Today while my older kids had their piano lessons I headed out to the Nose Hill pathway which I used for my long runs when I was training for my half marathon. The path has been closed down for most of the summer for construction and repairs and has just reopened. I decided to try out Kyle's KSOs because my Bikilas were hurting my foot. After my last run which was completely barefoot, I had to stop at sobeys for groceries so I put my bikilas on to go into the store. After really just a couple of steps I noticed the pain in the top of my foot toward the outside of my ankle. This has happened a couple times before After that I decided that I wasn't going to wear them anymore. See, around the house I usually wear cheap flip flops year round. I hate to step on crumbs and I have 7 kids so I have to have something on my feet. Well I've been wearing my Bikilas most days and then wondering why my foot was hurting. Once I realized it was the shoes I was disappointed. Has anyone else had trouble with the bikilas? So all day yesterday I wore Kyle's KSOs. Now, he is a 41 mens and I am a 41 women's so they were a little big on me but they felt great. I wanted to try them out because there is a lady close to me who has some in my size for sale. I am really disappointed that we spent good money on the Bikilas only to have them hurt my feet.

Anyways on to the run. It was about 2C with very little sun and the path was deserted.

Neon orange in case someone is hunting along the path.

I started out in the KSOs and found that the ground feel with them is much more natural than with the Bikilas. Everything felt good. As I ran I noticed that there was a short trail through the tree in behind the new science centre. I couldn't resist. I love running on trails and I wish that I had more time to go away and run in the woods. The trails was pea gravel and I noticed right away the difference between the KSOs and the Bikilas. It didn't hurt really just that I noticed the feel of the rocks more. 

I had to take a quick video just to show you how much fun it was.

After the trail I came out right beside the science centre and back onto the path back towards my van. I wasn't quite done yet although my toes were getting pretty cold. The pathway was nice and smooth so I took my shoes off and hooked them onto my spibelt. Seriously, who takes off their shoes when their feet are already cold. It felt great again to be running bare but I was noticing how numb my feet become when it is cold out. It wasn't uncomfortable just different. I had to watch that my form was still good as I couldn't depend on my cold toes to tell me if I was pushing rather than lifting. Everything was going along well. Then I saw up ahead that the path was all broken up. I thought to myself that I had better just keep going, I might as well see if I can run on gravel without hurting myself. I ran through the first time with no problems. Kept relaxed, lifted my feet and kept moving. I got past and then had to turn around to go back to my van. I ran over it again. This time it was kind of a thrill to run on the gravel. Oh my gosh I can do this. 

Overall it was a great run. I did 2.47 miles. 1 mile barefoot. I am really going to have to find a cold weather solution though because now that I don't have so much insulation I am freezing all the time. Tina from Toe Girl Tina is going to be in Calgary at MEC this Sunday and Kyle and I are hoping to be there. I am hoping to see what she uses in the frigid weather and hopefully pick up some injinji socks to keep my feet warm until my EVOs get here. 

Robbie

Kyle: A win and a fail

Saturday was a very busy day. Rebekah, our eldest, had to be at a friend house early in the day for a day camp with her friend. Right after that the two little girls had a ballerina class. We had enough time after they got home from that to quickly eat lunch and then the two older boys had a birthday party to go to. In and out of the house all day long. So thankfully I was able to take advantage of some time while the boys were at the party.

Ready for a run!!!

Forgot my carabiner. Did Paul's method of tucking it into my belt. Worked great. Can't do that with marshmallow shoes though.

I was able to take just over an hour to have a run. My feet were feeling all better now so I was looking to have a good run. We have been talking about running in confederation park for a while so. Apparently the paths there are freshly paved and are lovely for going barefoot on. So with that in mind, I totally forgot about that and ran down the pathway by the Deerfoot instead. Silly Kyle. My wife is currently running in Confed so she will have to tell me how great the paths are there.
I love running on the paths by deerfoot. It's nice and long and not too crowded. However I now notice going barefoot that the path condition is pretty crappy. The pavement is quite rough. I welcomed every single bridge that came along because the pavement on the bridges is smooth and lovely.

Pathway along Deerfoot.

Pathway in a natural area around Beddington trail and Center Street.

Got a couple of weird looks, but no comments about my barefootedness. But I didn't care. It felt so good to be out running, feeling the ground under my feet. I loved it. I was having so much fun that when I came upon a gravel path I thought, Why not? Wow. I can't believe I was running on gravel. It didn't hurt my feet, but it did feel very sharp. Very intense. After a while it started to feel painful. Interesting because it never injured my feet. All said and done, my feet felt great, but the feeling was too intense.

Gravel Pathway? Don't mind if I do.

The gravel path I was on didn't quite go where I thought it was going. So I could either turn around and go back, go up the hill along the gravel path or go along a trail. I chose the trail. I apparently was feeling very adventurous that day. Running on the trail was lovely, except when there were stones along the way. My feet were still feeling very sensitive from the gravel. Got to the end of the trail and came upon...another gravel path. I wasn't feeling up to more gravel barefoot so that is when I put my Vibrams on. Amazing how much better it feels running on gravel with my Vibrams on. Almost effortless. Before it would have felt much harder, but now it was easy.

And then running barefoot along a trail. Lovely.

More gravel so on go my Vibrams.

All in all I did about 4 miles barefoot and it was great. My feet felt perfect and a day later (today) they still feel great. That was my win. Anyways so I was now running with my Vibrams on and just running back to pick up the boys. I was running short on time so I needed to go at a good pace. This was all good until my big fail. My left knee started to hurt at about 1.5 miles left to go (I ran about 6.5 miles that day). I couldn't walk, couldn't slow down, just had to push through the pain. Bad idea. Had I not needed to be back to get the boys I would have done this totally different. Alas I didn't have much choice. Running 1.5 miles with a hurt knee is not good. I wouldn't recommend it. My knee was super sore all yesterday and last night. It's a little better today but it will probably be a while until I can have a good run again. Aaarrrrgh!

My feet feel great. Knee, not so much.

I have never been good about taking care of myself when I get sore. But this time I'm going to follow RICE (rest, ice, compression, elevation) like a good little runner and see if that helps my knee to feel better quicker. You win some, you lose some. If anyone has other ideas on how to get better quicker, leave a comment and let me know. Thanks.

Kyle

Sarah needed to be a pothead too. Laff

Abigail comes up to me and says "I'm a pothead!!!"

Kyle Day 7 and 8: Barefooters aplenty and Running with Rebekah

I should have posted this sooner, but I have had a busy past couple days so ah well. The reason for the delay? Our church had a Weekend for Women 'conference' on Friday night and all of Saturday. So I was in charge of 7 kids all by my lonesome for that time (although a teen from church helped babysit the kids for a bit on Saturday. More on that later).

So on Friday at lunch I was able to get out another run. Ran by myself but there were barefooters aplenty. Well when I say aplenty, I mean I saw 3 other guys barefooting but I guess in our world that is a lot. Pretty awesome too. I managed to get in 3 miles barefoot in pretty chilly conditions. I believe my weather app was saying it was -1º C outside. My feet were feeling pretty good the whole time, not really feeling the cold that much which is pretty awesome.

Anyways so I got out running by myself and right after I started I saw Ryan running barefoot in the opposite direction. Said Hi and continued on. Then another barefoot guy whom I have never seen before came speeding up behind me. He said Hi as he passed. Would have been cool to get his name or to chat for a little bit but this guy was booking it. He was probably doing a 6 minute mile, so I certainly understand why he didn't slow down to my pace (which was 8:20 minute/mile average). Got a couple comments on where were my shoes and 2 ladies were amazed at seeing more than one person barefooting.

On my way back to Eau Claire, right near the end of my run, I saw Brian running the other way. He was wearing thin sandals but he also takes them off after a while to go barefoot I have been told. Very awesome to see so many other people going barefoot. Finished my run and my feet were good but my left knee was a little sore, probably still from Nose Hill before. Maybe I'll take it a little easier this week to let it rest up.

Next on Saturday, while Robbie was at the weekend for women, Rebekah begged me to go running again. We had a teen from our church who wanted to come over to help out so I agreed to run with Rebekah. It was also at nap time so the babies would be down so that also made it easier for the teen.

Joseph managed to bend Rebekah's glasses out of shape so our run had a destination, the optometrist office to get them fixed. My Vibrams were still wet as I decided to wash them the night before (The stench was offending everyone) and I didn't want to barefoot it the whole way so I put on my running shoes. First time in my shoes in a long time so I had to see how it would go.

The run was great though. As I was running with Rebekah, it wasn't fast but it was fun. Lots of great bonding time. Rebekah also spontaneously decided to take off her shoes at 3 points during our run so she could barefoot it. I followed suit whenever she did. The last time was on our way back and she was starting to get tired. She made the comment that running barefoot felt so much better on her feet and that she loved it. Woot!! Loved hearing that, glad she is so happy to run.

Fantastic weekend, glad to get in a couple runs. Looking forward to running with the pack at lunch tomorrow and just having fun.

Kyle

Day 4 for B and 3 for Kyle: Nose Hill Park

So Friday came and this was the last day that Robbie's parents would be in town. They left Saturday morning for their winter move down to Arizona, so I took the day off of work and we took advantage of the babysitting to have a run. My heel was feeling better and I thought I would see how it would go to run with it. Things didn't turn out quite how we expected things to go though.

View Larger Map

We got into our running gear, including our base layers as it was about 4 C outside and headed out. For those who don't live in Calgary, Nose Hill is a huge natural area in town. It's at the top of the river valley so you get some nice views. Standing in the middle of the park it's sometimes hard to believe that you're still in the city. Of course it is quite hilly, but we are no strangers to hills and thought this would be fun to do. We parked at one of the lots on the east and started running up the hill in our Vibrams.

View looking up Nose Hill

Robbie looking happy, but still a little chilled

My foot was feeling good and things were great. We stopped a couple times going up the hill due to my wife's asthma (she was on new medication and it wasn't at full strength yet).

B running up the hill.

 

Felt great to be running again. Plus I love hills.

Got to the top of the hill and enjoyed the view before we headed out on the trails.

Calgary

The trails on Nose hill we found out are either just trails beaten into the grass, or gravel pathways. The trails were fun to run on, but there were instances of rocks along the trails and of course we got the requisite number of rocks into specific area of our feet. For some reason I always get rocks in the middle of my right foot pad. Ouch

The trails along Nose Hill. Fun and pretty easy to run on.

We got about a mile into our run and then came upon the gravel pathway. Robbie and I decided to take off our shoes to see how it felt to run barefoot on this stuff. We probably got about 10 m before we decided that we weren't quite ready for gravel yet. Sensory overload and hurt a little too much so we didn't want to be stupid about it.

Gravel Pathway. We made it about 10 m.

And back on went the Vibrams. :)

Running along the gravel in our Vibrams felt great. It's amazing how much better the gravel feels in Vibrams and also how much better it feels now than 3 months ago for me. We did various form checks as we went. Cadence good, hips in, feet below us, and lift our feet. Light, smooth and easy. Well we tried all that at least. Wonder if we had the Video Analysis thing done how bad our forms would end up being. We were feeling pretty good at this point. My heel was a little sore, but no worse than before and Robbie had a slightly sore calf. No big deal at this point. Oh and we each had tender spots on our feet from the rocks. We were going at about a 9:30-10 minute mile pace and we decided to try going a little faster. Robbie wanted me to go my normal pace and she would keep up. So we started going about 8:15 minute mile and it was great. Robbie was amazed that she could go that fast and not feel like she was exerting herself that much more. Awesome! And that's when the pain really started. Robbie's calf decided it didn't want to run anymore. She got a really bad cramp and literally hopped on one foot to a stop.

Choking back bad words. Very frustrating.

It hurt to run, even hurt to walk. Frustrated and upset we started walking back to the van. Not a great way to end up a run. I was glad to at least have the time with Robbie, but I know Robbie was upset and felt like the day was wasted. Definitely not how we expected the run to go. Oh and by this point my left knee was a little sore too. even though my heel was feeling better my body was still compensating in how I ran so I must have put a little extra strain on my left knee.

We got home and iced it up. Couldn't drown our sorrows in chocolate and ice cream as we still want to be slim and trim. Robbie looked up her injury and found out that it was her Soleus muscle that was injured and it was due to us running up the hill without warming up first. We will not be doing that again. So now we are resting up and giving things more time before we run. And when we run next, it definitely will not be up and down strenuous hills with unpaved trails.

More rest time for Kyle... but hey, new shoes!

So I'm still resting up my foot which is starting to feel better so Woot for that! But I'm still going to take it easy for a little while longer. Since unlike my wife, I don't have any new fun running to tell you about, I'll mention the awesome deal that we just got for some VIVOBAREFOOT shoes (yes, it's supposed to be capitalized like that....weird).

Anyways I follow the Birthday Shoes blog and they had mentioned an awesome sale on some minimalist shoes. These shoes are from VIVOBAREFOOT and they were on sale for up to 60% off. Crazy great deal. So my wife and I each got a pair and we will let you know how they work out once we finally receive them.

These are the Neo shoes that I bought

And these are the Evo shoes that Robbie bought.

I'm totally digging the look of the Neo's. I think that they will probably be my casual shoe of choice assuming they are comfortable. I could totally wear these to work on casual friday and no one would look at me sideways for it. My Vibrams on the other hand I would still feel a little self conscious wearing to work. I'm feeling more comfortable wearing my Vibrams at home or out and about sometimes (My eldest daughter still calls them my Dork Shoes. She has softened her hatred for the look of Vibrams a little bit once Robbie also got a pair), but I could totally rock these out all the time.

Anyone else in Canada who might be looking to purchase from TheClymb please note that they currently do not ship to Canada. My wife's parents are Snowbirds so we got these shipped to their american address (they'll get there in time to get them). I guess TheClymb is working on shipping to Canada, but they don't have it yet.

We probably won't get these until mid November but definitely expect a review from us then. I'm looking forward to it.

Day 3, running barefoot in downtown Calgary

Wednesdays are good day around here. Kyle works from home so that I can take the 3 older kids to piano lessons. Their lessons last an hour and a half. Glorious time all to myself, of course I spend it running.

Today I ran from Bridgeland into downtown Calgary in a loop. (See run here) It was nice, a little cool out but with the sun it was fantastic. I started off in my Bikilas. Feeling good no pain, I notice that I hit the ground harder in my vibrams than I do barefooted. Hmm.

Pathway along Memorial Drive

Just shy of a mile I came across some smooth looking path and decided to lose the shoes.

Nice smooth path. 

I took my shoes off and hung them on my carabiner. See Kyle had this great idea to hook a carabiner onto my spibelt so that I could hook my vibrams on and go barefoot whenever I wanted without having to carry my shoes. This is a great plan and it worked really well. Even better, I thought, was that I could hook my key fob onto it as well instead of putting it in my spibelt with my phone.

I ran a while in my bare feet and loved every second of it. Well except for that second where the two men in the bushes scared me half to death, that wasn't so much fun. I did learn though that I can run fast barefoot.

A little further along I came to some pretty tough path, well tough for me it was starting to hurt my feet so I stopped, took some pictures of my feet and put my vibrams back on to continue my run.

Ouchie pathway. Seriously it was rougher than it looks.

Left foot looking good and dirty.

Right foot looking good too. And a bonus shot of downtown.

So here is where the fun began. A couple steps away from where I sat to put my shoes back on I realize that I don't have my key fob anymore. Remember it was on the carabiner with my shoes. So I start back checking the leaves along side of the path. I'm thinking that it must have fallen off either when I put my shoes onto the carabiner or took them off. I am hoping it was when I took them off. A couple more steps back and look what I found.

Lost key fob

 Ok on with the run. I was unsure of how far I could run today because I thought I may be slower in my vibrams and barefoot so I decided to cross over the Prince's Island bridge into downtown. I should note that downtown scares me. Until I started running I would never have set foot downtown outside of my van. However it is super beautiful and I am so glad I did. I even took a short video for you guys. Fun Times.

Beautiful smooth path. Riverside pathway downtown. 

Shortly after this I found some more smooth path and kicked off my shoes again. It is amazing how great it feels without my shoe. I did get a number of looks. One lady gave me a look that could only be described as disgust. I'm not sure if it was because I was barefoot or if it was because I was barefoot and passing her. Another man can running up a small hill pushing a jogging stroller. He smiled as I passed and then I caught him looking back, I think checking to see if he really just saw bare feet. The best was the two guys who told me to watch out because there was broken glass ahead. I thanked them and kept my eyes peeled. There was glass ahead but I remembered to relax and keep my feet light. No problems no glass in my feet.

The last part of my run had me run across another bridge, past a 'tent city' and back into Bridgeland. On the bridge I had the best running buddy although he was much faster than I was. I have no pictures of the 'tent city' because I was quite worried and ran quickly past.

My friend the squirrel. He was stuck on the bridge, trying to get away from the crazy lady with the camera.

Finished my run with a final mileage of 4.71 miles. Barefoot miles: 2 Vibrams: 2.71. I treated myself to a Pumpkin Spice Frappuccino and headed out to pick up the kids.