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.

Merry Christmas and Happy New Year!!!!

Yeah, I know. It's been quite a while since we have posted. We have been a little busy with the holidays and not much in the mood for posting I guess. Ah well. Even though I haven't been posting it doesn't mean that we haven't been running. Thankfully we have still been doing a lot of that. My last post I talked about a run on the 20th of December where I was able to get out barefoot. Well I was able to do the same again on Christmas Eve.

Christmas Eve this year landed on a Saturday, which is my long run day. Since Robbie didn't want to add in a long run on Christmas as well as all the other stuff we had to do (Opening presents, going to Church, driving her sister to the airport, and then going to my parents house for Christmas) she had her long run on Christmas Eve too. Thankfully we were able to squeeze both in without too much trouble.

My long run was set for 12 miles and it was great. I started running in my water shoes. It wasn't too cold and thankfully the pathways were pretty clear. Oh wait, that reminded me of Robbie's run earlier in the day. She warned me that some of the less maintained pathways were really icy. She proved that by finding a nice downhill section while she was going pretty fast, being unable to find somewhere with traction and slipping on the ice trying to slow down. Down she went and she slammed her elbow and her head into the ground. Ouch. She phoned me at that point. I was all set to drive out and get where when she decided that she was okay and that she wanted to finish out her run. She's a Rockstar.

The pathway that took out my wife.

Anyways after Robbie's warning I stuck to the well maintained pathways running along Deerfoot Trail. Got 6 miles down and then started to head back. At that point I decided that it was warm enough to barefoot it for a while. And so I did. Wonderful. I do love the sensations of it although I did get many stares at the weird guy running with no shoes on. So that was my Christmas Eve run. My runner's knee was bugging me off and on, which sucked, but it was okay.

The pathway I ran on. Nice and clear.

Water shoes?

Off they go for 2 miles! Woot!

One annual tradition that our Church does is to have a family Communion on Christmas Eve. It may not be the most convenient thing, but it is definitely one of the most special things that we as a family do. In what is such a busy time, with rushing here and there and the pressures and everything else that happens at Christmas, it's nice to have some time to just stop, relax, breath and meet with God as a family. The Church is always done up very nicely with candles everywhere (which freaks my mom out) and it's always a much needed time.

Then we had Christmas. The kids got spoiled like always, although Robbie and I did a lot better at not giving them too much. The kids didn't get too many presents but you know what? They didn't even seem to notice. So happy about that. For Christmas Robbie got me some CEP compression sleeves, which I love and have been so thankful to have. I got her a pretty purple running jacket from MEC.

After Christmas I had a couple shorter runs. 4 miles in my water shoes and 5.3 miles in my Neos. Not much to say about those runs except that my knee was bugging me. The second run was supposed to be 6 miles, but I had to cut it short because my knee was bugging me too much. It was at this point that I decided that after the half-marathon that Saturday that I was going to take a week off (at least) to try and get my knee to feel better. I hate feeling limited strictly by my knee and I need to get better. No sense in being stupid about this.

Next was the Martin Parnell race in Cochrane. This was an annual race to help fund-raise for Right to Play. It started at 9 for the marathon distance. Robbie and I both decided to do the half-marathon distance. It was a super casual race, well not really a race, more like a run. The course was just a 2.5 km out and back along a pathway (that was also an off-leash dog run. Almost stepped on a couple of little dogs. Fun times. Thankfully there were no aggressive dogs out). So we went back and forth about 11 times until my Garmin said we had run at least 13.1 miles. I decided to run in my Neos and Robbie chose her water shoes. Here is my Runkeeper link for the run so you can see how exciting the course was. ;)

Martin Parnell run in Cochrane.

This was a fun run. No pressure, just get out and run. The wind was pretty strong going one way. So I froze my bits off going one way and warmed them up going back. The difference between running the one direction and the other was quite startling. We managed though. :) The aid station had water, hot chocolate, coffee, shortbread cookies and fruit leathers. Not the typical aid station but you could stop whenever you felt like it for however long you felt like it. Martin Parnell was there as well as ultrarunner Ellie Greenwood. Kinda cool running with people you see on the cover of running magazines.

Robbie rocking it.

Even better though was meeting up with the other barefoot runners we know. We ran with Toe-Girl Tina for a while and near the end ran into Paul and family and Barefoot Neil and family. It was a great time and we were glad to get out there.

Paul. He ran ~8k barefoot (after wearing his Kevlar socks for the first little bit)

I hope everyone else had a wonderful Christmas holiday. Tomorrow I'm back to work, but the upside is that since it it now January I can go to Riva's Eco Store and buy my Neo Trails. Woot!!! So looking forward to that.

VIVOBAREFOOT Neo review

I've been meaning to getting around and doing a review of my Vivobarefoot Neos. We got them on Nov 21st and I have been running in them where I can as well as wearing them just for walking around. I found my pair of Neos on the website TheClymb.com . I was able to find it for about $60, which is a fantastic deal.

So very nice.

So first about the styling and materials. I love, love, love the look of these. They have been described as a more retro look and I certainly agree. I dig the look of these they have now become my go to casual shoe just because I love how they look so much.

The upper is super flexible. Suede around the edges with the white parts of the shoes being a breathable mesh. The insides of the shoe are nice and soft. Very luxurious. I can go barefoot in these and it feels great. I do have one complaint about it though. Due to the stitching by the heel of the grey suede and the, umm green fabric there is a small portion of stitching right at the heel that sticks out just a little bit more. At the end of the first day of wearing my Neos I had a new blister formed on my heel.

My blister. Actually just kidding. This was more recent due to running over my own heel with a shopping cart.

This is the blister that I got. Still hurt though.

The first blister I've gotten from minimalist shoes. Like I said, this was due to doubling back on the stiching so it stuck out just a little bit more. Not sure if this is a common problem, but it was present in my shoes. I'm mostly wearing them with socks right now so it's not much of a problem at the moment. Hopefully in the summer it will have sorted itself out but we shall see.

You may be able to make out the stitches just to the left and right of the heel.

The Neos have a removeable footbed in them. You can either wear them with or without the footbed depending on if you want to feel the ground a little bit more or not. I found the ground feel was really good. I could feel individual rocks while wearing it, but those rocks no longer hurt. The sole is nice and flexible with the honeycomb tread giving pretty good traction.

Nice and flexible

Honeycomb tread, good traction.

The Neos were great during the fall with it being a little cold, however once we got more than just a dusting of snow I had to abandon using them in favor of my water shoes. At least until I get my Neo Trails. Sheesh, I'm incorrigible. Laff  I might try these again with it being colder using the two layers of socks and see just how good they are with the cold.

I had never tried these on before so I had to guess about the right size when ordering them. I ended up with a size 41. I found the fit to be pretty good except I could stand to have a little more room in the toes. I don't feel like I have lots of room and find that when putting my feet in, my big toe and little toe are already touching the sides which doesn't leave much room for splaying. I ran on the treadmill today and stopped halfway through because I felt my first little toe and second little toe (the little piggy that stayed home and the little piggy that has roast beef) were squished and trying to bend under each other. Didn't feel very good so I switched into my Vibram Bikilas. Had I been able to try them on first I might have gone with a bigger size to make up for the smaller toe box, but a super great deal on them meant I couldn't do so.

I have worn these shoes running outside, running on the treadmill, walking around as well as playing floor hockey in them. Other than the stitching on the back and the slightly narrow toe box I love these shoes. They have now become my go to casual shoe and they work so well in so many situations. I highly recommend them.

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

5 miles on a snowy day

This morning it seemed like everything was going wrong. I was feeling really tired and didn't want to get up for work. I had run out of frozen strawberries for my morning smoothie. I lost my access card for work. When I got on the bus I realized that I forgot to pack a lunch. When I got to work I realized that I forgot to pack my Garmin. When I went to the gym to get changed for my run, my new access card wasn't yet coded for the gym. Things were not the best but I was still looking forward to my run. I had 5 miles on the training plan for today and it had recently snowed a little. How crazy is it that I was really looking forward to getting outside and running, to getting out in the cold.

Well it wasn't that cold. Probably about 0ºC. I still wore my base layer pants and shirt as well as track pants and jacket. Once again I forgot to grab my mitts so my hands were a little cold. Ah well. I managed. On my feet I was wearing running socks and my VIVOBAREFOOT Neos.

My knee felt good the whole way through. Keeping my form in check seems to be getting easier, however I must say that we are having the coaching session with Toegirl Tina tomorrow (alliteration for the win!!) so I'm sure I'll find out all the ways I'm still screwing up and need to work on fixing things. Can't wait.

Cold but beautiful

Back to the run. It was beautiful outside. Saw quite a number of runners out, even some still in shorts. I ran east from Eau Claire along the river. Went across the bridge to the Zoo island. and back to work along the other side. Some dryer patches of pavement, lots of snowy patches, even some snow and ice. I also ran a short portion on a gravel path. My Neos worked wonderfully. I had the liners in so they were warmer, the trade-off being that I couldn't feel the ground as well. I never once felt like I was slipping and my feet stayed warm the whole time.

Path on the Zoo island. Love it here. Have to come back again

another cool thing about running by the zoo is that you get to run with dinosaurs. :)

Wet, but not too icy yet.

Gravel path. Fun!

I have heard that the Neo Trails are excellent winter shoes. Very warm with great tread. I'd love to try them out and see just how warm they are in freezing temperatures. Maybe sometime in the future I will get to play around with them, but not yet. :) I am working on a review of the Neos and hope to get it up shortly.

My replacement lunch. Very yummy and no wheat. Woot!

Running in my EVOs

I have run twice now in my EVOs. So far I am in love. They are light and flexible and have great ground feel. I ran 4 miles on Tuesday early in the morning and my toes were nice and warm. My favourite part of the run was running in the snow and felling how soft it was under my feet. It is such a cool feeling to actually be able to tell what you are running on. I ended my run by running through the alley. It was cool to feel the gravel under my feet.

 I ran another 5 miles on Wednesday. I was super warm out. I love Calgary where we can go from -20°C to 10°C in a day. The run was great and the shoes were perfect. I really feel like I am flying in these shoes. It is almost as free as I felt while running barefoot. Almost. I didn't take any pictures on either run. I would love to know how others take picture while running. My iPhone is always tucked into my spibelt behind me so it is hard to get to it for pictures. My other camera is small but I don't really want to carry something while I run. I figure I'll have to get used to it if I want pictures of my runs. 

Tomorrow Kyle and I are meeting with Tina from Toe Girl Tina for our barefoot running coaching session. I am really looking forward to it. I am also kind of nervous. I don't like to do things the wrong way and I am sure that she is going to correct my form and tell me I have been doing things wrong. That is the point. I want to get better so I need to admit that I'm not perfect at this yet. Oh man that is hard for me. Maybe I'll make sure Kyle goes first. Anyways I am expecting it to be great and I am looking forward to improving even if it hurts my ego. 

Lastly Barefoot Neil posted on his blog about an upcoming race in Cochrane to celebrate the 1 year anniversary of Martin Parnell's 250th run. Kyle and I will be there doing the half marathon. It looks like a lot of fun. 

Mail Time!!!

 Here's the mail, it never fails. It makes me want to wag my tail. And when it come I wanna wail MAAAAIIIILLLL!!!!

They're here!!!!!

Today our VIVOBAREFOOT shoes finally came in the mail. We have been going crazy waiting for these shoes to arrive and we are both so glad they are here. Of course they arrived while I was at work so Robbie was the first to try hers on.

Black pair of EVOs.

Robbie loves the look of them.

I got home from work and tried on my new shoes.

My pair of Green/White NEOs

Styling. I love them so far

We will try and do a full review of these after we put in some miles but for now we are loving them. We have both been wearing them since we got them. I took mine on a trip to Walmart (without socks) and they are super comfortable so far. Very happy.

Knee is still rocking and so many pretty shoes

Kyle here. Last night I went for another run as per our half marathon training plan. It was for 3 miles, so I just ran up to the top of the community and back down. I believe that it was about -7º C, maybe -12º C with windchill. I had on my base layers again. I decided to try wearing my Bikilas with Injinji socks. As I set out of the house I still had a little bit of dread that my knee would hurt again. Well the 3 miles came and went and my knee was perfectly fine. Awesome. Looks like keeping my feet parallel is really going to cure my runner's knee.

So as I said earlier I decided to try wearing my Bikilas with Injinji socks. I must say now that I am not a fan of wearing both. It felt like there was too much between me and the ground. I could feel rocks that I ran over, but I could only feel that they were there. Nothing hurt or was uncomfortable at all. Like I said, it just felt like there was too much between me and the ground. So I can easily say that the Water shoes are the way to go. At least until my Vivobarefoot Neo's come. Then we will see. I so can't wait and I just want to get out in them. 

With that in mind, today while I was at a conference I decided on a whim to see if there are any stores in Calgary that carry them. I found one. Riva's The Eco Store.  It was even within walking distance of the conference. Woot! Lunch time came and I headed out. For anyone in Calgary, they are located just east of Fort Calgary at 1237 9th Avenue SE and they have a ton of Vivobarefoot shoes.

Riva's The Eco Store

I went there to try on a pair of Neo's to see what they were like. But also to look at all the pretty shoes. Tried on the Neo's in the size I ordered and they were tight in the toe box. Crap. We will have to see when my shoes come if it will be okay. Otherwise I'm not sure what to do. We shall see. Rather than describing the shoes, I'll just post pictures of them. Robbie and I will definitely be back to this store. So nice to be able to try them on and their prices are quite comparable to the Vivobarefoot store. They have a ton of selection which they said will only get even better. In the spring they will have everything available. If it's on the Vivobarefoot webpage, they will stock it. I highly recommend Riva's!

The only problem is our lack of lots of extra funds. Sigh. If we had tons of money I would go nuts in this store. Laff If anyone from Vivobarefoot is reading this and wants to send us a shoe to review, that would be fantastic. Not likely to happen, but I guess we can dream. :)

Try on a pair and you can enter to win a pair. But don't, so I'll have a better chance. ;)

The Neo's I tried on. Small toe box. :(

Dressy shoes. Love to get a pair of Dharma's for work.

Robbie would love a pair of these. Would work great for church.

Lovely shoes. The Dharma is on the far right. I'd want it in black I think.

My Neo's are in the same coloring as the third on in.

More shoes.

Even more

Even some boots.

Beloved Neo Trails. One day these will be mine. Oh yes, they will be mine.