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


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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.

I am back in the game after 4 weeks of no running.

Right before my stress test. So excited to run.

It has been way too long. Seriously I have been super busy and not running so I didn't have much to say. Things have been going ok in the health department. I had an echo cardiogram on my heart and everything came back normal. You see my EKG right after I reached my goal weight came back abnormal and so I had to have extra testing. So the echo was great, I didn't even have a mitral valve prolapse like my daughter does and so many in my family do. Great news. Then last friday I had my stress test. The idea is to get you on a treadmill and try to get your heart to it's max heart rate. For my age we were aiming for 189. (The Dr told me that the calculation is 220 - your age) So I go in and I have to tell you that I was worried. I hadn't run at all in 4 weeks. I have been doing my stationary bike a a spin class, that almost killed me, that stuff is intense, and some body weight exercises but no running because my knee was still hurting. So I get there and I get changed into my running skirt and a running room t-shirt. The Dr comes out sees my shirt and says this is going to take a long time. Laugh. I had warned them that I was a runner and that I run long distances. The test was pretty easy, you start off barely walking at a fairly steep incline and the speed and incline increase every 3 minutes. Really the speed wasn't the problem the max was only 5.5mph but the incline was crazy. For my final 3 minutes I was at 5.5mph but at an incline of 20%. It was hard work but it felt so good. I noticed that my knee wasn't hurting at all, especially as the incline increased my knee actually started to feel better. Hmm. I only reached 175 bpm because there is a max of 15 mins for the test. The Dr said that it would have taken a lot longer to get my heart rate to my max. I got the results that day and I am very happy to announce that I have a very healthy heart and that I am in great shape. So says my internal medicine/cardiologist Doctor. Woohoo! I cannot tell you how happy that makes me. Looking back it was just under a year ago that Kyle and I started running and a year and a half since we started our weight loss journey. I am sure that a year ago I would have maxed my heart rate just walking. I am so thankful that I have come so far, thankful everyday that God gave me a body that can bounce back, with a lot of work, from 6 pregnancies, nursing 6 children, and a decade of being obese. I am reminded often that this is a gift, yes I worked hard and still work hard to stay here, but it is a gift to have good health and I want to treasure it.

Anyways the stress test showed me that my knee wasn't broken. It is very strange it really only hurts when I am sitting, especially cross legged, or at night when I lay down in bed. Weird knee. I am going to see a sports med Dr about my knee to be sure it isn't a tear in my meniscus but for now I am trying a bit more running. What I have changed so far is that I have dropped my pace a lot. Where I used to run 9-9:30 min/mile I am back to running 10-10:45 min/mile. I have run twice now since my stress test both times without pain. Woot. I ran on Monday outside, just a 3.5 mile loop. It was all great except that I bailed off a curb and flew into the intersection. Thankfully it is a very quiet intersection and there were no cars. I was able to finish my run though and really I'm no worse for the wear except for a bruised elbow and hip. Last nights run was run number 1 of my first marathon training plan. More about that in a later post though. I did 5 miles of hills on the treadmill last night. It was a mile easy then .25 at 6% incline and .25 at 1% repeat until mile 4 then 1 mile easy. It was great. I found my knee really liked being at an incline and I enjoyed myself a lot even for a treadmill run. I am super excited to be back in the game. I am hoping to run 3 times a week and keep cross training in between. I am also looking into adding more strength training so that I can be ripped. LOL Not really I just want to keep running until I am old and grey and strength training should help with that.

So here I am back in the game and looking forward to more races and more fun coming soon.
Robbie-Lynn