I'll be heading up to do the Reno-Tahoe Oddessey Relay in a few hours. It'll be a weekend sans kids...first time ever for me!
I'm taking the Vibrams with me and will run at least one leg in them. Maybe all of them since it seems that everytime I wear shoes now I get aches and pains.
I did my track workout in my asics landreths. I felt horrible in them. I wanted to take off my shoes and run barefoot but I couldn't because there were a bunch of bees on the track. I didn't think that risking a bee sting before the Oddessey would be so very cool. So I left on the shoes and felt like I was running on vibrating marshmallows. It sucked.
On Wednesday I did a 4.5 mile recovery run in Vibrams. Felt great. It sorted out the pereoneal tendon irritation and lower back soreness that I got from the Landreths.
I'll post pictures of the race and my runs in the Vibrams for y'all.
Thursday, May 28, 2009
Posted by CoyoteGirl at 9:37 AM 2 comments
Friday, May 22, 2009
Today I did 6 miles in my VFF's, half on a rugged trail near my house. I ran this route 3 minutes faster than I did last time in my shoes.
I feel great right now! No real soreness in my calves. My legs definitely feel like they've had a workout, but in that nice kind of way. Running barefoot actually feels like it's releasing the tension I've felt lately in my lower back and hamstring. I actually feel "loose" there.
So what do I do with my shoes now???
Posted by CoyoteGirl at 11:30 AM 2 comments
Thursday, May 21, 2009
Posted by CoyoteGirl at 1:55 PM 2 comments
Thursday, May 14, 2009
This morning was cool and sunny, perfect running weather at 6am. I went out for a little 5 miler. In the middle of my run I slipped off my running shoes and socks and did about 1 mile barefoot. It didn't feel all that odd to me because I walk around barefoot most of the day anyway. I've also been running as if I were barefoot for a while now, thinking about skimming the ground and running lightly.
I loved the sensation of the ground on my feet, and I did notice that I did have to adjust a bit more to reduce impact. I noticed that I use more of my leg and feel the springy cushioning in my muscles that I have to employ while running barefoot all the way up my body. But not in a bad way. I don't feel any jarring, I just feel that my entire body is controlling the landing and absorbing of impact in the proper manner. I could've run further but I felt that the bottoms of my feet were getting roughed up a bit; they aren't tough enough yet. I don't want to get big 'ole blisters on the bottoms of my feet right before the Reno-Tahoe Odessey. I didn't get sore calves either, maybe because I've been running softly already.
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I'm almost done with Born to Run. I'll be sad when it's finished! It's an excellent read for all you runners out there, I highly recommend it. I love that the book starts out with the question - "Why does my foot hurt?" I think that it's symbolic of a bigger question - "Why does my life hurt?" Because in getting rid of the shoes that are hindering us we have to ask what are the other modern things that are hindering us? Too much car driving? Excess "stuff" in our lives? It's freeing to find out that we are just fine, even better, without a lot of this stuff that we thought we couldn't live without.
Posted by CoyoteGirl at 9:51 AM 1 comments
Wednesday, May 13, 2009
The day before yesterday I walked around barefoot at my daughter's school during lunch hour when I pick her up from Kindergarten. The other parents didn't seem to notice but one little girl was nearly apopleptic over it.
"But where are your shoes? Why aren't you wearing shoes?" She kept asking me the same things over and over. I kept telling her it was because I didn't feel like it. And if it would help at all my flip flops were over there by the tree. I can only imagine what barefoot running is going to to do to the populace around here when they see me doing it.
And heck, this is California BTW. I'm certainly not the strangest thing out there. Is lack of footware really that subversive?
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In other news I ran in my Nike Frees to the track and at the track last night. I figured that was fairly close to barefoot. (I'm easing my way into it around here) The workout was a lovely pyramid of 400, 800, 1200, 800, 400 meters. I concentrated on good barefoot style form. Surprisingly my times were about 6 seconds per lap faster than I anticipated them being. I was pretty stoked. And there was no hint of hamstring issues or piriformis problems. Maybe my postural and barefoot work is starting to pay off.
Posted by CoyoteGirl at 4:18 PM 1 comments
Monday, May 11, 2009
Posted by CoyoteGirl at 3:52 PM 2 comments
Wednesday, May 06, 2009
I found out about this book on Barefoot Ted's site. It looks like a fascinating read on the Tarahumara and natural running...how we can run without all of those fancy shoes and how we'd probably be better off for it. It's something that I've always thought about. It just doesn't make sense that after millions of years of evolution somehow this animal that has traveled to the far corners of the globe on foot now needs squishy constrictive shoes to run.
Posted by CoyoteGirl at 9:50 AM 3 comments