The bare foot is the best running coach money can't buy.

Please visit me at my new site...

This site now has a permanent URL at www.BarefootJosh.com. You will be automatically redirected in a few seconds, or go ahead and click here to go there now.

Thursday, October 15, 2009

"My feet are feeling a little sensitive,"

I announced, about an hour after my run. "Wonder what I was doing wrong today."

A brief moment of silence. The wife says, "Oh, I don't know; running barefoot when it's 45 degrees and raining, maybe?"

I watched a video of this guy running barefoot at a 5 mm pace while talking this morning. So if course I felt obligated to make today a go speedy day. For me, speedy is running fast up hills (don't know how fast; just fast enough to feel tired at the top) and doing quarter-mile laps at a local park. For the laps, I would do the first one slow, the second faster, third faster, fourth fastest, then start over for the next mile. I don't know if that's a great way to get faster or not; it's very fartleky, so I figure it probably helps.

The coldness slowed me down a bit. Today was a CR for me, by the way (CR = Cold Record). The cold and wetness was unpleasant at first; strangely, I had a hard time staying light. You'd think it would be easier when the ground doesn't feel as good as I'm used to. But after a slow first mile, the feet felt fine, just touchy. I must still be relying on pushing off a bit for speed, or I'm not landing as gently as I could, because the faster I went the touchier my feet felt.

All in all, a good run. The feet are a little tingly, I wasn't very fast, and I'm not a ninja yet. Speed baffles me. But I was outside on a archetypal gloomy day and enjoying myself. And my feet can definitely handle 45 degrees. Next report at 40.

I do need to wear gloves, I learned. When I stopped, my hands wouldn't work.

3 comments:

  1. For me (and for the record, I run barefoot, in VFFs, and shoes) when the surface is unfamiliar the foot seems to want more contact to figure things out. I've noticed that when I run on a new surface, I am usually much slower the first couple of times out.

    ReplyDelete
  2. Just wondering how cold you can stand to run barefoot. Shivering just thinking about it.

    ReplyDelete
  3. I'm running the Hawg Run in Lexington tomorrow - looks like it's going to be 40 degrees. No rain, though. I'll bring the vibrams just in case it's too much, but I think I'll be ok.

    ReplyDelete