The last few weeks have felt like a bit of a lull. The weather is getting colder and wetter, and for some reason I've been feeling more self conscious - not the nervous excitement I started out with, more of just wanting to get on with it quietly on my own away from public comments and stares. Not that I blame anyone, I would surely have stared and passed comment a year ago if I had seen someone mad enough to run in bare feet.
Anyway, on Friday, my OH persuaded me to go for a run with him, so I put on my VFF Classics and we did just over 3 miles together. I pushed the pace to keep up with him in his trainers, so ended up with a respectable 5.8mph - not bad considering I haven't broken the 10 min mile pace on more than one occasion.
Today is Sunday, so I got up and out early (ish) to avoid too many people, and did a nice 1.3miles in bare feet - my further BF run to date. Temperature was around 11 degrees C. I kept it slow as I knew I wanted to increase my longest distance, so only 12 min miles, but I can report no aches and pains or sore feet of any kind, so I'm more than happy.
On the VFF note - what I did notice was that whilst my thighs burned whilst I was running (I've not done 3 miles for some time), I had no post run soreness, even the following day, so I'm convinced my step was light and my form was good.
My OH has asked me to run a 10k with him in mid November, and I'm now toying with the idea of doing it in my Fives.... Just a thought at present, but it's been ages since I've worn trainers for running now!
Sunday, 23 September 2012
Sunday, 9 September 2012
The Sweet Spot
A fab run this morning, so I felt the need to blog it.
According to my (unwritten) schedule, I was to up the distance today to 0.8/0.9 miles, and this meant heading out towards the main road, away from the safety of the estate. I was in a different mindset, that being "I want to do this, but I wish people wouldn't stare". This is different to how I've felt before, when I've felt self conscious to the point of embarrassment, rather than annoyance.
Anyway, I set off, shouted a cheery good morning to the ex-policeman at the end of our road who was washing his car, and headed out. My feet felt great. Weather was a cool but sunny September morning.
At the start, I could feel my feet scuffing as they passed under my body (ie at the back), so I adjusted my form slightly, and that quickly disappeared. Cadence felt good, not too fast but definitely close to 180 (if not faster).
The main road was fine - no encounters, and still my feet felt great as I turned back into the estate, just slowing a little over the very gravelly section by the bridge. I ran past the old lady with the dog, who had shown great concern at my exploits several months back, and as I passed her I said "morning, it's the mad lady with the bare feet", and she said hello back and asked "aren't your feet cold this morning?".
Got back to the house feeling like I could easily have run further. 0.93 miles, with my fastest pace to date of 5.4mph (11.08min/mile). I can only describe the pace here as finding the "sweet spot" where everything just seemed to click into place. Lovely.
According to my (unwritten) schedule, I was to up the distance today to 0.8/0.9 miles, and this meant heading out towards the main road, away from the safety of the estate. I was in a different mindset, that being "I want to do this, but I wish people wouldn't stare". This is different to how I've felt before, when I've felt self conscious to the point of embarrassment, rather than annoyance.
Anyway, I set off, shouted a cheery good morning to the ex-policeman at the end of our road who was washing his car, and headed out. My feet felt great. Weather was a cool but sunny September morning.
At the start, I could feel my feet scuffing as they passed under my body (ie at the back), so I adjusted my form slightly, and that quickly disappeared. Cadence felt good, not too fast but definitely close to 180 (if not faster).
The main road was fine - no encounters, and still my feet felt great as I turned back into the estate, just slowing a little over the very gravelly section by the bridge. I ran past the old lady with the dog, who had shown great concern at my exploits several months back, and as I passed her I said "morning, it's the mad lady with the bare feet", and she said hello back and asked "aren't your feet cold this morning?".
Got back to the house feeling like I could easily have run further. 0.93 miles, with my fastest pace to date of 5.4mph (11.08min/mile). I can only describe the pace here as finding the "sweet spot" where everything just seemed to click into place. Lovely.
Friday, 7 September 2012
Back to the Classics
I was starting to get a bit twitchy from not running anything more than about half a mile, so this morning - a beautiful hot sunny day - I decided to get back in my VFF Classics and go a little bit further.
I ran 1.9 miles in these, and then 0.3 miles in bare feet at the end.
What I noticed was that since I've been running exclusively in bare feet for a few weeks, my VFF technique seemed better - shorter steps, faster cadence, and better foot position. It was lovely to go a bit further, but towards the end I really wanted to take them off and 'free my feet' (sorry, sounding very hippy there!), so I did. Interestingly, whilst I thought my VFF technique was pretty good, I instantly noticed that my heels were going doing more in bare feet - ie a ball of foot touch quickly followed by a pretty much flat foot, with toes and heels down together. I also noticed my stride shorten instinctively.
I think not wearing VFFs for a few weeks has been good for developing my form, but I can certainly still go further (and feel way less self conscious) in them than in bare feet (at the moment)!
I ran 1.9 miles in these, and then 0.3 miles in bare feet at the end.
What I noticed was that since I've been running exclusively in bare feet for a few weeks, my VFF technique seemed better - shorter steps, faster cadence, and better foot position. It was lovely to go a bit further, but towards the end I really wanted to take them off and 'free my feet' (sorry, sounding very hippy there!), so I did. Interestingly, whilst I thought my VFF technique was pretty good, I instantly noticed that my heels were going doing more in bare feet - ie a ball of foot touch quickly followed by a pretty much flat foot, with toes and heels down together. I also noticed my stride shorten instinctively.
I think not wearing VFFs for a few weeks has been good for developing my form, but I can certainly still go further (and feel way less self conscious) in them than in bare feet (at the moment)!
Friday, 31 August 2012
Action Plan
After a week off with my sore heel, I decided to put a more consistent plan into action.
This involves sticking at a comfortable distance for a few weeks without any pain or injury before upping the distance by approximately a quarter of a mile and repeating the process. This was always sort of in the back of my head, but I was not really keeping track of my progress and tempering the distance increases perhaps as much as I should. I was reminded of this process after reading the "Lose the Shoes" plan on Runnersworld.com.
So, here's the progress so far:
25/8/12: 0.5 miles - 7 mins 2 seconds
26/8/12: 0.52 miles - 7 mins 7 seconds
27/8/12: 0.53 miles - 7 mins 0 seconds
29/8/12: 0.5 miles - 6 mins 32 seconds (on account of having to run away from lots of people I knew!)
31/8/12: 0.61 miles - 8 mins 21 seconds
I'll now stick with the 0.6 mile distance for two weeks (and here's the reminder to myself) ie mid September.
The last run on the list (today's) was a fantastic run. It's a beautiful, cool but sunny morning and my feet felt really good and strong. I could have easily been tempted to do more!
This involves sticking at a comfortable distance for a few weeks without any pain or injury before upping the distance by approximately a quarter of a mile and repeating the process. This was always sort of in the back of my head, but I was not really keeping track of my progress and tempering the distance increases perhaps as much as I should. I was reminded of this process after reading the "Lose the Shoes" plan on Runnersworld.com.
So, here's the progress so far:
25/8/12: 0.5 miles - 7 mins 2 seconds
26/8/12: 0.52 miles - 7 mins 7 seconds
27/8/12: 0.53 miles - 7 mins 0 seconds
29/8/12: 0.5 miles - 6 mins 32 seconds (on account of having to run away from lots of people I knew!)
31/8/12: 0.61 miles - 8 mins 21 seconds
I'll now stick with the 0.6 mile distance for two weeks (and here's the reminder to myself) ie mid September.
The last run on the list (today's) was a fantastic run. It's a beautiful, cool but sunny morning and my feet felt really good and strong. I could have easily been tempted to do more!
Monday, 20 August 2012
Pause for thought
I've had to be sensible and take a few days off. Things were going really well: I've braved the main road, and for two consecutive days I ran a mile completely barefoot.
However, I'd developed a small bruise-like pain on my right heel - outside or lateral edge, underneath my ankle bone. When I was running on the second day (a 2.5 mile run, first 1.5 in Vibrams, last mile barefoot) I could feel pain developing quite rapidly in this area. It scared me a bit because it reminded me of the pain I got when I had my stress fracture. I slowed for the last 400 metres or so, and iced the area on my return.
I little later I could see a small amount of swelling in the area. I did a bit of research and found an excellent website for pinpointing foot pain. It is either posterior heel pain (though this seems to present much more at the very back of the heel), or more worrying - a developing stress feature of the calcaneal. Another classic symptom of this is that that there is pain in this area when the achilles is 'pinched' on both sides simultaneously - something that I can definitely confirm.
That was the 17th August. I've been good and rested my foot now for a few days, and whilst there is still a little pain, it's much improved. Symptoms now are only noticeable when I walk - on flexing the ankle to lift the foot up at the end of each stride - or if I squeeze the area. I'm not limping.
So another little set back. I think, as runners we accept that our running life is never straightforward - except for the lucky few. Have I been put off running barefoot? Certainly not. In fact, as I drove down a local road the other day, I commented to my daughter that it looked like it would be a great road to run down barefoot, because it was a little bit rough and gritty, and I thought it would feel nice on my soles. It's frustrating to wait, but I know it'll be worth it.
I thought it was important to make this post, because I'm guilty of raving about how great barefooting is, but (for me at least) it's not a quick route to faster and longer runs.
However, I'd developed a small bruise-like pain on my right heel - outside or lateral edge, underneath my ankle bone. When I was running on the second day (a 2.5 mile run, first 1.5 in Vibrams, last mile barefoot) I could feel pain developing quite rapidly in this area. It scared me a bit because it reminded me of the pain I got when I had my stress fracture. I slowed for the last 400 metres or so, and iced the area on my return.
I little later I could see a small amount of swelling in the area. I did a bit of research and found an excellent website for pinpointing foot pain. It is either posterior heel pain (though this seems to present much more at the very back of the heel), or more worrying - a developing stress feature of the calcaneal. Another classic symptom of this is that that there is pain in this area when the achilles is 'pinched' on both sides simultaneously - something that I can definitely confirm.
That was the 17th August. I've been good and rested my foot now for a few days, and whilst there is still a little pain, it's much improved. Symptoms now are only noticeable when I walk - on flexing the ankle to lift the foot up at the end of each stride - or if I squeeze the area. I'm not limping.
So another little set back. I think, as runners we accept that our running life is never straightforward - except for the lucky few. Have I been put off running barefoot? Certainly not. In fact, as I drove down a local road the other day, I commented to my daughter that it looked like it would be a great road to run down barefoot, because it was a little bit rough and gritty, and I thought it would feel nice on my soles. It's frustrating to wait, but I know it'll be worth it.
I thought it was important to make this post, because I'm guilty of raving about how great barefooting is, but (for me at least) it's not a quick route to faster and longer runs.
Tuesday, 14 August 2012
I braved the main road
Very brave today (and to be honest, I've annoyed myself with my fear of public barefoot running). I ran to the end of our estate, and then along the main road. This is significant progress, as so far, I've only run around the houses on our estate, or along a very quiet country lane. I didn't take any shoes (even though I felt they'd be added security and I could put them on if I felt too conspicious).
I've checked with all my family that they aren't embarrassed (a bit tongue in cheek on my part - I'd probably do it anyway, but it's lovely to have their support). My friends just think I'm a bit wacky. I don't suppose it really matters what anyone else thinks.
My feet felt fantastic, the ground felt lovely, and when I got back there was not one single ache or blister. This is the way forward I think. 0.88 miles and rising.
I've checked with all my family that they aren't embarrassed (a bit tongue in cheek on my part - I'd probably do it anyway, but it's lovely to have their support). My friends just think I'm a bit wacky. I don't suppose it really matters what anyone else thinks.
My feet felt fantastic, the ground felt lovely, and when I got back there was not one single ache or blister. This is the way forward I think. 0.88 miles and rising.
Tuesday, 7 August 2012
Back from our hols
I've had over two weeks off running because I've been living it up in Florida. Plenty of walking in flip flops or bare feet (in the water parks), and a couple of days in VFF Classics, so my feet felt like they'd had a great workout every day and I was confident that they'd feel strong on my first run back.
I ran just under two miles in my Classics - pretty slowly as I had my son in tow, but as expected, my feet felt great. None of the twinges of my stress fracture were present, and I loved my final 0.3 miles in bare feet at the end. Great to be running again.
The following day I did a four mile run in my trainers. This certainly felt like hard work - whether because of the break from running, or because I've only been wearing very light shoes for two weeks, or because I'd had a short run the day before, I cannot say. The following day, my thighs and calves were all very achey, and I really noticed the hip pain which I suffer from, which I've not had for the two weeks off running, nor had it returned on my VFFs run.
Today I've been for a two mile run in Classics, followed by 0.3 miles barefoot. Much nicer than trainers, and I averaged around 9.40 min miles which is by far the fastest I've gone in minimalist footwear.
I'm thinking of signing up for the September 10k, and wonder whether I should go for a fast time (52 mins or so) in trainers, or whether to just go for any time, but in my Classics.... Decisions, decisions...
I ran just under two miles in my Classics - pretty slowly as I had my son in tow, but as expected, my feet felt great. None of the twinges of my stress fracture were present, and I loved my final 0.3 miles in bare feet at the end. Great to be running again.
The following day I did a four mile run in my trainers. This certainly felt like hard work - whether because of the break from running, or because I've only been wearing very light shoes for two weeks, or because I'd had a short run the day before, I cannot say. The following day, my thighs and calves were all very achey, and I really noticed the hip pain which I suffer from, which I've not had for the two weeks off running, nor had it returned on my VFFs run.
Today I've been for a two mile run in Classics, followed by 0.3 miles barefoot. Much nicer than trainers, and I averaged around 9.40 min miles which is by far the fastest I've gone in minimalist footwear.
I'm thinking of signing up for the September 10k, and wonder whether I should go for a fast time (52 mins or so) in trainers, or whether to just go for any time, but in my Classics.... Decisions, decisions...
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