Night Time Barefoot Trail Running!

Sounds EXCITIN dont it?

In all honesty, it really was! This took place about 2 or 3 weeks ago as a test run to try out the only headlamp I currently own. Being a barefoot runner, my vision is pretty important. It helps me determine what might be painfull before I place my foot on it. This is difficult to do while running at night as its usually dark, and I wasnt born with adequate enough nocturnal eye sight.... This is where a quality head lamp would be very usefull.
I used my headlamp from work. Its a "Princeton Tec", model "EOS II". I think its rated at 35 or 45 lumens and works great for what I do for a living. It is rated as a class 2, division 2 explosion proof battery powered device so I can wear it all over the plant, and the beam isnt a floodlight but instead more of a spotlight. So there wasnt alot of the path illuminated, just about a circular yard a few feet ahead of me. Its all I really needed to see since this trail was fairly easy to follow and all I was looking out for was roots. But on a longer run where mental fatigue would come into play I would want a brighter flood light, along with a good quality handheld.

I went and ran a part of the Village Creek trails that I knew contained some pretty rooted up areas from previous runs.


I ran the "Village Creek Trail" highlighted in blue.

I started just before the sun went down just as a practice run to snap some pics and make sure my headlamp wasnt going to bug the shit out of me before it was too late. I did snap some pics along the way...


The leaves are changing!





At the end of the trail you come to the swimming area, this is what it looks like as the sun sets....

...And then the sun set. Between the lack of sunlight and the canopy of trees covering the trail, it was dark...





This one is with the flash of my cell phones camera, which is actually really really bright...



Then I turned on the headlamp and started to run. I was able to continue at my normal pace, and could easily identify obstacles before it was too late.

Heres some pictures of some root beds as illuminated by the head lamp.





My last mile (of 4) was ran pretty quick (for me as of lately) just to see if I could run fast in trails in the dark. I kept a 7 something pace and it was a BLAST!!! My adrendaline was pumping, my eyes were wide with excitement, and I had a huge smile on my face!

Ill do a more thorough review of the headlamp I used on a later date when I have used it for a few longer runs.

posted from Bloggeroid

My 4th MAF test.

Hit the track yesterday evening and performed my 4th MAF (Maximum Aerobic Function) test. This is part of the Maffetone training method, and used to test and evaluate how your training is going and see wether or not you have been improving. I do a slightly altered version than what Maffetone suggests and follow more along what Hadd suggests his famous "HADD post".

Maffetone says to run 5 X 1 mile repeats, all at the same HR and ideally over time you should see 2 things happen. A) your times improve and you get faster, and B) your times become more consistent, as in your first and last miles arent very far apart.

Hadd suggests running 5 X 2 mile repeats, but at varying heart rates. You start with 2 miles at 140, then 2@150, 2@160, 2@170, and end with 2@180. I like this test better because if will show you if training at a lower HR actually makes you faster at all HRs. So since Ive only been running my my HR under 150, doing this test will show me wether or not Ive gotten faster when my HR is above 150. In other words, will my strictly aerobic training make me faster anaerobically? Lets find out!

This was my 4th MAF test, so Ill show all 4 tests so you can see the results, then post some breif explainations...

Since Im doing this all on my cell phone, Im not sure how this is going to look. Hopefully it wilk make sense.


1st test. 2nd test. 3rd test. 4th test

8-24. 9-29. 11-11. 12-26

139=13:43. 135=11:40. 136=10:53. 135=10:44

147=14:03. 146=10:28. 145=9:41. 147=9:53

Skipped. 155=9:17. 157=8:09. 156=8:43

168=10:49. 167=8:01. Skipped. 168=7:40

178=8:47. Skipped. Skipped. 176=6:45

In case it doesnt look very clear, heres an explaination of what your looking at...

Theres 4 colums of 7 rows. Each column represents a MAF test. The first row is the number of MAF tests and the second row is the date it was performed on. Rows 3 through 7 show the avg HR for the each 2 mile run, and the assocociated pace per mile in minutes in order of increasing HR cap. So the 3rd row shows my runs at a 140 cap, 4th shows 150 cap, and so on and so forth till row 7 which shows the runs with a 180hr cap.

Ok, so as you can see (hopefully) I have gotten alot faster in just 4 months. On all but this last test I had to skip out on different HRs due to time constraints. Another thing you might notice is that between the 3rd and 4th MAF tests I have slowed down a little. This is because from 11-26 untill 12-15 I had ran maybe 10 miles due to injuries. This time off, plus very bad eating habits over Thanksgiving, birthday, and Christmas, led to a decrease in performance.

Another thing of interest is my pace with a 180hr cap! Before starting my Maffetone training I was running fast and hard on all my training runs, and doing speed work quite often. Since starting the Maffetone method my HR has seen numbers over 160 vey seldomly, as in maybe 5 times tops! Yet, despite all this slow running for the past 4 months, Ive managed to DROP 2:02 PER MILE!!! And if you look up at my pace with a HR cap of 170, Ive managed to drop 3:09 PER MILE here!!! All of this was done with slow running and staying under 150 BPM. Plus Ive lost about 10 pounds.

I would also be willing to bet that if I were to correct my diet, my next MAF test would yield even better results!!!

posted from Bloggeroid

Book Review "Running on Empty" by Marshall Ulrich

[Image_0]

I already know what your thinking, and yes, I actually CAN read. Although there were very few pictures, I managed to muscle my way through it.

The book was actually a surprise birthday present to me from my amazing aunt (whose been running and triathaloning (?) For as long as I can remember and has always been a HUGE inspiration to me) that she picked up while checking out the expo at her last race, the Las Vegas Rock n Roll half marathon,which just so happened to be held on my birthday! The Author, Marshall Ulrich, was there selling and autographing the books. So my Aunt took a look and chatted a while with the guy and told him about my venturing into barefoot ultra marathoning. She then bought am autographed copy, in which Mr. Ulrich had hand written me a personal note saying...

"To Chase, Good luck with your Ultras. My very best always to you. Dream it and do it.

-Marshal Ulrich"


See!

So now on to the book...

Basically Marshall Ulrich is the kind of guy that doesnt really exist except in fantasy world rumors and stories. He holds some insane amount of world records in the world of endurance, and has been "on of the first" if not "the first" for many of his great accomplishments. He has ran all the big marathons and ultra marathons and summited all 7 of the worlds tallest mountains (including Everest). Among his amazing feats are; unassisted Badwater crossing, the first ever quad Badwater crossing covering 540 miles of Death Valley non stop, Pikes Peak marathon, Leadville ultra marathon.

Anywho, the guys a total badass runner, but seems to have been a pretty shitty family man. His first wife died a horriblle death from cancer, and it was during this time he found his love for running. He had 2 unsuccessfull remarriges and then finally found the right woman for him. He has 3 kids that he admits he was never there for, and has very little of a relationship with due to owning his own buisness and rising to the top ranks of the ultra marsthoning world.

The book is focused around his attempt to break the world record for a trans-continental crossing on foot. I believe the record was set by a 28 year old who had averaged somewhere around 65 miles a day to complete it in 54 days if Im not mistaken. To secure funding he adds Charlie Engle to the run since Charlie has connections. Things between Marshall and Charlie turn south, which I saw coming as soon as Charlies name was mentioned. Everythig Ive ever read about Charlie made him come across as a complete and total ass hat, and he deffinatley lived up the that reputation in this book.

Throughout Marshalls journey he goes pretty deep about the psyche of an ultra runner, and what it takes to completely ignore your body telling you to stop. I really liked this aspect of the book. He talks about suffering, and the different levels of suffering. Of course, hes averaging somewhere around 60 miles a day, so he deffinatley understands suffering! He also discusses all of his injuries and physical ailments that he had to push through and endure in order to complete this ordeal. It would seem that running across America, from West coast to the East coast, is a little harder than Forest Gump made it appear to be...

The only thing I did not like about the book was his affixation with his current wife. Look, I love the shit out of my wife, and Im sure he loves his wife just as much, but if I wanted to read a love story I would have picked another book. Thats really what I got out of this book, that he couldnt live life without his wife by his side. Not a page went by that didnt refrence her. Serisouly... I dont doubt that his wife was very instrumental in his trans-contenintal run, but come on!

Anyway, it was a great book with lots of cool and interesting facts about ultra marathoning, both usefull and nonusefull. I would rate it around a 7.5 for a book about running.

posted from Bloggeroid

Creepy....

I cant deny him, thats for sure! Not that Id want to anyways!!!!

posted from Bloggeroid

Dirty feet? Clean them up with Orbits!

Ok, so I dont really use Orbits to clean my dirty feet, or mouth. In factz come to think of it, I dont know that Ive ever used Orbits gum to clean anything before. Hell, I dont know if Ive ever even had Orbits gum in my pocession, let alone in my mouth!

But my feet DO get dirty, REAL DIRTY!!! Especially when I go running at the track, which is where the majority of my afternoon weekday runs take place. On a high school track of my old rival teack team back in high school. I say rival, but what I really mean is that they were the one team that handed everyone their ass on a plate. They had 2 guys, cousins, that were both sub 4:10 milers. The faster of which was my age, and knocked out a 4:04 his Sophomore year in highschool. These guys were studs to say the least.

But thats not important to my story, is it?

Running barefoot usually means that your feet are going to get dirty. Running barefoot on a black hybrid rubber track means that the soles of your feet will also be black. I wonder if other color tracks will yield different colors? Anywho, after running 7 miles today on the black hybrid track mentioned above, my feet were quite black...






This happens often, as I run this track on average thrice a week. Sometimes more. Ive learned that just plain soap and water doesnt do the trick, so Ive resorted to more advanced (and dangerous!) methods to clean my dirty feet!




Meet my new friend! Its a little hand tool thingy that has a handle and a cheese grater type of thingy on the end thats used to "shave" off the outermost layer of skin.



Heres the difference it makes. This is the before picture again.



Heres the foot I used soap on. And not just any pansy type of fufu soap, this was some hard ass, take your hide off LAVA soap. Its my preference of soaps.



And heres the other, cleaner foot. I didnt use any soap on this one, just straight cheese grated it for a few seconds.



It usually does get them a little cleaner, as I usually will scrub a little longer and use some soap, but my water heater crapped out on me as usual.

Oh, I didnt explain why I said this was a dangerous method. Well, this little tool belongs to my wife, and she wasnt aware that I was using it up untill she reads this. So now it becomes dangerous....

Wish me luck!

posted from Bloggeroid

My First Attempt at Shoe Molestation!!

Since going BF I have become more acutely aware of the way different shoes fit and feel. I removed all my arch supports and inserts and such first thing after I started running BF and noticed my shoes were alot more comfortable, plus it felt as if it was easier to maintain my balance in them as well.

Fast forward to a few months ago when I purchased my first pair of Adidas Sambas to wear as a nice shoe. Other than the Sambas all I wore when going out was a pair of Adidas Kanadia trail running shoes, so my wife welcomed the addition of the much nicer (and cleaner) Sambas.

Right off the bat I realized that these shoes wouldnt work. The heel to toe drop isnt very extreme, maybe 2~4mm tops, but they were super stiff. It took great effort to bend them over double by hand, and were very uncomfortable to wear while walking, standing, or even sitting. I hated the way they felt, but I did like the way they looked. So I decided to use my red neck ingenuity and see if I couldnt make these shoes a little better!

Unfortunatley I didnt think to snap some pics untill after I had the surgery underway, so we will get to those in a minute. The footbed of these shoes was some type of super hard material almost like a piece of masonite board. So using my vast array of surgical tools and devices I went to work chopping and cutting away on it.



I started with the forefoot areas by cutting the insole in half where it would contact the arch of the foot. From that I would pull up on the insole while using one of the many knif... Err.. tools to cut the glue holding it to the shoe.







When I got to the very front of the toe box I couldnt reach anything to cut, so I resorted to some forcefull yanks, tugs, cursing, and pulling untill I managed to free the insole from the toebox of the shoe.

The heel portion was very easy and didnt require any cutting. It all came out with one solid pull, leaving me with this...




Thats the cement hard insole that I was walking on. It was heavy and very dense along with being rock hard. Im pretty sure you could shatter a bullet proof window with one of these damn things!

The shoe now was very loose, flexible, and extremily comfortable. It was almost like a water shoe, but without looking goofy. The inside is a honey comb looking structure, so zero dropping them by cutting off some of the sole wouldnt work as you would be left with holes in the heels of the shoes.



The second shoe was easier because I knew what to expect going into it. When I tried to pull the toe box part out, the shoe turned inside out. This made things a whole lot easier.





All in all, it wasnt too difficult of a project, and took maybe 10~15 minutes. It was very worth it, as the shoes are super comfortable now!

posted from Bloggeroid

Fasting (like not eating...)

So on my quest to reach nice, lean 170 pounds in standard USA pounds Ive decided to employ yet another tactic. Fasting! Not like running faster, that would go against my Maffetonian beliefs (did I just create a belief system?), but not eating for set amounts of time.

I know lots of people think this is some crazy idea and that its unhealthy and Ill have severe side effects and heres starving kids in Africa that dont get food so its wrong of me not to eat mine and all that good stuff, but I dont buy it. It doesnt make sence to me that a human being, as highly "advanced" as we are (more on that in another future post) should HAVE to eat every few hours in order to not crash and burn. It doesnt seem plausible that paleo man, all super fit and healthy, had a refrigerator or pantry that he could pull food out of every 3 or 4 hours so that he would have the energy to later on stock said food storage device. It seems more plausible that there were times where paleo man (Ill refer to him as "Ugg" from now on) would go awhile without eating. More than likely Ugg didnt eat as often as most people like to think necessary in order to survive. I imagine Ugg would sometimes go a day or two between meals, maybe even longer in some extreme cases!

Now, dont get me wrong here, I dont intend to go for multiple days without food. Unlike Ugg, I dont have those situations in my life where thats necessary, plus I like food too much to abandon it for so long. No, my "plan" is to fast for roughly 18~20 hours, and eat for 4~6. How will I do this? Its simple really!

I wake up at 4:00 everyday and get to work by 6. I will drink lots of water through the day like I already do, but I wont eat any food or calories. Work ends at 3:00, then I typically go running till 4:30 or so. On the way to running I will down some V8 and a few servings of fruit. This puts me at around 12 waking hours before any caloric intake. After running I pick the kids up and fight traffic to get home. This puts me home around 5:30, which is around the same time my wife gets home. After we settle in and get dinner ready and start eating ts already 6:00~6:30 in the evening. Ill eat dinner, and then graze while we continue about our evening duties of cleaning and caring for the children, making sure to get in as many servings of fruits and veggies as I can, and finish everything around 7:30~8:00. Then its past my bed time, so I go to bed thus starting another period of fasting.

Im eating from 3:30ish till about 7:30ish which gives me 4 hours of feeding, and 20 hours of fasting.

The common thought against this is that the human body will go into "starvation mode" and will burn muscle and store fat. This is true, but only after extreme periods of fasting (read 70 something hours...) and I have no intentions of going that far. The other popular reasoning behind it is that it slows down your metabolism. This is also true, but if I reduce my caloric intake by say 25%, and my metabolism only slows down by 9%, Im still creating a deficit (side note, I dont remember the exact numbers, but it is a deficit).

For more information and scientific explainations regarding this, a good site to check out is Lean Gains for a better understanding.

Oh, at the time of this writing Im at 185.4 pounds, so Ill see how welk this works / doesnt work!

posted from Bloggeroid

My Avacado trees

I like Avacados. Well, not really... I LOVE guacamole, but as far as eating an Avacado straight I just cant seem to enjoy it. Maybe I need to try adding salt or some Tex-Joy or something like that on top to make it a little more pleasant. So knowing this, plus the fact that Avacados are great for you, I decided to try to grow my own Avacado trees. Why grow my own trees when I can just go to the grocery store and buy some you ask? Because I want to, thats why. My hopes are to get to the point where I enjoy Avacados so much I can eat them straight. Lots of Ultra runners, including my hero Patrick Sweeny fuel themselves on their long runs with Avacados since their so chock full of calories and potassium.

I took 3 Avacado pits and partially submerged them in water and placed them on my kitchen window sill untill they grew a substantial root system. Then I took the pit, roots and all, and transplanted them into some quality soil from my burning pile in the back yard.

At this point I had 2 pits that started sprouting little stalks, and one that wasnt doing much of anything. It was like that for about 2 weeks so I switched positions of 2 of them, the ones on the sides of the window (east and west) and sure enough they switched growth patterns. The whole time the one in the middle continued growing. Ive since switched the two outside ones so that their both on the east side, thinking that there isnt enough light reaching them on the west side due to the layout of my house and back yard.

Heres a few pics of them, in chronological order...









Thats the bigger of the 3, which has been placed in the middle of the window the whole time. Its grown probablly another inch to inch and a half since the last picture.

This is the smaller one, I havent taken alot of pictures of this one either.




So if your planning on growing Avacado trees, my advise is to make sure you get plenty of sunlight on them!

posted from Bloggeroid

Injury follow - up, The root cause.

I started running again on Monday. It was only 2 miles, but I could feel my calf getting a little tight again. Then Tuesday I did 3 miles, and again my calf got a little tight. So while I was running Tuesday I thought about what Dr. Gangemi had mentioned on The Barefoot Running Society's "Ask The Doc's" forum regarding my injury being caused by a trigger point somewhere else, most likely somewhere around my big toe.

A few months ago (like 10 I think?) I had raced in a 5k in my VFFs on a very VERY rough road (the same road that ate my lunch a few weeks ago on a 15 mile attempt...) and apparently had stepped on a rock or something causig bruising and some tissue damage on my right foot, just behind my big toe on the ball of my foot. This area still bothers me a little bit as its a little tender. The area feels as if the tissue there has been damaged and if I probe around on it, theres a "crunchy" kind of feel to it. If I step on it wrong theres a poping kind of thing that occurs from weight transferring over it. All in all, it doesnt feel good.

So I started researching again, and came up with some pretty good ideas of what it might be, and posted again to the "Ask The Docs" on what I thought was going on. This time Dr. Andrew Klein came to the rescue! He said I was right, but was calling it by the wrong name. He said I have "Seismoiditis" (probablly butchered the spelling...) And gave me a few suggestions as of how to help rehab the problem.

In the mean time I think running BF might futher aggrivate the injury, so I might be in the market for some type of shoe with a little bit of pading to it... yay...

The moral of the story is that its awesome that Ive gotten to the point to where I can listen to my body and notice subtle changes in the way things are happening. In this case I noticed my feet werent landing the same, and that I was not putting ad much weight on the damaged area as I thought I had been.

A huge thanks to TJ over at the BRS for assembling the "Ask The Docs" forum as its been a life saver for many of us barefoot runners.

posted from Bloggeroid

Wheres Waldo, ChaserWilliams style!!_

Believe it or not, I made the front page, of our local News paper a few months back from running in the Gusher Half Marathon. Now, Im not bragging or anything like that. I just feel like those 2 or 3 people that actually read my blog (Hi Courtney!) Would be interested in seeing it....

So here it is!!



I know, I know.... The camera was clearly out of focus. I talked to the photographer of the event and straightened it out. But did you see me? If not, this might help...



Pretty sweet huh????

Oh, I also had my own write up too! Heres a picture of it below.



See, Im like a local celebrity!!

posted from Bloggeroid

Im in!

Notice something new....? Heres a hint, ^{LOOK UP}

Thats right! Barefoot Runner Society's STOMP of approval! This means Im a certified badass!!! I think its got something to do with being too cheap to buy shoes too.... Not sure though...

In celebration, heres a pic of one of my 3 avacado trees! Enjoy!

posted from Bloggeroid

ROCKY RACCOON BOUND!!!!

WOOOOOOOOHOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!!! Just sent off my check in the mail to Tejas Trails for my entry into the 2012 Rocky Raccoon 50 mile Ultra Marathon!!!! Talk about excited! This is almost as good as that time I found that dead skunk! Hot damn!

Also, on a somewhat positive note, I ran today after a 14 day unwantwd hiatus. Only got in 2 miles before the right calf started feeling tight again... I need to find a way to work on that. Anyone know a good way to relax your "Peroneous Longus"? Maybe I should look into a quality chiropractor or maybe a good massage...


So, Im officially registered for my FIRST ultra marathon! Its the first step in my newly revised plan for 2012, but Ill save that for another post!

posted from Bloggeroid

My runners world issue..

So, since its now posted on Jim's blog I guess I should make a comment about the issue myself.

To cut to the chase (no pun intended..) I have been banned from the Runners World forums. Im not 100% sure why I was banned as I was never told I was being banned untill after I noticed my posts werent visable to other posters. So I emailed the help desk guys and one of the responded with the following message.....


Hello Chaser.

Your account has been blocked in response to several of your forums posts, which were flagged as offensive.

Kevin Knabe RunnersWorld.com



Ok, so I have been banned. Well, what have I said that someone considered offensive? Why hadnt I been made aware that there was an issue? Do I get a second chance? I didnt have answers to any of this, so I responded with the following Email...



Kevin,

Thanks for the response. Is this a temporary ban, or a permanent ban?

Thanks, Chase Williams



The reply I got was rather surprising, mainly because of who it was from.



Chase, Except in rare cases, we no longer reinstate blocked users or otherwise spend time “managing” problem cases (e.g. by sending warnings, giving “time-outs,” etc). We simply no longer have the time.

So, blocked users are blocked.

Regards, Mark



Wow! Mark Remy personally addressed the situation! So I replied with the following message.



Mark,

I appreciate you taking the time out of your day to reply to my question. It saddens me to hear the decision to make this a permanent ban as I have enjoyed my time spent on the forums discussing topics both related and unrelated to running. While I wont deny that some of my posts could have been offensive to others. I myself am very thick skinned and very seldom, if ever, get offended, so I can see how a small percentage of my posts could have been found to be offensive by other users. Althogh I have never once gone out to maliciously attack another user and feel that the vast majority of my posts have been both helpfull and benificial to the small group of regular posters on the Barefoot forum, along with all the newcomers as well. I offer encouragement to others and advice to the runners who are just starting out Barefoot in hopes that they can continue to run in a healthy manner without getting injured.

Regarding the few questionable posts that have been flagged as offensive, Im not aware of the qualtity involved but it seems that with almost 3800 posts in just a little over a years time it must be a relatively small percentage for the ban to have just occured. I also believe I could have made better judgment calls regarding my posted material in these few situations.

Having been a moderator on an internet forum in the past I realize that its not easy to please everyone and that many banishments are well deserved and please the vast majority of the members inside the community. On the other hand some decisions are somewhat frowned upon by the majority, and good people are lost amidst the day to day happenings and the vast majority loose out on good insight and input into conversations that they care enough about to partake in, and in most cases start. Im sure that you, as an author, blogger, and writer, have seen your fair share of such situations and can understand where Im coming from with this. Based off the reactions Ive seen in the Barefoot forum (my former "home away from home") I think that just might be the case here.

If your still reading this, then thank you for hearing me out!

P.S. Ill often find myself refering to myself in omnipotent 3rd party as well. Its very strange...

Thanks, Chase Williams


Im still (almost 3 weeks later) waiting for a reply...

It seems, based off a few threads from RW's barefoot forum, that there are quite a few people that arent very happy / in agreance with this decision. Yet RW doesnt seem to care too much about the majority that enjoyed my input, but more about the small minority that found me "offensive". I cant act too surprised though, it seems that their just following in the foot steps of our goverment. The idea of "no one offended" doesnt work because it infringes on everyones freedom of speech, which offends me!

All in all, it isnt a "bad" thing. Ive moved over to the Barefoot Running Societywhich is THE most Premire Barefoot Running forum in existance. Currently the site is a little jumbled, and a tad bit difficult to navigate, but it wont be that way for long as they are about to switch over to a different template / host / setup (whatever its called) that is SOOOOO much smoother and easier to navigate than either RW or the current BRS.

So, if your a barefoot / minimalist runner, or you want to be, come check us out at the Barefoot Running Society!

posted from Bloggeroid

Day 13, Feeling weak...

My last run was 14 days ago today. I havent ran in 13 days. I feel fat and weak and sick. Its amazing how much of an effect that running has on a persons psyche.

After graduating from highschool, where I ran year round for track, cross country, and for fun, I slacked way off in the running department. I had went from weighing 155 pounds Christmad my senior year of highschool to weighing 225 pounds Christmad my freshmen year of college. Now granted I had gained most all of my weight in solid muscle as I still had very defined Abs and a no fatty "pooch" or love handles. I was hitting the gym almost every day for 3~4 hours a day, and getting great results. I still ran a little here and there. When I got up to bench pressing 350 pounds I decided to time myself in a flat out mile and see where I was. My last timed mile had been around 4:45 or so, so I was expecting to be alot slower than I had been. 5:01 was my time. So I was keepig a decent running base.

After that real life kicked in. I had a real job to attend to, I was engaged to the most beautiful woman in the world, and we were (and still are...) trying to remodel our home. There wasnt much time for running or the gym. After getting married I moved to anothet job that required a whole lot more time, and didnt involve any physical activity. Then we started having kids, which as anyone who has any knows take up a whole bunch of time. Yet, although life was great in every way, I still felt like something was missing within myself amd swore that one day I would start running again.

Finally, after 7 years I got to a point to where I had time to start running again. 2 or 3 mornings a week I would lace up my expensive Addidas running shoes and run 1~3 miles before work. This was great! Except for the small fact that I could only run for a month or two before an injury would bring me down for a month. This went in for about 10 months and in the end the fastest mile I had recorded was a 7:37... Total upset.

Then I read about Minimalist and Barefoot running and decided to give it a try. Instantly I knew it was right for me! I was running 5 to 6 times a week and feeling GREAT!!! Life outside of running was going great as well. I had 2 beautiful children and an amazing wife who, although thinks Ive become even crazier than I was before along with becoming a healthy hippy nut case, supports and stands behind me in my running goals. Things were good!

So here I sit typing this on what is the 27th anniversary of my birth into this world (the term "birthday" bugs me, as Ive only been born on one day, not 27 days...) feeling somewhat bummed. I had a goal of running 27 miles today in celebration of the event, but due to this numb foot issue thats been postponed...

I know that this injury will pass and Ill go on running and it will become a distant memory and a valuable lesson, but it sucks in the mean time!

posted from Bloggeroid

Great... Just great...

Well after having an awesome weekend with successful back to back 20 mile runs, Im now injured...

My right calf was feeling abnormally tight again, so I decided to ice and massage it on Thursday (Thanksgiving) afternoon. Aftet icing it for 20~30 minutes I removed the ice and started massaging out the troubled area in my calf. The ice had left my calf and the outside of my foot / ankle numb and tingly. The numbness left my calf within 10 minutes or so, but the foot and ankle stayed numb....

Here I am, 7 full days later, with a foot that is still numb. I went and saw a Dr on Monday to see what was going on, and she was clueless. She said she thought it might be due to some inflamed muscles pinching a nerve, gave me a steroid shot and some anti-inflamatory pills and said to come back in a week or so and if the foot is still numb they would do some type of nerve map contact test thingy. The steroid shot helped some and I regained a little feeling, but not much...

So I posted on the BRS in the "Ask the Doc" forum about my issue and a user by the name of "Dr. Gangemi" replied that it sounded like I had strained my Peroneous Longus" and that it was inflamed, that combined with icing led to the nerve being pinched, and thus the numbness. He also said it sounded like I had an imbalance somewhere causing the strain on this particular muscle and suggested a few things it might be.

WOW! Dr. Gangemi is a wizard or something. After looking at some diagrams of the foot and lower leg muscles it appears that he was dead on the money. Unfortunatley he never gave any reccomendations as to how to rehabilitate the injury, but did give some good workouts to help strengthen the problematic areas.

Meanwhile, my foot is still numb and I havent ran in 8 days... I feel like Im loosing my mind!!!!! IM GOING #*@%!NG CRAZY!!!!!

If things dont start looking better pretty soon then it looks like Ill have to scrap my Rocky Raccoon plans... I still have 2 months. But Ill have to register here pretty soon....

So, my fingers are crossed, and my foot is numb.

posted from Bloggeroid