T minus 34 hours....

Holy rusted metal Batman, Rocky Raccoon is less than one and a half days away... Am I ready? What have I gotten myself into? Can I double my longest run to date, even though it was ran months ago? Will the fact that the past 2 months have been total flops in term of running hold me down? What if the course isn't as barefoot friendly as im thinking HOPING it is? What if I need to poop, and I'm nowhere near a bathroom?



Do I have this kind of determination? What if Mr Rocky Raccoon laughs at me?



I can't handle that type of degradation. What if he attacks me in the car on the way up there?



I would probablly end up pooping my pants before the race even started if that happened...

But what if, by some strange chance, this race is my guiding light. My beacon, calling me to the ways of the Ultra Marathon. What if this race its my hero?



... Yeah, probablly not... I'm sure it will be more liken to the following picture.



Yep, screwin the pooch....

Ill admit, I have been a little nervous about this race the past few days. I have only one goal, and that is...

FINISH.... AND DON'T DIE!

In order to prepare I've made a few purchases, and prepared a few things...

For starters, we bought a nice tent. We even camped out in it one night!



Im using the little schwag bag from the Hermann Memorial Sugarland Half Marathon (which is about a 4th the distance of this race...) as my drop bag.



And ive amassed a nice quantity of Honey Chia waters. 8 of them to be exact!



And my lovely wife picked up 3 large bags of Almond M&Ms (i didn't know these even existed until just a few days ago!) Thanks baby! Your the greatest!



I also hit up Academy after work today to see what I could find in the way of a replacement for my Spi Belt that has gone MIA. I lucked out and found this gem!



Another Spi Belt! Oh happy day! The sun had peeked out from behind the rain drenched clouds and shone itself upon me. I also picked up some "Body Glide".



I've never used Body Glide before, but I figure it can't hurt! Hopefully I can convince my awesome wifey to help me apply it before the race! Thats true love when your partner will apply Body Glide to your nether regions before your big race!

This will probablly be my last post before the race. It might also be my last post ever, as I might not make it through.

So, heres to you Rocky Raccoon! I'm going to make you my bitch Saturday!*

*I'm about 99.9% sure I'll be eating those words come Sunday when I wake up in the medic tent bleeding from multiple orifices

posted from Bloggeroid

Well... It started out great!

I decided that for today's (Saturday) run I would just take off from my sons soccer game and run home. Easy little 15 or so mile run, should be no problem! WRONG!!!!! I forgot how shitty the roads in my hometown have become thanks to the city's bright idea to cover everything with what has to be the worlds worst version of chip seal. So heres a quick recap of the run, with pictures!!!

I actually started off at my wifes gym (Exygon) in Beaumont and headed through a few little roads following your average grade sidewalk heading to one of the major roads in town thats got massive sholders, oddly enough this major road is actually named Major Dr.



At this point in my run I realized just how far my feet had come in the last year. Last December I had my first double digit BF run on part of this road and remember thinking that the little rain / traction grooves were absolute torture. This year they werent anything! I couldnt even tell they were there! Good thing too as I ran on them form mile 1.25 to around mile
5...



After Major Dr. I hooked a right on Hwy 105 for a quarter mile or so then turned onto RFD Rd. This is a little cut through road from 105 to Hwy 69. I like this road cause theres a bunch of live oaks (My favorite non-fruit bearing tree) and very little traffic, plus its a really smooth asphalt surface, which seems to be my favorite running surface so far!



After this I stayed on the feeder road of Hwy 69 which was, of course, lovely asphalt. Up untill this point I was chugging along at a nice easy 11:20ish pace, just enjoying the beautiful day. I checked my watch and to my amazement I was running around 9:45... Not sure how or why this happened, but it felt good so I just went with it.

Then I got up on the Hwy so I could cross Pine Island Bayou via the bridge. The road itself is a very smooth, worn down asphalt, but the sholders leading up to and away from the bridge were very rough looking cracked and uneven cement. I was blown away at how quickly my feet would adapt to it. I stepped on it and was worried about how rough it was, but within 2 steps it felt just as good as the smoothened asphalt on the road. Leonardo Divinci wasnt joking when he said that the human foot is amazing!



Then I got back on the feeder road of Hwy 69, but this time I was not only in a new city, but I was also in a different county, so the roads were what I rememberes to be killer chip seal from my last run on them, which had been back when I was first starting to run BF. Turns out my feet have came along so far since then that not only was this surface no big deal, but I was able to keep up a sub 10:00 pace for all of it without sky rocketing my HR (which was capped at 150 per the Maffetone method mentioned in a prior post) so I was shocked!



Then I came to the killer. Old Silsbee Hwy.... About 2 years ago the County / city decided to take this perfectly fine white asphalt road and cover it with the nastiest, roughest, shittyest chip seal imaginable... Unfortunatley this is the road I live on. Needleas to say, 1 year was had not been long enough training for me to tackle this beast yet. I tried, but only made it 100 yards or so before crossing a field to hop on the sholder of Hwy 96 (Hwy 69 splits in Lumberton to become Hwy 69 and Hwy 96, very confusing at times...)



but the county / city had just covered the lanes with the same devilish chip seal that also.covered Old Silsbee Hwy (Thanks...), but left the sholders covered with tar, which just grabbed the loose rocks that came off the lanes during the paving process. So the sholders were even worse cause there wasnt even the half ass eveness that was on the rest of the road, just 1/4" rocks spaced every 4~5 inches apart. Just far enough so that they REALLY hurt like the dickens when stepped on... Unfortunatley I was in too much pain, and too pissed off that I couldnt run in my own hometown to take pictures of this treason towards all Barefootery. If thats not already a word, I get credit for inventing it, much like President Bush and "strategery", which is an awesome word!!!


Oh, I also started the run in shorts, a long sleeve undershirt, and a T shirt, but as it warmed up I took the under shirt off and wore just the T shirt. After a mile or so I got tired of carrying the long sleeve shirt in my hands, so I threw the shirt part over my back and tied the arms around my neck. I like to think that I came across to the average passer-by as a Barefoot super hero, much like the "Maple Grove Barefoot Guy", but Im pretty sure I just looked like a looser. Oh well, good thing Im used to it!

posted from Bloggeroid

One year down!

First off, before I even start, I want to send a HUGE Thank You to my wonderfull, amazing, beautiful wife for not only putting up with my ass, but for supporting me as well! Thanks honey, I couldnt have made it here without your support!


Well, today, October the 14th, I celebrate as my one year anniversary of running Barefoot! Thats right! A year ago today I ditched the shoes and rid myself of all types of aches and pains such as;

-Cronic Shin Splints!
I had been trying to get back into running again in 2010 since I finally had a job that would allow it. Unfortunatley I only ran for about 5 out of 10 months due to shin splints. They were so.bad that I would take a month off at a time with constant icing, stretching, and massaging and yet as soon as I ran again they would come right back. I finally went and saw a Dr and he just told me the usual bullshit of "take a month off and these anti inflamatory pills, then start back slowly..." Needless to say, that didnt help matters any.

-Constant lower back pain.
I felt like I was always suffering from a pinched nerve in my lower back. Like I had lifted something the wrong way or something and whenever I would bend over I would get these sharp stabbing pains in my lower back approximatley where my love handles are.

-Stiff ankles
My ankles always felt stiff in the mornings. It would hurt to walk for a few minutes untill they loosened up some.

-Fatigue.
I would only run 2~3 miles per run, but I always felt tired afterwards. It would take me an hour or two before I felt "recovered" from my runs.

-Ingrown Toenails.
I suffered from CONSTANT ingrown toenails. Both big toes and on occasion on my little toes as well. Since going BF Ive only had one ingrown toenail, and that was from running in my Vibrams, which isnt running barefoot.


Now thats all behind me!!! I can run without feeling any discomfort, and I can also go about the rest of my day feeling fine with no aches or pains!

Ive been through several stages and tried a few different training methods. Ive ran fast and hard for all my training runs, Ive been a vegatarian, Ive used compression sleeves, eaten while running, ran while fasted, done speed work, and now Im using a lot of these things in conjunction with the Maffetone method of running slow (and I like it the best so far!).

Ive ran on Asphalt, grass, dirt, cement, chip seal, concrete, crushed lime stone, synthetic tracks, brick roads, side walks, country roads, trails, and sand. Ive stepped on amd in a large assortment of dead animals. Ive also ran through large areas that were covered in broken glass. Yet Ive never seen any hypodermic needles....

So heres my PR's for my first full year of BFR. Keep in mind I only ever really "trained" for a half marathon...
Mile - 6:23
5k - 20:42
Half Marathon - 1:42:37

Ive only ran 1 5k race and 4 half marathons. In my next year I hope to drop all 3 of those times along with adding a PR for a 50 Mile for sure, and hopefully a few other distances as well!

Oh, my total mileage for my first year is 743.89 WONDERFULL miles. I feel like I have fallen in love with running all over again and I very seldomly ever have a bad run anymore.

So heres to a great first year!!! I hope for many many more!!!

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The Maffetone Method!

There are a lot of different thought processes in the running world on how to become a faster and more efficient runner. One of the more commonly accepted is the "No pain, No gain" philosophy, which really just says you have to run hard and fast during your training in order to run fast in a race. I havent found this to be entirely true...

When I started running barefoot I was doing short runs at very slow speeds at first, steadily building onto my distances little by little but never doing any type of speed work. I was very surprised when I timed my first "fast" BF mile at 6:37. The best I had managed the year before running shod was a 7:14, and I was dead afterwards. Here I was now, almost 45 seconds FASTER without any proper "training" do get this result.

Fastforward a few months and Im running half marathons on no speed work, just easy runs, and I managed to run a 1:42 as a PR. Then I had a few months breal untill my next half marathon, so I started focusing on speed work, thinking it would be the key to get me into the 1:30's. Turns out it wasnt and I had the worst race of my life and had to walk a few times and finished with a 1:54 (my second slowest half marathon). So in search of an answer I came upon the discussion of the Maffetone Method on the Runners World Barefoot forum and became very intrigued. So I ordered the book online and am still in the process of reading it.

Maffetone suggests looking at training from a holistic approach in that one should be concerned formost on ones health, and not their physical fitness. In such he suggests a healthy diet, reducing stresses on oneself, and a good training regimen. His key thing on training is building an aerobic base, which is what I am currently in the process of attempting to do, and so far I am very pleased with the results!

Im order to build this base you have to run under your aerobic threshold, which is based on the heart rate at which your body stops burning stored fats for energy and starts burning eaten sugars instead. Maffetone has developed a formula for determining what your aerobic threshold HR is, mine is 152 but I keep it under 150 for all of my runs.

Theres a few ways to measure your progress while using the Maffetone method. The most obvious is to monitor your HR and how it corresponds with your pace. When I first started my pace at an avg HR of 150 for a 5 mile run was a little under 15 minutes per mile, with miles 4 and 5 closer to the mid 16's. To put this anoher way, it took me 1 hour and 14 minutes to run 5.5 miles, with several walk breaks because my HR would start climbing too high to continue running. Now Im running closer to 10:00~10:30 per mile pace for most of my runs.

The other way to check your progress is through a MAF test, which stands for Maximum Aerobic Function test. The way Maffetone suggests this test is by running 5 - 1 mile repeats at the same HR and the longer you train at this method you should notice 2 things start to change. The first is that your miles will get faster as your aerobic speed increases, but also your mile times in each session will get closer and closer as your aerobic conditioning improves.

I did a slightly different version thats reccomended by Hadd in the famous Hadd post. In this version you run 5 - 2 mile repeats at varying HRs. I have done this test twice and have seen pretty amazing results, which are listed below...

First Test

2 miles @ 139 avg HR = 27:26 (13:43 avg pace)
2 miles @ 147 avg HR = 28:06 (14:03 avg pace) not sure why I got slower here...?
2 miles @ 168 avg HR = 21:41 (10:49 avg pace)
2 miles @ 178 avg HR = 17:26 (8:43 avg pace)

I was running out of time, so I skipped the 160 HR cap run.

Second Test.

2 miles @ 135 avg HR = 23:21 (11:40 avg pace) 1:55 faster per mile
2 miles @ 146 avg HR = 20:56 (10:28 avg pace) 3:40 faster per mile
2 miles @ 155 avg HR = 18:33 (9:17 avg pace) no previous data to compare against... grrr....
2 miles @ 167 avg HR = 16:02 (8:01 avg pace) 2:48 faster per mile

Ran out of time (got kicked off the track) before I could attempt running 2 with a 180 HR cap, but I imagine it would have been quite a good bit faster than the previous tests results.

These tests were conducted roughly a month apart, one when I first started this method, and the second one about a month later. So in just a month Ive gotten around 2~3 minutes faster per mile at the same HR with no speed work type training.

Guess you could say that Im sold!

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Hottest Half race report, 8-14-11

So everyone has their good races and their bad races. Today was a BAD race for me.

With a name like "The Hottest Half" and my love of punishment one would imagine that this would be a great race for me. WRONG!!!! To start with, it was in the upper 80's and maybe lower 90's during the race, it started at 7:30 so the sun wasnt beaming down on the course, there was actually a little light breeze, and the course was a nice smooth barefoot friendly cement pathway with a few gentle elevation changes. So conditions were perfect for me to set a good PR around 1:35 or so....

Before the race I met up with 2 fellow barefoot runners from the Runners World barefoot forum (TalonRaid and Pilot Runner) which are the other 2 goons in the pics with me (Im the one in blue, Talon in grey, and Pilot in red) and we hung out for a few minutes before the start of the race.

As usual I mosey'd on up the the back of the pack at the starting line just as the gun went off. So after a minute or so I make it to the starting line, hit start on the Garmin, and take off only to apply the brakes. The first mile to mile and a half were just a huge conglomerate clusterfuck of people running all different paces and directions. Since its a public park there were cyclist and runners out and about coming the opposite direction of the race traffic, most were courteous and friendly,but I almost caught my left elbow on some fat bitches handle bars.

After fighting my way through the throng of people I tried to pick the pace up some and came across the first 5k mark around 22:30ish, which is where I wanted to be. I wanted to hold as close to a 7 minute mile pace, so I was doing good. The course ran on a cement path around some lake, which made for a pretty course with a little breeze coming off the water. There were a few bridges that were either worn down wooden planks, or cement suspension type bridge which would bounce up and down and totally throw you off as well as make you trip out because you couldnt visually see the movement, just feel the bridge either dip down or rise up and slam into your feet unexpectedly. Running around this lake also made for some quality scents, like dead fish, through some parts of the course. Somewhere around mile 5.25 the first place guy came flying past on his way back in (he finished in 1:07:54 gun time, WOW!!!) And at about this time I started to hit the wall. No biggie, I thought, second wind will kick in here in a few minutes and Ill be good to go. WRONG! I made it to the 6 mile water table and grabbed some water for the first time and ended up snorting half of the cup up my nose. So I stopped running to try to avoid drowning mid run (funny, "man drowns in biggest drought in history" sounds like a good headline) and I found that I couldnt make myself start running again, so I walked for the first time ever in a race. I only walked for about 50 feet then took back off hoping that it would be enough to feel revived. Wrong yet again....

I made it to the turnaround point and the guy working there said I was the first barefoot runner he had seen yet! Great, I get to be the example everyone sees first! Sorry fellow BFRs for giving you a bad reputation. I dont remember my exact time at the turn around, but I do remember thinking I was behind and that a PR probablly was not in the works. On the return leg I see another BFR a good ways behind me, some little Asian guy, no clue who he was. Then I saw David Repp sportin some fancy lookin huaraches, and PilotRunner lookin like a stud. Shortly after that, around mile 9 I had to stop and walk again. I tried to keep it short and sweet, so after a hundred feet or so I take off. At this point I see TalonRaid, so we cheer for each other as we pass, and after a little bit Im back walking again and wondering if Ill be able to finish. I just felt like I had no energy left in me to burn, but after walking for a quarter mile or so I started mile 10 at a 9:30 pace determined to run the rest of the race and finish under 1:57 since thats what I ran my first half marathon in.

The last 3.1 miles sucked! I was suffering through alot of mental anguish from having to walk, and now I was struggling to keep a 9:15 pace for 3 measley miles. Needless to say, it wasnt a pretty place inside my head at this point. I rounded the last corner and saw the finish chute up ahead and heard my wife yell my name. Apparently I gave her a bad look based off her reaction, lol. I hit the stop button on the Garmin as the announcer calls my name and I step on the timing mat, but dont lool at it at first cause Im sure it will just make things worse. I see a bunch of kids handing out cups of water, so I go and down about 10 of them all while feeling like Im going to fall flat on my face, which would have been perfectly fine at the time since it felt like I was floating in the air about 3 feet off the ground and spinning around like crazy as if I was in one of those gyroscope rides at a carnival. My wife finally makes it over to me and asks what my time was, so I finally look at my Garmin as I go to show her what it says. 1:54:49... Well, not my worst, but still very dissapointing. So we walk over to the free stuff tents and some girl hands me a chochlate Muscle Milk. I drank half and remembered that I hate those things so I threw it away and went off in search of water. We find little kiddy pools full of the little 8 oz bottles of Ozarka. I bent over to grab 2 of then and when I stood up everything was much brighter than I had remembered it being. I opened a bottle, closed my eyes, and downed it. When I opened my eyes I was facing the ground, which was a strange mixture of floating silver sparkles and bright yellows and oranges. Thats strange... Another bottle chugged, more silver specks and brighter yellows, but oddly enough duller oranges. Not sure exactly what was going on I decided to just keep walking to the car. After what felt like 15 minutes of staggering around I am finally sitting in the passenger seat of the car with the AC blowing full blast and heading back to the hotel to shower and change before hitting up good old IHOP!!!

So Im not 100% certain of the direct cause of my poor performance, but heres a few ideas of what I think could have caused it....

Firstly, and I think this is probablly 90% of what went wrong. Nutrition. The night before I had some shitty fast food burger and fries and a bunch of water. Then for brekky I had a bananna and some more water. I dont think I had any fuel for the fire and thats why I bombed so early.

Secondly, Ive taken the last 3 weeks off from any real training. Where Ive been averaging 25~30 miles per week I maybe ran 30 in the past 3 weeks combined. I felt like I had the speed in my legs as the first 4 or 5 miles felt fine at just a hair over 7 minutes per mile.


So what lessons I learned from this experience.

1) Nutrition, nutrition, nutrition!!!! I need better meals the day before and the morning of the race. Ive heard many times that input = output, so if Im using shitty fuel then Ill have shitty performance.

2) 3 weeks for a taper is waaay too long. I usually do a week of taperage, and maybe 2 weeks would work well too, but 3 weeks is not going to cut it.

3) Hydration. After the race I had orange piss. That is not a good thing since all I had drank was water. I need to learn how to drink on the run without drowning myself....

I had planned on this being my last race for the year, but I cant end the year like this, so Ill do the last race of the 4 seasons of texas which will be in the fall. Hopefully it goes better for me!!

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My moral dilemma...

In January 2012 were planning on taking a family vacation to the oh so coveted "Disney World" in Florida. It will be myself, my wife, and our 2 children (ages then will be 2 years and almost 4 years) and while were there Im debating on running the Mickey marathon, or possiblly even the Goofy challenge (both full and half in the same weekend), but I have stumbled upon a moral dilemma with my hard earned (sorta...) money going to a Disney sponsored event...

Walt Disney was supposedly a wicked individual who was very sadiatic and full of hate. There are millions of rumors that circulate throughout the internet regarding this man and his evil ways. He was known to be anti-semetic (hated jewish people), supposedly he worshiped satan, his signature bears the letters "666" in it, he drank the blood of murdered pregnat women, burned down orphanages, had cities built underground at Disney world where he held children captive and tourtures them and bottles their tears to drink with his waffles in the mornings, and supposedly cryogenically froze his body so that at a later date he could be revives and have his collapsed lung replaced at a time when technology could warrant such a procedure. Theres rumor that he went to Cuba, captured Elian Gonzalez, brought him home, and now he is a skeleton in the "Pirates of the Carribean" display. He was also a major supporter of homosexuality and was a secret undercover agent for the goverment and responsible for over 16 known foreign asassinations.... His cartoons depicted preists with boners, showed nude women in the backgrounds, and suggested that kids take off their clothes. One cartoon even had a massive golden phallus (penis) on the front cover!!!! This was on a kids cartoon none the less...

I try my best to ignore rumors, so these aren't the cause of my dilemma...

Every ad I see for a Disney sponsored run features a "runner" in full stride, with their lead leg way out in front of them, knee locked so their leg is straight, toes pointed to the sky, and coming down right smack dab on their heel. Grade A example of a classic overstrider. This leada to major injuries and issues and is in no way what so ever the proper way to run. Honestly, how can they put out an image like this and sleep at night?

So Saturday I went for a nice 13 miler early in the morning so as to avoid burning the soles of my feet off and I made several keen observations during my run. I drove down to the far end of my new favorite running road (FM 421) and parked my truck. I started off at about 5:55 and headed back the 13 miles to town. 421 is a back road thats PERFECT for barefoot running, its 2 lane with a good sized sholder, slight rolling hills, some good sweeping curves, lots of farm land type scenery, and the biggest plus is that its very seldomly traveled. Its the perfect road to haul ass down in a sports car or motorcycle. Being that the road is really in the middle of nowhere, I get to enjoy the wildlife that runs rampant in the area. On this particular run I saw a few deet and was accompanied by 2 little stray puppies for a few miles.

Anyways, it was a great run and heres a few interesting discoveries I made that I thought might be of value or interest to others...

1) Since Ive started running barefoot Ive noticed a trend forming where I have an uncanny ability to unintentionally step in dead animals. It seems that the smaller the animal, the more likely I am to feel its carcass fill up the spaces between my toes. In the case of this run it seemed that small squashed toads were my foot cushion of choice. I have a pretty in depth theory and explination on this subject that I will discuss more thoroughly in the future via a seperate entry.

2) Horses give me the strangest looks when I run by them. Ive gotten plenty of strange looks in my lifetime, but these take the cake! I always talk to them after staring back for a few minutes. Ill usually try to come up with something a little edgy and original with a slight aftertaste of disrespect like "Why the long face?". But it usually backfires into something more along the lines of "I bet your staring at me cause you want a horsey back ride, well not today pancho!" then I realize it is I who is supposed to ride the horse, so I try to recounter my previous statement with "I mean, you wish I was on your back, cause then it would be you doing the work and me looking at you doing the work and laughing to myself.." and at this point Im talking to myself because Ive already passed the horses, so I feel like a bigger fool... Damn horses and their mind games...

3) Goats, Cows, Sheep, and Rams dont seem to give 2 shits about me. While horses show vauge interest, sort of like when you see a cactus outside of a mexican resturant although cacti (is that right?) arent native to your area. But cows and other farmland animals (with the exception of bird-esque animals like roosters amd ducks) dont even take notice of me. It was suggested that I start carrying a pitchfork and bar-b-que sauce with me on my long runs, but none of these animals have opposable thumbs, so I dont see how these items would spark interest either. I guess they know Im of no danger to them because A) their not dead, so Im not going to step on them or B) Im not currently eating meat. Either way they need to realize that I am an attention whore and I demand some attention!!!

3) I forgot #3...

4) Snakes are awesome! I knew this waaaaaaay before I even started running, but I saw a little copper head crossing the road and it reminded me of their sheer awesomeness! Id like to imagine that he was trying desperatley to flee from the oncoming awesomeness that is myself, but Im sure he was just trying to cross the road before it became too hot. Oddly enough I was doing the same thing, so I guess in a way the snake and myself are like one mystical being on a path through life destined to cross roads when cool.

5) Dogs make the best running buddies. They dont complain when I fart, blow snot rockets, sing off key, tell them to slow down cause I cant keep up, and they dont require conversation. I havent ran with a dog in a long long time, but I do miss it. My last running dogs name was "Newton" and his back right hip was bad, so he couldnt put pressure on his back right leg. To conpensate for this he would hop on his back left leg and pull himself forward with his 2 front legs. He was an awesome dog and was right by my side no matter how fast or long I was running for.

6) If I got into a place where I doubted myself or felt like stopping or started feeling "off" in any way, taking off in a sprint or any increased pace for 100-400 meters would bring me right out of it in a snap. Even picking up the pace slightly for a mile or so would help out alot. Not sure if it was the increased adrendaline or what, but it worked nicely!

8) I think of the strangest shit when Im out on long runs. The most pointless, unimportant, rediculous thoughts come to mind. Really, how important is it for me to figure out how to breed giraffes down to a max heigth of 5'5"? Please dont mistake this for those retarted Direct TV ads with the supposed "Minature Lap Giraffes" that really dont exist, and would be pointless if they did. This is the real deal here! Genuine household sized giraffes. Another pointless thought, what would you see if you made your way inside a perfect sphere made of a mirrored surface? I would bet that your life would seem dull after that, kind of like how regular ice cream tastes after youve had Blue Bell.... Nothing really lives up after that ya know? I really think it would ruin a person. That said, what would happen if you set a red laser light inside of this life destroying sphere and turned it on? Would it open a portal to another world where people are born with shoes on their feet and teeth on their fingers? I sure as hell DONT want to find that out...



These are all just small examples of how my typical long runs go. I actually wore my "SPI Belt" on this run since I had to carry my phone to call the wifey, so I plan on writing my first product review over the "SPI Belt" as I was actually quite pleased with its performance!!

The False ideas about barefoot running.

As a member of the Barefoot Running board on the Runners World forums I get the honor of helping direct runners new to barefoot running, minimalist running, and running in general. There seem to be lots of misconceptions regarding barefoot running, so hopefully I can help to clear some of these nonsensicle notions for those of you who are interested in coverting to barefoot running or have never ran before period.

False thought #1
Modern surfaces (Ie concrete, cement, asphalt, ect...) arent natural and are too hard to run on barefoot, so I should start on grass or dirt.

Truth
The harder surfaces are ideal for learning how to run barefoot.

The whole concept / reason for running barefoot is to A) improve form and B) strengthen unused muscles in the feet and lower legs. So for this misconception we will focus on the form perspective.

Running in conventional marshmallow overly cushioned running shoes allows the use of poor form. The extra padding absorbs impact and kills the feedback that your body needs in order to react accordingly. This allows you to reach out way in front of your center of gravity with your legs and land on your heels with your legs typically straight. This has several negative side effects. Lots of the impact forces generated by landing infront of your center of gravity and sent through your body, this is primarially felt in the joints. Hence why lots of people dont enjoy runnig because its too "jarring" and hurts their joints. This also halts your momentum and slows you down, thus killing your effenciency and causing you to tire out quicker.

Running on grass, dirt, sand, or any other soft and forgiving surfaces allow you to mimic the same actions mentioned above. These surfaces allow sloppy form and dont really do anything to improve your form, so its somewhat pointless.

Now if you were to remove these cushionings from under your feet and continue running in this manner it would hurt and you wouldnt make it more than 5 or 6 strides before you started to make corrections. This is why hard surfaces are best to start on, they do not allow for sloppy form. When you have to rely on your bodys natural ability to absorb impact your body will start to make the necessary adjustments almost instantly without you even noticing. Your feet will make contact with the ground either directly under your center of gravity, or just a tad bit ahead of it so your not working against yourself by creating a braking effect. Your knees will bend them selves a little so that the impact generated is absorbed via muscles like the quads and calves instead of your joints. Your shorter stride will result in an increased cadence to maintain your speed. And you wont be landing directly on your heels anymore. Instead it should be a more midfoot to forefoot landing to allow your calves and achillies to absord the impact.

So the truth is that soft surfaces will hide faults. When learning how to run Barefoot, the harder surfaces will give you honest feedback.

Falsity #2)
The ground is covered in glass shards, nails, bits if sharp metal, poop, rocks, and hypodermic needles. Im sure to step on something and cut my foot wide open and bleed to death, or at least surely get a bad infection and / or virus.

Truth)
Yes. This stuff is out there, no denying that. Luckily your just barefoot, not blind.... Over the last 8 months of my barefootedness Ive never cut my foot open, and Ive only seen 2 cases where someone has.

I will admit that I have stepped in some gross things. The worst of which was a freshly ran over Opossum. I stepped right smack dab in the brains. I imagine if I ever step in a bowl of warm jello it would be very similiar. Ive also stepped in lots of poopy of various type, mainly bird poop. Yet Im still here!

Falsity #3)
Your feet will become nothing but a giant calluses.

Truth)
Not so. When I used to run shod my feet were giant calluses, now their nice and smooth and leathery, much like the palms of my hands but thicker. There is a slight amount of abrasion and friction that tale place while running bare, and that removes most of the dead skin cells and builds up the plantar skin. Think of each step as a minature pedicure!

Falsity #4)
I need to slowly transition from my conventional marshmallow running shoes, to a reduced running shoe, then to a minimalist shoe, then finally barefoot.

Truth)
You dont have to.

You can do this if you like, theres nothing "wrong" with it. Its just sort of pointless and costly. If you want to run barefoot, then you dont need shoes. Hence it being called "Barefoot".

Falsity #5)
Man hasnt evolved to run barefoot.

Truth)
What? Really? So the thousands upon thousands of years before shoes man never once ran anywhere? It wasnt untill the invention of shoes that man realized he could move faster than a walk? Really? This idea boggles my mind. How can the last 40 years of marshmallow shoes erase the thousands of years of evolution before it? And if man wasnt intended to run barefoot, then how can myself and hundreds of other people do it every day with no issues?


Hopefully this has cleared up some confusion for someone out there. I plan to add to this as more comes to mind.

The beginnings.

Hello,

First off, if your reading this, then thank you. I mean that. Thank you even more if you continue reading to the end...

A little about myself. Im currently 26 years of age, have been married to the most wonderfull woman in the entire world for 5 years, and have had 2 awesome offspring with her. My family really is my life, everything else is just filler. I spend most of my time in a chemical plant working and inhaling toxic fumes, which could explain a whole lot of things. My hobbies include running, cycling, swimming, and automobiles but running takes up 99% of my hobby time. As with every other runner thats currently taking up blogging, I run barefoot. This leads into my first official blogging rant...

Barefoot running is a form of minimalist running, but minimalist running is not necessarily barefoot. It really irks me when people say their barefoot runners, but their feet have never made contact with any surface outside of a shoe. If you have anything on your feet, your are NOT barefoot, you are shod. Some shoe companies have taken advantage of the barefoot phenomenom and labled their shoes as "Barefoot Shoes" which is an oxymoron in itself. Granted these shoes might be a great product, but they are shoes and not being barefoot.

These are known as "Minimalist Shoes" and I personally think its great that the industry is heading in the right direction and away from the conventional built up, overly cushioned, non flexible foot coffins that have been in production for the last 40 or so years. I currently own 1 pair of minimalist shoes and their the Vibram Five Finger "KSO". I hope to add onto my collection of minimalist shoes as its starting to get very very VERY hot here in southeast Texas (Greatest state in the world!) and the roads are too hot to run barefoot on with out burning, scorching, and blistering .

Thus is one of my intentions with this blog. A) Spread the good word of Minimalist and Barefoot running, and B) Become a swag ninja and give good honest reviews of the products Ive tested for others to read and evaluate for them selves.