Road to Nowhere

Barefoot Run: 5.12 miles

Weather: Sunny, cool, a little muggy. 55 degrees, 92% humidity. Gear: Bare feet, shorts, T. Fuel: Coffee and rice milk before, nothing during.

If I ever smugly say I've never had a less-than-perfect barefoot run, remind me of today. It wasn't that this was a horrible run, mind you... but it was far less than a frolic. I started out slow and a little stiff, and the soles of my feet seemed extra sensitive to every little rough spot and bit of gravel. In retrospect, I probably should have stuck with laps around the block then heading out onto the roads.

At any rate, I started relaxing into it after a while, which was better, and I was tempted to keep going rather than turn around at about 2.5 miles out. Good thing I turned around. The tender tootsies started complaining again (rather testily), and I ended up the run more relieved that it was over than happy to be out there.

I think my tenderness may have had something to do with the time I spent yesterday cleaning a dirty kitchen floor. I think the cleaning solution softened my skin a little. Oops!

On the upside, it was a great low HR run... I ended up running below my target HR pretty much the whole time.

Average HR for entire run: 134

Yes cleaning solution can make your toes sensitive....and you call yourself a barefoot runner, geez!!! Sorry it was not such a good run, I had one on Saturday that was awful but not because of my toes.

Joel H wrote:Yes cleaning solution can make your toes sensitive....and you call yourself a barefoot runner, geez!!! Sorry it was not such a good run, I had one on Saturday that was awful but not because of my toes.

Barefoot runner, yes. Barefoot floor cleaner? Not so much. Should have worn shoes!

It reminds me of that old TV commercial for Palmolive - you know, when Madge soaks some unsuspecting lady's fingernails in diswashing soap? Except in this case, softening is not what we'd want. Ah well, it'll bounce back.

It does make me wonder what I will (or won't) wear when the Millers come to visit. I hope to show them a bit of barefooting, but I might need to put something on (Lunas? my Frees?) so as to not slow them down too much on a run. I'm not ready to go too far in absolutely any conditions. Someday maybe, but not yet.

Sorry about your Saturday run!

Walk: 2.2 miles

Weather: Sunny, warmish, a little muggy. 71 degrees.

A lunchtime walk down along the Columbia River. There was a slight breeze, which helped with the sunshine and slight humidity. It'd be tough to do this in work clothes if it got much warmer.

Barefoot Run: 1 mile

A mile through the neighborhood as Alita and I took Wendy on her first-ever barefoot run. Fun!

Barefoot Run: 8.22 miles (a record!), with one of those miles in Luna sandals

Weather: Perfect. 59 degrees, sunny with puffy white clouds and a light breeze. Gear: Bare feet, shorts, T. Wore Lunas for a mile on rougher pavement. Fuel: Coffee and rice milk.

The Millers are here, so I took them out on my Llama Ridge route. I went barefoot.

It was a perfect morning for running. Quiet. Bright. Cool. Tim and Wendy (with Rowan in a jogging stroller) loved it. We went out to Llama Ridge - Larry and Moe were absent, though there were some cows - and headed back. But after watching me run barefoot, Wendy decided that she wanted to do another mile barefoot once we got back to the house. I went inside and recruited Alita and Alec to join us as Wendy talked Tim out of his shoes, then we took three laps around the block.

That was a lot of fun, though their first mile barefoot was my *eighth* mile. That's a new record, and plenty long enough for now. I lost focus at one point and scuffed my foot, which REALLY got my attention.

The barefoot aspect was fine, though I decided to experiment with my Luna sandals after 3 miles - the road past the llama field is rougher than I expected - but I stripped the sandals off the instant I got off that mile of road. I felt like Bambi on ice when I started, and I fatigued noticeably while in the sandals. Once I took the sandals off, it got easier again, though I did have to run slower.

Avearage HR for entire run 132.

Hey, if the wendytim family is still there, please say hi!

I gotta say, I am impressed that you are staying with the barefoot running, especially when your neighbors think you are a little off. Way to not pander to the Joneses

EGreenie<--enjoying a mid-summer's eve.

EugeneGreenie wrote:Hey, if the wendytim family is still there, please say hi!

I gotta say, I am impressed that you are staying with the barefoot running, especially when your neighbors think you are a little off. Way to not pander to the Joneses

EGreenie<--enjoying a mid-summer's eve.

Hi, Greenie! WendyTim & Co. say Hi back! They very much like the PNW, and their daughter, as we were walking trough a Fred Meyer, said "I want to live here!"

"Um," I said. "At the store?"

"You know what I mean," she said, then paused. "Well, actually, it would be pretty cool to live in the store..."

As far as the Joneses go, they seem to have given up on the whole conformity thing. Despite the cookie-cutter architecture, I seem to have a fairly tolerant neighborhood. Or maybe they know a lost cause when they see one. Or two. Or three.

Even so, when I had Wendy and Tim out doing laps with Alita, Alec and yours truly, I was imagining a neighbor, Gladys Kravitz style, peeping through the blinds, then hissing, "ABNER! They've got more of them out there now! I told you. It's a cult!"

Mixed-tempo run: 6 miles

Weather: Overcast, mild, a little muggy. 60 degrees, 86% humidity. Gear: Free 3.0 v4s, shorts, T. Fuel: Coffee and rice milk.

The tour of my running routes continued this morning, as I took Tim, Wendy and Rowan (in his stroller) for a outing on the Salmon Creek Greenway Trail. We took it easy on the outbound leg, but had to pick up the pace on the return after Rowan blew out his diaper and got exceedingly cranky.

The splits tell the tale: 11:11; 9:49; 10:02; 9:13; 8:20; 8:39.

I got my HR up to the 160s in those faster miles, so there was a bit of a tempo quality to it. It reminded me a little of a 3/1 run, or an ILTHR run from a few years back. It felt pretty easy to go faster, which was nice.

I wore my Free 3.0s - it's not wise to run barefoot back-to-back days - and I spent a good part of the time trying to find the natural stride while wearing shoes. I think I did a better job this morning than I did when I did the shod MAF test last weekend. I also managed to get my cadence back closer to 180, which is a win. That helped a lot when we dropped the hammer.

Average HR for run: 144

Here are a few photos from the Miller visit.


Here's Wendy and Rowan on Llama Ridge. Alas, the llamas were elsewhere that day, replaced by cows.


Here's Tim, and one of the llamas' fieldmates. The llamas - and a herd of alpaca - were back where they belonged when Wendy, Tim and Rowan went back out this morning. (I took a recovery day today. An 8-mile barefoot run followed by a tempo run had me a little sore, and I don't want to push my luck.)


Our first road trip was to Multnomah Falls in the Columbia River Gorge.







The next day, we headed up to Mount Hood and hiked up a short trail above Timberline Lodge.


And snow in July.


Enough snow, in fact, for skiing and snowboarding.


And for somebody to broaden his feet's sensory diet.


I somehow managed to convince Alita and Wendy to try the snow out, too.


Alec took no persuasion whatsoever.


Since I was there, I had to try a little barefoot running on the Pacific Crest Trail. Of course.


Random photos. We saw this old VW Truck in the woods on the way to Mount Hood.


Nothing says Oregon so much as this.

Looks like you are having a good time with the Miller's and yes you are trying to create a cult from the looks of it.

Joel H wrote:Looks like you are having a good time with the Miller's and yes you are trying to create a cult from the looks of it.

Heh. I do what I can, Joel. Perhaps it's less a cult than a <dramatic pause> REVOLUTION.

Road/Trail Run: 5.39 miles

Weather: Sunny, cool, a little muggy. 53 degrees. Gear: Free 3.0 v4s, shorts, T. Fuel: Coffee and rice milk.

Wendy took a rest day this mornimng, so Tim and I went out on our own - sans stroller - which gave me the chance to try out a new route variation: Running on roads from my house to Whipple Creek Regional Park, running some trails within the park, then running back home. I wore my Frees because I didn't know what to expect. (Good thing I did; there was lots of freshly crushed gravel.)

It felt nice to run on trails again. It took a little while to get a feel for it, but once I did.. it felt smooth, natural and fun. Even the steep uphill parts.

This was definitely *not* a low HR run. And I realize now that I was pushing harder than I thought in that run back home. Oopsie!

Average HR for the whole run: 145.

---

After the run, we drove the Millers to the Oregon Coast. We went to the Oregon Coast Aquarium, which is always great, then gave the whole family their first taste of the Pacific Northwest beach, and Rowan's first look at the ocean, period.

As the kids played in the sand, I found a nice clean stretch and tested out my barefoot stride. The thing about sand is, it shows if you're coming down on your heels or pushing off with your forefeet. The best footprint on the sand is even - which connotes a foot landing rather than a foot strike. The result? On wetter, harder sand, I could barely find a footprint at all (except my right big toe wants to dig in sometimes). On dry sand, my footprints were pretty level. Cool.

Run: 7 miles

Weather: Overcast, cool, a little muggy (by my standards). 56 degrees, 89% humidity. Gear: Free 3.0 v4s, shorts, T. Fuel: Coffee and rice milk.

Out this time with Wendy, who wanted to visit the llamas one more time (and enjoy one more cool weather run) before returning to Indiana. Tim stayed home to keep an eye on Rowan.

I wore shoes - 7 miles is just a little too far for me to regularly go barefoot yet - and we rolled through the country chatting. It was a nice run, at a fairly brisk pace (for me). I didn't count this as a low HR run because I kept bouncing around the 140-143 range. It was still pretty easy, though.

Average HR for entire run: 140

I'll take a rest day tomorrow and ditch the shoes on Friday.

Barefoot Run: 5.14 miles

Weather: Sunny, a bit muggy, a breeze. 59 degrees, 93% humidity. Gear: Bare feet, shorts, T (shed!) Fuel: Coffee and rice milk before, nothing during.

After several shod runs with the Millers, I took to the roads barefoot this morning. I kept the HR down - not so much by choice but by the fact that the surface of some of the roads made it impossible for me to go faster - and slowly relaxed into it as the miles progressed.

I had two special, related, challenges: One is how the county rehabs roads, using a chip-seal system of crushed gravel; the second was that traffic was heavier this morning. That meant I had to zig and zag onto sections of road with a sharper surface. I even tried running on the shoulder but discovered that those sharp little rocks that don't get incorporated into the road surface end up hiding over there. It was worse than rough pavement. Yipes! I may need to work up to this before I can run all my old routes barefoot. All I know is, when I got to an older (not rehabbed) stretch of asphalt with less traffic, it felt *so* much better.

The temperature was only 59, but the dewpoint was 58 and the sun was blazing down (it's supposed to finally break 90 this weekend), so I broke down and actually stripped off my shirt for the last couple of miles. I don't jiggle as much, now that I've lost some weight, though I'm sure I would have blinded oncoming drivers with the glare of my torso.

Average HR for entire run: 136

Postscript: The takeaway from this to me is that rougher surfaces are tricky enough barefoot without the distraction of avoiding getting taken out by a car. It takes some of the fun out of the whole barefoot thing. I'll have to experiment with routes with less traffic until my feet toughen up some more.

Low HR Run: 9 miles

Weather: Sunny and bright. 62-67 degrees. Gear: Free 3.0 v4s, shorts, T. Fuel: Coffee and rice milk. Carried handheld with nuun.

I decided to do a traditional low HR run this morning - with shoes - before it got too warm. (It hit 103 yesterday.) I headed out on my Llama Ridge route and extended it to make it 9 miles total.

I concentrated on keeping my HR down, staying loose and relaxing. I was fairly successful, though not 100%. I also had a slight mishap when a sudden surge in traffic (where the #$@! did they come from? it's Sunday, for Pete's sake!) forced me off the road where there was no shoulder, and I slightly tweaked my ankle. I let loose a small torrent of profanity (#$@! cars! #$@! shoes!) before continuing on my way. I could feel it, but only a bit.

My average HR jumped around a bit, but that's not surprising. Lots of little rolling hills, direct sunlight and unfamiliar foot wear will do that to you. It stayed fairly close to my target, on average, though I could tell my legs wanted to go faster.

I also met up with the owner of the famous llamas. Turns out Larry (the light colored one) is named "Baby Baby" because it had been bottle fed after being orphaned. Moe (the darker one) actually doesn't *have* a name... until now. The guy who owned them was very amused and said he'd go tell his wife that I named Moe for them.

I also had a spectator at one point in my run...



I can only wonder what she was thinking... "Why is he out in the road, where the cars go? And what are those things on his feet? Shoes?!"

Walked first and last 5 minutes. Average HR for entire run: 133

Barefoot Run: 3.1 miles

Weather: Sunny with some nifty clouds, a little muggy. 63 degrees, 86% humidity. Gear: Bare feet, shorts, T. Fuel: Coffee and rice milk (oddly, didn't sit well)

After nine miles in shoes yesterday, my soles were itching to get out and get re-grounded. I opted for laps around the block in my neighborhood rather than heading out on one of my routes. It eliminated the stress of dodging cars on a country road and let me simply run.

I started out a little stiff (9 miles in shoes the day before will do that to you) but I loosened up after a mile or so. I went sub-10 in my second mile -- faster in a "recovery" run than in my "actual" run -- and was just about 10 in my third. I was below my target HR for each one of those miles.

I wrapped it up at 3.1. That seemed about right for this morning... and besides, the morning sun was so bright I kept getting blinded for a quarter of every lap around the block. Note to self: Wear a hat next time!

Average HR for the entire run: 133

Walk: 2.2 miles

Weather: Overcast to clearing. 71 degrees.

A lunchtime walk down to the Columbia River. I was feeling a little stiff, so I tried to relax. I loosened up by the time I made my turn back to the office. Oddity: Some staffers with Muscle Milk were handing out samples to walkers and joggers along the bike path. I took one and will save it for future use.

I'd like to do more of these lunchtime walks, but my work schedule is a bit screwy lately. I have nothing but night shifts until the week of the 20th - and those shifts aren't conducive to sneaking out of the office for the better part of an hour.

Barefoot Run: 4.47 miles on roads and trail

Weather: Overcast, mild. 59 degrees. Gear: Bare feet, shorts, T. Fuel: Coffee and rice milk.

I was in the mood for a little adventure this morning, so I headed out barefoot to replicate part of the route Tim and I ran last week - from my neighborhood to a series of trails in Whipple Creek Park. I knew I'd encounter all sorts of new surfaces (hopefully avoiding horse poo and slugs) and continue my barefoot education.

After my first mile, I turned onto a side road I'd never run barefoot before - and was pleased to find it was in good shape. I got to the park in another half mile - and found it blocked by a giant pile of sand left there for trail rehab work. Oops! I worked my way around the edge, happy that I didn't have to worry about getting sand in my shoes.

The first section of the trail was the toughest. It had a 30-foot section of fresh railroad bed grade gravel chunks, with smaller bits thrown in for good measure.


Ouch, you say? Yes. Ouch. No way I could run on that, so I carefully picked my way through. After that, the trail got better, with some sand and small gravel but progressing into sections of pure, beautiful, dirt. Ahh...



I tracked my way north through the park, sampling various surfaces - trail rehab is great for eliminating mud bogs, but the gravel is pretty stimulating to my feet. It made the sandy/dusty sections feel positively heavenly, though. I got back to the road and cruised in the last mile and a half, even pushing the pace as I played with cadence (192?!?) in the last half mile or so. I got the pace up to a 7:41 pace for a while, barefoot. My HR was not low at that point.

Average HR for entire run 131 (thanks to walking through rocky patches).

My "official" Garmin track is off, because I paused it at some point and forgot to turn it back on again, but the RunningAhead application guessed 4.47 miles total, so that'll do.

I probably goofed on the Garmin as I was photographing my footprints for posterity.



I'd love to hear what somebody says if they notice these human paw prints in the dirt.

That footprint reminds me of pics I've seen of 'evidence' of Bigfoot

KathyK wrote:That footprint reminds me of pics I've seen of 'evidence' of Bigfoot

Heh. I like how you think, Kathy. I can't wait until we get a breathless call to the newspaper about it.

Actually, what struck me looking at the footprints is how small they looked. You put a lot less on the ground with a bare foot than with a big 'ol shoeprint.

I know that horse poo and slugs would be high on my list of things to avoid (shod or otherwise)!

Michael Enright wrote:I know that horse poo and slugs would be high on my list of things to avoid (shod or otherwise)!

Wise man, Michael. I was able to avoid slugs (two of them) and poo (more horse apples than I could count). I did draw blood on my little adventure... but it wasn't on my feet! I lightly scratched the back of my hand when I brushed past a berry vine. I guess I was too busy looking where my feet were going to see a vine encroaching on the trail. I thought I'd dodged it (with a big "whOAh!), but found the blood when I got home.

Figures. I run barefoot and injure my hand. Typical.

Hey, at least you didn't crash face-first into a blackberry patch. No, I didn't do that last summer. Nuh uh.

This is all still making me want to run barefoot, Mark. Once I have a bit more time again in northern California, I might get on it.

Mike MacLellan wrote:Hey, at least you didn't crash face-first into a blackberry patch. No, I didn't do that last summer. Nuh uh.

This is all still making me want to run barefoot, Mark. Once I have a bit more time again in northern California, I might get on it.

You should, Mike! Just take it gradually and keep it fun. It's supposed to feel more like playing than working out.

Why is that I don't remember your blackberry bramble wipe-out? Pity.