Friday, December 4, 2009

Barefoot 8.5km

Distance 12.5km [total: minimalist 40km: Barefoot 96.5km]

Today was the day I planned to try a longer distance barefoot run.
It was perfect running weather, bright, sunny and about 23C.
After a full day at work and an early start to the day it can sometimes be quite tiring to then run about 12.5km home.

At just after 4pm I donned the Vibram FF so I could run through the city centre without attracting too much attention. There area also too many hazards in the city centre, plenty of glass and other sharp debris.
Last time I covered a longer distance in the VFF's I got some quite bad blisters due to the feet rubbing inside the shoes. This time I put some anti blister powder in to counter this.

I ran the 2km to the river then another 2km to take me past the South Road underpass.
At about half that distance I was aware of by right big toe rubbing inside the shoes so I took them off ad added a little more powder. By 4km I was sure It had given me a blister so the shoes came off and put in the backpack.
The path along the river is good quality bitumen mostly but in some places where it is older it gets a bit rough.

I had to adjust my running after taking the shoes off then settled back to an even pace, I soon began to forget I was running without shoes.
I did occasionally step on a sharp stone but nothing that caused any problem.
After about 5km my feet were feeling a bit tender and were starting to get a bit tired.

By 8km the spring had gone from my step and I couldn't land to heavily on the forefoot as it was getting more sensitive to the abrasive surface.
I ran along the road gutter when the road surface became the stone chip in tar finish as that is really hard on the feet.
I walked the last 200m and it felt good to get back. The feet were tired, sore and dirty.
I thought I'd take a photo of what 10km's does to the bottom of the feet. As you can see only one small blister on the right toe but even that was caused by the shoes.

I think a nights rest will help the recovery and we will see if I am up for a 7km run along the beach tomorrow. At the moment I don't feel that much up to it but tomorrow is a new day.




The feet look a lot better after being cleaned up, no cuts or punctures which is good.

Neil

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