Keep up the winter distance

Distance 47.6km [total: minimalist 269.6km: Barefoot 2772km] Week 19

Monday, 7-May. 9.8km

A warm sunny day that faded into early evening cool as I put in a speedy run from the Grange sailing club to the caravan park. As usual at this time in the afternoon the tide is always high, I've not worked out why, I always thought the high tide moved forward by 25minutes each day, maybe it doesn't. As it was a full moon the waves were pounding the beaches, eating into more and more of the sand dunes. Some houses are only 20m from the sea now.
The feet seem to be toughening up more now that I am spending more time running on roads and pavements.

Thursday, 10-May. 11.5km

I'm having to deal with a bit of traffic chaos around the roads near me as there are major roadworks while they lay a new water pipe. I have to keep shifting my route to avoid the long traffic lines. The weather still has not broke yet and I'm happy about that. I parked further north tonight and added another 1.5km to my out an back run. The running is more and more enjoyable, I can get into the zone so easily now where as back in my shoe wearing days it was a run was becoming a chore I had to get out of the way. On the way back, as I'm running in close to dark I had an older gentleman on a bike asking me some questions regarding barefoot running, the conversation was a nice distraction near the end. He seemed to know quite a bit about the benefits but had not actually seen anybody out there practicing it. We had a good conversation before I came to my car and the end of my run.

Saturday, 12-May. 18.5km

The running engine was a bit slow to start today, lacking the inspiration of a bright sunny day, instead cool, breezy and rain showers. The way to overcome the body preferring to be somewhere warm you have to start off slow. The breakfast was also slowing me down in the early stages, I finished eating around an hour earlier. The sand was cold and it took my feet a good 7km to start to warm up. I started with a light jog, quick short steps and after a few kilometres began to stretch the stride a bit more. It took me around 47 minutes to run to the jetty at Semaphore, slow by my usual pace. The return journey was faster at 44 minutes. My longer distance is improving I noticed, where as I felt like collapsing at the 15km mark I now had plenty of fuel in the tank to run the last 3.5km, even going at sprint pace over the last kilomtere. An enjoyable run.

Sunday, 13-May. 7.8km

The Sunday lake loop. Again the weather was grey and cool with a strong breeze from the south. I need to start dressing for the cooler weather to keep the muscles warm so that I don't feel stiff from the cold. I was sheltered from the breeze on the west side of the lake but once I slowly made the turn I was running into the wind. The feet were a bit sensitive today, especially on the weathered concrete. I still managed a good sprint on the smooth footpath along the last kilometre. Just over another month and we hit the shortest day, I can then start counting the minutes as it gradually gets lighter again.

Neil