Closing in on 5000km

Distance 44.2km [total: minimalist 329.1km: Barefoot 4998.3km] Week36

Monday, 2-Sep.  10.5km

Spring has arrived with some warm weather and that has brought flocks of people to the beach. Where a few weeks earlier there were no cars parked along the front, today the cars were packed into nearly all available spaces. Runners too were plentiful now. I have to play dodge the pedestrian now as the slow moving types seem unresponsive when someone is running towards them. I guess running around obstacles is probably good for training all the smaller muscles in the feet and legs as you quickly change direction. A good run tonight. I should really find a new running course as I keep doing the same one over and over again.

Wednesday, 4-Sep. 10.5km

A day off work feels soo good, knowing that when I wake at 5.30am I don't have to leap out of bed, I can relax for another couple of hours.
A warm day was forecast before the cooler wetter weather heads in tomorrow so it was a good day to go for a run and just relax. I got out for my run at around 9.30am, I chose a road run as the tide was in and the sand was soft and had quite a gradient. There was a bit of a breeze from the north which I had to run into on the way back but it wasn't too strong. There was rain in the air as well. When I got back to the car and cooled off a brief shower started up. It didn't last though and I was able to spend the afternoon wandering along the river at a much more relaxed pace than I usually get to enjoy, taking photos and finding interesting things that I would normally miss like the small skink that came to check me out while I was sitting by the river.

Possibly a Southern Water Skink

Saturday, 7-Sep. 15km

A perfect running day hardly any wind and a temperature of around 18C. I had plenty of flat sand to run on once I got to the more sparsly populated areas of the beach. I could just relax and close my eyes for periods of time as I was running and just let my feet and legs 'feel' the way for me. I've not done many longer runs for a while due to the dark evenings but now I can start to do some longer distances again. I'll keep it at 15km for a while before adding in a few 18km runs. I might run in the Henley classic in November if it is not too expensive. It's a 10km run that follows the same course as I run from Henley to Glenelg so it is a familiar run to me.

Sunday, 8-Sep. 8.2km

Quite a breezy day today as I parked up at the lake after a 1.5 hour session at the gym. My legs felt a bit wobbly after doing weighted lunges and some leg extensions. I decided to leave the stopwatch/heart monitor in the car so I run feeling more relaxed. I started off slow to ease any stiffness from the legs then gradually increased the pace on the latter half of the course. I ran into the wind on the way out and had it behind me on the way back which is the ideal way to work it. I only have another 2km to run and I will have passed the 5000km mark for total miles run in bare feet. It is kind of hard to believe.
Last night I began watching Eddie Izzard's Run for Mandela in South Africa. Originally he intended to run it barefoot but he has now. probably wisely opted to run in some Neo's which I think Vivo Barefoot manufacture. They are very thin running shoes, only around 2mm thick. I'll be interested to see if they leave his feet in better shape than the big cushioned shoes he used to run around the UK a few years ago.