End of Year Review

Distance 19km [total: minimalist 329.1km: Barefoot 7000.2km] Week52 (29th Dec - 31st Dec)

In the last few days of the old year I ran a 7km on a windy Monday. A weather change was working its way through and the wind was blowing from the south west whipping the waves up along the beach. I ran along the small strip of smooth beach edge, the tide seemed to be incoming but it may have been close to the turn. I ran to the river mouth then came off the beach and onto the Esplanade path and ran with the wind behind me so had  an easy run back.
On New Years even I went for a run after a doctors appointment, it was, at 11am,  later than I like to run but the weather was sunny and calm and a pleasant 24C.
My main concern is the sun at this time of day, it burns my skin very quickly, even with sunscreen on there are always areas I've missed.
I ran along the beach, crossing the river which was only flowing like a stream. I continued running to the Barcoo boat launch ramp. I did consider going further but then the sun exposure factor was the main concern and the heating of the path. I ran back along the bitumen pathway and it was starting to get uncomfortable on my soles, I had to move quickly and not hang around. The concrete was better but the heat had made my feet sensitive and that began to hurt after a while. I went back onto the beach for the last 2km to cool my feet off.

At this time last year I had run 5632.5km without shoes and now I have pushed that up to 7000.2km an addition of 1367.7km. This is not as many as I was hoping but the reduction was caused by injury and injury that was wrongly diagnosed.
For over 6 months I was convinced that it was an ankle tendon problem. It was only in the last months of the year that I found it was actually the sciatic nerve that was throwing me a false signal. As the nerve was being irritated it weakened the calf muscle and caused pains in the lower leg. The sciatic problem was caused by my lifting workouts at the gym. The discs get squeezed while lifting any weight above my shoulders or heavy rowing exercises.
I shall have to cut these out.
Lets hope this year is a better running year.

Neil